Payroll Remittance Due Dates, November 2026 to March 2027

Reviewed by Bader A. Chowdry, CPA, CA, LPA on October 20, 2026

The payroll remittance due dates from November 2026 to March 2027 for a Canada regular remitter are Mon Nov 16 (October), Tue Dec 15 (November) and Fri Jan 15, 2027 (December), and the 2026 T4 return is due Mon Mar 1, 2027. These dates follow the remittance rule in force under the Income Tax Regulations, applied to the 2026-2027 calendar. For an Ontario owner-manager in Mississauga or anywhere in the province, the four dates below are the whole winter payroll calendar.

Who this calendar fits: the regular remitter

This calendar applies if you are a regular remitter, which CRA defines as an employer whose average monthly withholding amount (AMWA) is from $0 to $24,999.99. That covers most owner-managed corporations with a handful of employees, including a CCPC that pays its owner a salary through payroll.

The AMWA is measured on your monthly source deductions for the second calendar year before the current one, so your 2026 frequency was set by your 2024 payroll. If it reaches $25,000.00, you move into accelerated threshold 1 and remit up to twice a month; at $100,000.00 or more, threshold 2 remits up to four times a month. Very small employers with an AMWA from $0 to $2,999.99 and a clean record may remit quarterly instead. The bands are set out on CRA’s remittance due-date page, and none of the dates in this article apply to accelerated or quarterly remitters.

The dated calendar, November 2026 to March 2027

For a regular remitter, each month’s withholdings are due on the 15th of the following month, and a due date that lands on a Saturday, Sunday or CRA-recognized public holiday rolls to the next business day. Applied to this winter, that gives five payroll dates worth putting in your calendar today, plus one sales-tax date that lands just before them.

• Mon Nov 2, 2026: not payroll, but in the same fortnight. A quarterly GST/HST return and payment for July to September is due one month after the quarter, and October 31 is a Saturday.
• Mon Nov 16, 2026: source deductions withheld from pay dated in October 2026. November 15 is a Sunday, so the next business day applies.
• Tue Dec 15, 2026: deductions withheld from pay dated in November 2026.
• Fri Jan 15, 2027: deductions withheld from pay dated in December 2026, including any year-end bonus paid through payroll in December.
• Mon Mar 1, 2027: the 2026 T4 and T4A information returns. The filing date is the last day of February, and February 28, 2027 is a Sunday. Any T5 information return the corporation files uses the same last-day-of-February rule, and the 2026 RRSP contribution year also ends that day, the 60th day of 2027.
• Mon Mar 15, 2027: the 2026 Ontario Employer Health Tax (EHT) annual return, for employers who are registered for EHT.

The remittances for January and February 2027 pay, due in February and March, follow the same rule but use the 2027 EI rate and whatever 2027 CPP figures CRA publishes, which is why the two years must be kept apart in your payroll software.

The rule behind the dates: the pay date decides, not the work period

The due date is driven by the month in which you withhold the deductions, and you withhold them when you pay. Subsection 108(1) of the Income Tax Regulations, in force and current to September 30, 2026, ties the remittance to amounts withheld in a month under section 153(1) of the Income Tax Act and sets the deadline at the 15th of the next month.

So the calendar month of the cheque or deposit date is what matters. Wages earned in the last week of October but paid on Friday, November 6, 2026 are November withholdings, and they are due Tue Dec 15, 2026, not Nov 16. A pay run dated Thursday, December 31 lands in the December remittance due January 15, 2027; the same run dated Monday, January 4, 2027 moves to the February remittance and to the 2027 rates.

A parallel rule sets the T4 year. Under section 5(1) of the Income Tax Act, in force, employment income is the salary and wages received in the year, so a December pay run versus an early January pay run changes both the remittance month and the year on the employee’s T4.

What a late remittance costs: the four penalty tiers

A late remittance draws a percentage penalty on the amount that was late, and the percentage climbs with each day of delay. Section 227(9) of the Income Tax Act, in force today, sets the penalty by how late CRA receives the money, in four steps:

• 3% if it arrives no more than three days after the due date (or on time but not in the required manner);
• 5% if it is more than three and no more than five days late;
• 7% if it is more than five and no more than seven days late;
• 10% if it is not received by the seventh day after it was due, or nothing is remitted.

A second failure in the same calendar year, made knowingly or with gross negligence, can draw 20%. CRA’s own page restates these tiers in days (1 to 3, 4 or 5, 6 or 7, more than 7). Subsection 227(9.1), also in force, limits the penalty to the amount by which the total due on that date exceeds $500, unless the delay was knowing or grossly negligent. The limit covers income tax withheld under s.153(1) and the CPP and EI amounts remitted with it.

“Received” depends on how you pay. CRA’s page sets the received date by method: the date the financial institution credits CRA for online or telephone banking, the date stamped on the voucher for an in-branch payment, and the date CRA receives it for mail. The date you click “pay” is not the date that counts.

Late T4 slips are a separate penalty

Missing the Mon Mar 1, 2027 T4 deadline is penalised separately from late remittances. CRA’s filing page sets the legislated penalty at the greater of $100 and a daily amount that grows with the number of late slips. Under CRA’s relieving administrative policy for T4 and T4A, 1 to 5 late slips cost a flat $100, 6 to 10 slips cost $5 a day to a maximum of $500, and 11 to 50 slips cost $10 a day to a maximum of $1,000.

The bigger practical risk is a T4 summary whose totals do not match what you remitted during the year, so reconcile the two before you file.

2027 EI rate and the CPP figures not yet published

The 2027 EI premium is set. The Canada Employment Insurance Commission confirmed on September 14, 2026 that from January 1, 2027 the employee rate outside Quebec is $1.64 per $100 of insurable earnings and the employer rate is $2.30, and that maximum insurable earnings rise to $70,800 from $68,900 in 2026. The maximum annual premium is $1,161.12 for an employee and $1,625.57 for an employer per employee, per ESDC’s announcement. The first remittance that carries the 2027 EI rate is the one for pay dated in January 2027.

The 2027 CPP and CPP2 limits are not published. As at October 18, 2026, CRA’s CPP rate table shows 2026 as its newest year: a YMPE of $74,600, a basic exemption of $3,500, a contribution rate of 5.95% each for employer and employee, and a maximum employee contribution of $4,230.45. This article does not estimate the 2027 YMPE, the YAMPE or the CPP2 ceiling; check the table again before you run the first January 2027 payroll.

Ontario: the EHT date in the same window

Ontario adds one return to this window. The Ontario Ministry of Finance sets the EHT annual return, with any balance owing, for on or before March 15, which is Mon Mar 15, 2027 for the 2026 year. An eligible employer’s exemption is $1 million of Ontario payroll, and it is not available once Ontario payroll, including associated employers, reaches $5 million (registered charities excepted). The $5 million test counts the payroll of associated employers, so a holdco group with two operating companies measures eligibility on the group figure, not on each company’s own payroll.

What an LPA adds: one decision rule for pay dates

The CRA page gives the due date, not how to set pay dates so cash and remittance line up. The decision rule Insight Accounting CPA applies for owner-managers: set the last pay date of each month at least three business days before month-end, and schedule the remittance for the 10th of the next month rather than the 15th. That keeps every remittance clear of the weekend and holiday roll and of the online-banking posting lag.

The named failure mode is the December bonus. An owner who declares a bonus and pays it on January 4 instead of December 31 moves the withholdings into the February remittance and the 2027 T4, and the corporation’s deduction on its T2 corporate income tax return then depends on the separate bonus-accrual timing rule covered in Insight Accounting CPA’s article on accruing a bonus and paying it later. Decide the pay date first, then the remittance month and T4 year follow from it.

Illustrative example. Assume a Mississauga corporation, a regular remitter, withholds $8,000 of income tax, CPP and EI from pay dated in October 2026. The remittance is due Mon Nov 16. The owner pays it on Fri Nov 20, four days late, so the 5% tier applies. On the wording of s.227(9.1), the penalty applies to the excess over $500, or $7,500, and 5% of that is $375, before interest. Paying on Nov 16, or on Nov 10 under the rule above, avoids the penalty entirely. The figures are assumptions for illustration, not a client’s numbers.

Two exceptions are worth checking with an accountant before you rely on this calendar. First, if your AMWA two years ago was $25,000 or more, CRA will have moved you to accelerated remitting and these dates are wrong for you. Second, whether a family member or an owner on payroll is in insurable employment for EI is a separate question. Under section 5 of the Employment Insurance Act, in force, non-arm’s length employment is excluded, but related persons can be treated as dealing at arm’s length when the terms are ones an unrelated employee would have accepted. That changes what you withhold, not when you remit.

Your next step

Open your payroll calendar and enter Mon Nov 16, Tue Dec 15, Fri Jan 15, Mon Mar 1 and Mon Mar 15 now, each with a reminder five business days ahead. Then check the pay date of your December run against the year you want it reported in.