On this page
- What a PD7A Is and What CRA Expects You to Do With It
- How to Get, View or Order a PD7A, Including Online
- Reading Your PD7A: Gross Payroll, Remittances Received and Balance
- The Four Remitter Types and How CRA Assigns Yours
- Your Remittance Due Dates by Remitter Type
- How to Pay: Online Banking, My Payment and Pre Authorized Debit
- Late Remittance Penalties: 3%, 5%, 7%, 10% and the Repeat Penalty
- What to Do If Your PD7A Balance Looks Wrong
- Nil Remittances and Closing a Payroll Account
- FAQ: PD7A and Payroll Remittances
- Never Miss a Remittance Again: Outsource Your Payroll
What a PD7A Is and What CRA Expects You to Do With It
A PD7A is the statement CRA sends you for your payroll account. It does two jobs at once: it tells you what CRA has recorded for your remittances so far, and it acts as the remittance voucher for your next payment.
The short version of what you need to know:
- Your remitter type determines your due dates, and CRA assigns it based on your average monthly withholding amount from two calendar years ago.
- Most small BC employers are regular remitters, due the 15th of the following month.
- Being even one day late costs 3% of the amount. More than seven days late costs 10%. A second failure in the same year, done knowingly or through gross negligence, costs 20%.
- There is no grace period and CRA applies these automatically.
Payroll remittances are the one filing where CRA is least forgiving, because the money was never yours. You withheld it from your employees on CRA’s behalf. Late remittances are treated as a trust violation, not a cash flow issue, and directors can be held personally liable for unremitted source deductions.
Here is the whole thing in practical terms.
The PD7A, “Statement of Account for Current Source Deductions,” arrives by mail for regular and quarterly remitters. It shows:
- What CRA has received and applied to your payroll account
- Your current balance, if any
- A remittance voucher section to send with your next payment
If you pay electronically, you generally will not receive one, because the voucher part is what triggers the mailing. That is normal and does not mean anything is wrong with your account.
There are a few variants:
| Form | Who gets it |
| PD7A | Regular and quarterly remitters |
| PD7A(TM) | Accelerated remitters (threshold 1 and 2) |
| PD7D(AR) | Statement and partial payment voucher for an arrears balance |
| PD7D(X) | Statement and payment voucher for an existing balance |
If a PD7D turns up, read it carefully. It means CRA thinks you owe money from a prior period, which is a different conversation from your regular monthly remittance.
How to Get, View or Order a PD7A, Including Online
Online, which is the fastest route:
- Sign in to My Business Account.
- Open your RP payroll account.
- View the account balance, transaction history and statements.
- Order a remittance voucher if you need the paper form to pay at a bank.
By phone: call CRA’s business enquiries line and request that a voucher be mailed. Allow ten business days.
Through your accountant: an authorised representative can see the same information through Represent a Client, which is usually faster than either of the above.
A note on paper vouchers: you cannot photocopy a voucher or print one from your own software and use it at a bank. The vouchers are machine readable originals. If you pay through online banking or CRA’s My Payment, you do not need one at all, which is the better answer for most businesses.
Reading Your PD7A: Gross Payroll, Remittances Received and Balance
Three things on the statement matter.
Remittances received. What CRA has recorded, by date. Compare this to your own payment records. Mismatches almost always come from a payment applied to the wrong account or the wrong period, which is fixable but only if you notice it.
Current balance. If this is not zero, find out why before your next remittance. A small balance is usually a penalty or interest charge. A large one usually means a payment went astray or a period was missed.
The reporting fields you complete on the voucher. When you remit, you report the gross payroll for the period and the number of employees in your last pay period. People treat these as decorative. They are not. CRA uses them to sanity check your remittance against the size of your payroll, and a remittance that looks small relative to reported gross payroll is one of the more common triggers for a payroll review.
Fill them in accurately, every time.
The Four Remitter Types and How CRA Assigns Yours
Your type is set by your average monthly withholding amount (AMWA), which is the total CPP, EI and income tax you remitted in a calendar year divided by the number of months you had to remit. CRA uses the amount from two calendar years ago.
| Remitter type | AMWA | How often you remit |
| Quarterly, new small employer | Under $1,000 | 4 times a year |
| Quarterly, small employer | Under $3,000 | 4 times a year |
| Regular | Under $25,000 | Monthly |
| Accelerated, threshold 1 | $25,000 to $99,999.99 | Up to twice a month |
| Accelerated, threshold 2 | $100,000 or more | Up to four times a month |
The quarterly categories have a catch. Both require a perfect compliance history for the preceding 12 months across your payroll, GST/HST and corporate tax accounts. One late remittance and you lose quarterly status. New employers qualify while their monthly withholding stays under $1,000, from the time the account opens.
Your type can change. CRA notifies you, usually late in the year, effective the following January. Employers who grow past a threshold and keep remitting on the old schedule generate a string of late penalties without ever missing a payment in their own mind. If you got a letter about your remitter type and filed it without reading it, go and read it.
Your Remittance Due Dates by Remitter Type
| Remitter type | Due dates |
| Quarterly | April 15, July 15, October 15, January 15 |
| Regular | The 15th of the month following the month you paid the wages |
| Accelerated, threshold 1 | Wages paid in the first 15 days: due the 25th of the same month. Wages paid from the 16th to the end: due the 10th of the next month |
| Accelerated, threshold 2 | The third working day after the 7th, 14th, 21st and last day of the month |
The date that counts is the date CRA receives the money, not the date you sent it. A cheque mailed on the 14th arriving on the 17th is late. If the due date falls on a weekend or a public holiday, the next business day applies.
Most banks take one to two business days to pass an online payment to CRA. Build that into your process and pay on the 12th or 13th rather than the 15th.
How to Pay: Online Banking, My Payment and Pre Authorized Debit
| Method | How it works | Speed |
| Online banking | Add “Federal Payroll Deductions” as a payee using your 15 character RP account number | 1 to 2 business days |
| CRA My Payment | Interac Online, Visa Debit or Debit Mastercard, directly from My Business Account | Same day |
| Pre authorized debit | Set up in My Business Account, CRA pulls on the date you choose | Set and forget, if the schedule is right |
| Third party payroll provider | Your provider remits on your behalf | Depends on the provider |
| At your bank | With an original remittance voucher | Same day |
Two cautions.
First, if a payroll provider remits for you, you are still legally responsible. Reconcile their remittance confirmations against your CRA account quarterly. Providers make mistakes and it is your account that gets the penalty.
Second, pre authorized debit is excellent until your remitter type changes or your payroll grows and the fixed amount is no longer right. Review the PAD amount every January.
Late Remittance Penalties: 3%, 5%, 7%, 10% and the Repeat Penalty
CRA’s late remitting penalty is based purely on how late, not on how much or why.
| How late | Penalty |
| 1 to 3 days | 3% |
| 4 or 5 days | 5% |
| 6 or 7 days | 7% |
| More than 7 days, or not remitted at all | 10% |
| Second or later failure in the same calendar year, made knowingly or through gross negligence | 20% |
On top of the penalty, interest is charged at the prescribed rate, compounded daily, from the due date.
Put that in context. A business remitting $18,000 a month that pays three days late once pays $540 for those three days. That is an annualised rate that would be illegal from a lender.
And then there is director liability. Unremitted source deductions are held in trust for the Crown. Under section 227.1 of the Income Tax Act, directors can be personally assessed for amounts the corporation failed to remit, plus interest and penalties. Incorporation does not protect you here. This is the single most common way a business failure becomes a personal financial catastrophe for the owner.
Maxpro Financials runs payroll and remittances for employers across BC and Alberta, which mostly means the due date stops being something anyone has to remember.
What to Do If Your PD7A Balance Looks Wrong
Work through it in this order.
- Confirm which period the payment was applied to. The most common error by far is a payment applied to the wrong month or, worse, to your GST/HST account. Check the transaction history in My Business Account.
- Check the account number used. A 15 character RP number ending in RP0001 versus RP0002 sends money to a different account entirely, and businesses with more than one payroll account do this regularly.
- Reconcile to your payroll register. Total CPP (employee and employer), EI (employee and employer at 1.4 times), and income tax withheld for the period. Compare to what you remitted.
- Look for the year end true up. If your T4 summary reported more than the sum of your remittances, CRA assesses the difference. This shows up months after the fact and surprises people.
- Call, or have your representative call. Most misapplied payments are reallocated on a single phone call. Do not simply pay the balance again to make it go away, because you will then be chasing a refund.
If the balance is genuinely owed and you cannot pay it in full, contact CRA before the collections process starts. A payment arrangement on source deductions is harder to get than on other debts, but it is far easier before a director liability assessment has been issued than after.
Nil Remittances and Closing a Payroll Account
Nil remittances. If you had no employees paid in a period, tell CRA. Do not simply remit nothing and assume the absence speaks for itself. You can report a nil remittance through My Business Account. If you do not, CRA will estimate an amount, assess it, and you will be arguing about a liability that never existed.
A nil remittance is also required if your business is seasonal. Report nil for the quiet months rather than letting the account go silent.
Closing a payroll account. When you stop having employees:
- Make the final remittance within seven days of the day the business ends.
- File the T4 slips and T4 Summary within 30 days of the day the business ends. This is much earlier than the usual last day of February deadline.
- Issue records of employment for each employee.
- Close the RP account through My Business Account so CRA stops expecting remittances.
Leaving a dormant payroll account open is how businesses end up with estimated assessments for years in which they had no staff at all.
FAQ: PD7A and Payroll Remittances
I did not receive a PD7A. Am I late? No. Electronic remitters usually do not receive one. Check your due date in My Business Account rather than waiting for paper.
Can I print my own remittance voucher? No. Vouchers are machine readable originals. Order one, or pay electronically and skip it.
What is my remitter type? It is based on your average monthly withholding two calendar years ago. CRA notifies you of changes, usually in the autumn, effective the following January.
Is there a grace period if I am one day late? No. One day late is a 3% penalty.
My payroll provider remits for me. Am I still responsible? Yes. Reconcile their confirmations to your CRA account regularly.
What happens if I cannot afford the remittance this month? Remit what you can and contact CRA immediately. Source deductions are trust funds, and directors can be personally assessed for unremitted amounts.
Do I report a nil remittance if nobody was paid? Yes, through My Business Account. Silence gets you an estimated assessment.
What is the difference between a PD7A and a PD7D? A PD7A is your current source deductions statement and voucher. A PD7D relates to an existing or arrears balance, which means CRA believes you owe money from a prior period.
Why does CRA ask for gross payroll and number of employees on the voucher? To cross check the remittance against the size of your payroll. Inconsistent figures are a common trigger for a payroll review.
How do I close my payroll account? Final remittance within seven days of the business ending, T4s within 30 days, then close the RP account in My Business Account.
Never Miss a Remittance Again: Outsource Your Payroll
The businesses that get hit with remittance penalties are almost never the ones without the money. They are the ones where the due date moved because the remitter type changed, or where a payment went to the wrong account, or where the person who used to handle it left in March.
Maxpro Financials runs payroll for employers across BC and Alberta: calculations, remittances on the correct schedule for your remitter type, T4s and T4 Summaries, records of employment, and WorkSafeBC and EHT reporting alongside it. If you already have penalties on the account, we will reconcile the account first and tell you what is genuinely owed before anything gets paid.
Book a consultation or call BC +1 (778) 951 1269 / Alberta +1 (403) 437 6016.
