Hiring Your First Employee in Canada Checklist: Business Number, Payroll, Employment Standards, and Year-End Reporting

Hiring a first employee turns a business into an employer, and the Canada Revenue Agency treats that as a set of fixed obligations. You register for a payroll account, collect the employee's Social Insurance Number and TD1 forms before the first pay, deduct income tax, Canada Pension Plan contributions, and employment insurance premiums every pay period, remit them on schedule, and report at year end with T4 slips. This checklist puts those steps in order, and each item links to the guide that owns its steps and official source.

Most employment standards are provincial or territorial, so the minimum wage and the rules on hours, overtime, and termination come from the province or territory where the employee works. Federally regulated workplaces, such as banks, airlines, and interprovincial transport, follow Part III of the Canada Labour Code instead. This checklist does not state any CPP or EI rate or maximum, because those figures change every January. Use the CRA payroll deduction tables for the pay period in front of you.

The checklist

• Confirm the worker is an employee, not a contractor. Payroll obligations follow the working relationship, not the label on a contract. A written contract that calls a worker self-employed does not settle the question if the facts show an employer-employee relationship. If the status is unclear, request a CPP/EI ruling before the first pay. How to Set Up Payroll in Canada Source: Canada Revenue Agency, as named in the payroll guide.
• Get a business number. Hiring employees is one of the five situations that triggers a business number. Register through Business Registration Online and open the payroll account in the same sitting. The business number is free on every official route. How to Get a Business Number in Canada: the CRA BN Explained Source: Canada Revenue Agency, as named in the business number guide.
• Open the payroll (RP) account before the first remittance due date. The first remittance due date is the 15th day of the month following the month in which you began withholding deductions from an employee's pay, unless the CRA tells you to remit on a different frequency. If you have a place of business in Quebec, you may also have to register with Revenu Quebec. How to Set Up Payroll in Canada Source: Canada Revenue Agency.
• Collect the employee's Social Insurance Number and TD1 forms before the first pay. Every employee must give you their Social Insurance Number to work in Canada, and the federal and provincial or territorial TD1 forms set the personal tax credits used to work out the income tax to deduct. In Quebec, employees also complete the Revenu Quebec source deductions return, Form TP-1015.3-V. How to Set Up Payroll in Canada Source: Canada Revenue Agency.
• Check the minimum wage and employment standards in the province or territory where the employee works. Most workplaces follow provincial or territorial standards for wages, hours, overtime, and termination. Federally regulated workplaces, such as banks, airlines, and interprovincial transport, follow Part III of the Canada Labour Code instead. Do not apply one province's rules to another province's employee. Minimum Wage by Province for 2027 in Canada Source: the provincial and territorial rates named in the minimum-wage guide, and the Labour Program of Employment and Social Development Canada for federally regulated workplaces.
• Register for workers compensation in the province or territory of employment. Each province and territory runs its own workers compensation board, with its own registration deadline and classification. Register before the deadline that board states, and report payroll as the board requires. How to Register for Workers Compensation in Canada Source: the provincial and territorial workers compensation boards named in the workers compensation guide.
• Deduct CPP, EI, and income tax each pay period, add the employer share, and remit by the due date for your remitter type. Deduct income tax, Canada Pension Plan contributions, and employment insurance premiums from each pay, hold the withheld amounts in trust for the Receiver General, and remit the total with your share of CPP and EI. A regular remitter pays by the 15th of the month following the month in which the employee was paid. How to Set Up Payroll in Canada Source: Canada Revenue Agency.
• File the T4 information return and give employees their T4 slips by the last day of February. File the T4 slips and the T4 Summary with the CRA, and give each employee their slip, on or before the last day of February of the following calendar year. If that day falls on a Saturday, a Sunday, or a public holiday recognized by the CRA, the return is on time if the CRA receives it or it is postmarked on or before the next business day. How to Set Up Payroll in Canada Source: Canada Revenue Agency.
• Issue a Record of Employment when the employee's earnings stop. Issue an ROE each time an employee has an interruption of earnings, which is usually 7 consecutive calendar days with no work and no insurable earnings. An electronic ROE on a weekly, biweekly, or semi-monthly payroll is due within 5 calendar days after the end of the pay period in which the interruption occurs. A paper ROE is due within 5 calendar days of the first day of the interruption or the day you become aware of it. How to Start Uploading Records of Employment Through ROE Web in Canada Source: Service Canada.
• Keep payroll records for 6 years. Store all payroll records related to ROEs for 6 years after the year to which the information relates, in electronic or paper format. How to Start Uploading Records of Employment Through ROE Web in Canada Source: Service Canada.

Related guides:

• How to Set Up Payroll in Canada: the payroll route linked in items 1, 3, 4, 7, and 8, including the RP account, deductions, remittance, and T4 filing.
• How to Get a Business Number in Canada: the CRA BN Explained: the business number route linked in item 2, including the five triggers and the program accounts.
• CRA Program Accounts Explained: RC, RM, RP and RT Numbers: what the RP payroll account is and how the 15-character account number is built.
• Minimum Wage by Province for 2027 in Canada: the minimum-wage rates by province and territory linked in item 5.
• How to Register for Workers Compensation in Canada: the workers compensation registration route linked in item 6, province by province.
• How to Start Uploading Records of Employment Through ROE Web in Canada: the ROE route linked in items 9 and 10, including ROE Web registration and submission.
• Starting a Business in Canada Checklist: Register, Get a Business Number, GST/HST, Licence, Bank Account, Insurance: the business setup checklist that comes before hiring, including registration and the business number.

Sources

• Canada Revenue Agency, Determine if you need to register for a payroll account: payroll account registration and the first remittance due date, linked in items 2 and 3.
• Canada Revenue Agency, When to file information returns: the T4 filing due date, linked in item 8.
• Service Canada, How to complete the Record of Employment (ROE) form: ROE deadlines, the 7-day interruption rule, and 6-year record retention, linked in items 9 and 10.
• Employment and Social Development Canada, Regulations: frequently asked questions: Labour Program: which workplaces the federal labour standards regulations cover, linked in item 5.

The business number guide names the five triggers for a business number and the routes to register. This checklist links to that guide for their steps and does not restate them. No item in this checklist carries a figure that was not verified on one of the official pages in Sources or stated in its linked guide. CPP and EI rates and maximums are not stated here; they change every January, and the figure that matters is the one in the CRA payroll deduction tables for the pay period in front of you.