CRA Payroll Remittance Due Dates 2026

Remitter types at a glance

All five tiers, from the same rule table the classifier above uses. AMWA (or MWA for a new employer) is the figure from two calendar years ago that decides which row applies.

Quarterly-new applies only to a payroll account open under 12 months; quarterly-established applies from 12 months on. Both quarterly tiers additionally require the perfect-compliance record above.

Worked examples — classifying employers from a prior AMWA

CRA’s own published examples follow the same shape. A regular corporation that had to remit $1,050,000 over 10 months in a calendar year has an AMWA of $105,000 ($1,050,000 ÷ 10), which makes it a threshold-2 accelerated remitter two years later. Two associated corporations that together remitted $297,000 over 11 months (months are counted once, not once per company) have a combined AMWA of $27,000, landing both companies in threshold 1 — an associated corporation always takes the same remitter type as the rest of its group.

A third CRA example shows the new-employer MWA test failing mid-year: an employer with MWA of $500 in January, $1,500 in February and $1,500 in March owes its Q1 quarterly remittance of $3,500 by April 15 — but because February and March both hit $1,000 or more, it stops qualifying as a new small employer and becomes a regular (monthly) remitter starting with April’s MWA, due May 15.

2026 due dates for regular (monthly) remitters

A regular remitter’s due date is the 15th of the month after the remittance period. When the 15th lands on a weekend or a CRA-recognized 2026 holiday, the payment is on time if CRA receives it on or before the next business day — the table already applies that roll-forward.

Two of the most-asked dates directly from this table: a July 2026 remittance is due Aug 17, 2026 — the 15th falls on a Saturday, so it rolls to the Monday. An August 2026 remittance is due Sep 15, 2026 on the button, since the 15th falls on a Tuesday.

Accelerated remitters — due dates within the month

Threshold 1 (AMWA $25,000–$99,999.99) splits each month into two remitting periods: the 1st to the 15th, due on the 25th of the same month, and the 16th to month-end, due on the 10th of the next month. Example: the second-half period ending September 30, 2026 is nominally due October 10 — a Saturday — so the roll-forward rule pushes it to Oct 13, 2026.

Threshold 2 (AMWA $100,000 or more) splits each month into four weekly periods — the 1st–7th, 8th–14th, 15th–21st, and 22nd to month-end — each due on the 3rd working day after the period ends (working days skip both weekends and CRA holidays). Example: the October 1–7, 2026 period is due 3 working days after the 7th; October 8 and 9 count, the October 10–11 weekend is skipped, October 12 (Thanksgiving Day) is also skipped, so the 3rd working day lands on Oct 13, 2026.

Quarterly remitters — eligibility and due dates

Both quarterly tiers use the same four remitting periods and due dates — January 1 to March 31 (due April 15), April 1 to June 30 (due July 15), July 1 to September 30 (due October 15), and October 1 to December 31 (due January 15) — but different AMWA ceilings and account-age rules:

• New small employer (account open under 12 months): MWA under $999.99 in every month tested, plus perfect compliance. No application needed — CRA assigns quarterly by default unless your statement of account says otherwise.
• Established small employer (account open 12 months or more): AMWA in the calendar year before the previous one under $2,999.99, plus perfect compliance over the trailing 12 months. CRA notifies qualifying employers in writing.

The perfect compliance record test is identical for both: over the previous 12 months, the payroll account must have no late remittances or late-remitting penalties, no failure-to-remit penalties, no failure-to-deduct penalties, and no overdue T4-type information return; if the employer also runs a GST/HST account, that account must have no balance owing, no overdue return, and no credit balance held under a refund hold. Fail any one condition and the employer is reassigned to monthly starting the next calendar quarter, with the chance to requalify once both the AMWA and the 12-month compliance window are clean again.

What counts as paid on time

CRA judges "on time" by a different marker depending on how the payment was made — not simply the date it left your account:

Late remittance — penalty and interest walkthrough

CRA charges a penalty on top of daily-compounded interest when a remittance over $500 is sent late (or, for smaller amounts, if the delay was knowing or grossly negligent). The penalty scales with how late the payment is:

On top of the penalty, CRA charges interest from the original due date, compounded daily, at the CRA overdue prescribed rate (currently 7% annually, set each calendar quarter). Example: a $4,000 remittance paid 10 days late (more than 7 days, so the 10% tier applies) at the current 7% rate:

Interest also accrues on unpaid penalties, and a due date that falls on a weekend or a CRA-recognized holiday simply rolls to the next business day — it does not add a grace period beyond that. A second penalty in the same calendar year jumps straight to 20% if CRA finds the failure was knowing or grossly negligent, rather than restarting at 3%.

Frequently asked questions