Quick answer: The T5018 reports payments a construction business makes to its subcontractors. You file it if construction is more than half your business income and you paid a Canadian-resident subcontractor more than $500 in the period, and it is due six months after the reporting period you chose.
What the form is
The T5018 identifies the total contract payments made to each subcontractor in a calendar year or fiscal period. The CRA is explicit about why it exists: to promote compliance in the construction industry and reduce activity in the underground economy.
Box 22 reports the total paid including GST/HST and PST — while the $500 reporting threshold is measured excluding GST/HST. The two rules point in opposite directions and are easy to swap.
Payment in kind counts. Where a subcontractor was paid by bartering goods or services, the CRA requires the fair market value of what changed hands to be reported.
Who files it
Individuals, partnerships, trusts and corporations whose primary source of business income — more than 50% — is construction activities, and who paid Canadian-resident subcontractors for construction services performed inside or outside Canada.
A business that does significant construction but earns most of its income elsewhere is not caught — the CRA’s own example. A developer whose main business is selling land does not become a T5018 filer by building on it.
The form at a glance
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Who files | Businesses with more than 50% of income from construction activities |
| Threshold | More than $500 to a subcontractor in the period, excluding GST/HST |
| Box 22 amount | Total payments including GST/HST and PST |
| Reporting period | Calendar year or fiscal year — the payer’s choice |
| Due | Six months after the end of the chosen reporting period |
What to have ready before you file
Most of the delay on these is not the form, it is assembling what the form asks for. Have a list of every subcontractor paid in the period with their business number or SIN, the total paid to each including GST/HST for box 22, and your own payroll account number, plus a decision, made once, on whether your reporting period is the calendar or fiscal year to hand before starting.
Gathering it first also surfaces the problems early, a missing account number, a balance nobody has actually calculated, a date that does not line up — while there is still time to fix them rather than after a filing has been rejected.
What catches people out
Employee versus subcontractor is decided by the facts, not the slip. Someone who works as an employee and also does subcontract work gets a T4 for the employment income and a T5018 for the subcontract work, and putting a de facto employee on a T5018 is exactly the pattern CRA worker-classification reviews look for.
The six-month deadline follows the period you chose, so a fiscal-year filer’s deadline moves with its year-end. Whichever you pick, pick it once — switching periods creates a stub period that has to be reported too.
More than five slips means Internet filing is mandatory, with penalties starting at $125 for filing on paper.
The test has three parts, and all three must apply: construction is more than 50% of your business income, you paid Canadian-resident subcontractors for construction services, and a subcontractor’s total for the period passed $500 excluding GST/HST.
How it is filed
You choose a reporting period — your calendar year or your fiscal year, and file the T5018 slips and summary within six months of its end. A December 31 year-end files by June 30. Unlike a T4, no copy has to be sent to the subcontractor, though most contractors provide one.
Whichever route applies, keep the filed copies and the working papers behind them together. A slip is only as defensible as the records that show how its boxes were calculated, and those records are what a review asks for rather than the slip itself.
Common questions about T5018
Do I send the T5018 to my subcontractors?+
Does the $500 threshold include GST?+
My company builds but mostly sells land. Do I file?+
What period do I report on?+
Where this comes from
- CRA — T5018 slip: statement of contract payments
- CRA — When to file information returns
- CRA — Penalty for accepting a late, amended or revoked election
General information current as of August 2026, not advice for your situation. Filing deadlines are unforgiving — confirm yours before you file. Please speak with a CPA about your circumstances.
Related reading
- Construction accounting in BC
- Employee vs contractor: how the CRA decides
- The payroll quick card
- All CRA forms we cover
Other CRA forms
Who does this work
T5018s sit on top of ordinary trades bookkeeping — if subcontractor payments are coded cleanly through the year, the slips take an hour; if they are buried in materials and equipment accounts, the sorting is the job.
If that is where you are, the service page for construction and trades accounting sets out what the engagement covers and how it is quoted.
These deadlines are date-driven and unforgiving. Email us before the deadline rather than after — we quote the work in writing first.
Email us about T5018Have a question about this?
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The slip is the visible end of a payables process that has to separate subtrade labour from materials all year — a CPA who prepares construction year ends sets that up.
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