If you opened your CRA account, searched your email, checked the Uber Eats, SkipTheDishes, or DoorDash app—and still cannot find a T4A—take a breath. A missing slip does not mean you cannot file, and it does not mean you have done anything wrong.
The key point is simple: your responsibility is to report the income you earned, not to wait for a particular piece of paper. Delivery platforms may provide an annual earnings statement, a platform-reporting statement, payout history, or other records instead of a T4A. Those records can help you calculate your income.
This guide walks you through exactly what to do, in order, so you can replace the panic with a clean paper trail.
Quick answer: Download the most complete earnings records from each platform, contact the platform if a slip or statement appears to be missing, calculate your gross delivery income and eligible expenses, report the activity as self-employment income, and keep your evidence. Do not simply leave the income off your return because no T4A arrived.
This article explains CRA guidance in plain language for Canadian delivery workers. It is general information, not individualized tax advice. The official CRA sources used here are listed at the bottom and were checked on August 17, 2026.
First: a T4A is not the same thing as your tax obligation
A T4A is an information slip. It helps report certain types of income, but it is not a permission slip that determines whether income is taxable.
The CRA says Canadian residents participating in the gig economy must report their self-employment income. Its delivery-services guidance specifically discusses delivery work arranged through apps such as UberEats and SkipTheDishes and says drivers must report all income, including tips.
For many independent delivery drivers, that income is business income rather than employee income. In that situation, you generally organize the activity on Form T2125, Statement of Business or Professional Activities. You report the gross income you earned, subtract eligible business expenses, and report the resulting net business income or loss on your return.
So the missing T4A changes your paperwork hunt. It does not erase the underlying income.
What to do right now: the five-step plan
1. Check whether a slip or statement is actually available
Before rebuilding everything from scratch, check:
- Your CRA My Account under tax information slips
- Your email, including spam and promotions folders
- The tax or earnings section of each platform account
- Your Uber Eats, DoorDash, and SkipTheDishes payout history
- Any year-end earnings summary or platform-reporting statement
Most T4, T4A, and T5 slips are generally sent by the end of February, but the CRA cannot display a copy until the issuer sends it to the CRA. If the issuer has not sent it, the CRA may not have anything to show you yet.
If you expected a T4A, contact the platform or issuer directly and ask:
“Was an information slip or annual earnings statement issued for my account? If so, how can I obtain a copy, and what income period does it cover?”
Save the date of your request and any reply. That small note is useful evidence that you tried to verify the information rather than ignoring it.
2. Download the records you already have
Gather records from every platform, not only the app you used most. Save them as PDFs or screenshots in a folder named for the tax year.
Look for:
- Weekly or monthly earnings summaries
- Delivery pay before fees
- Customer tips, including cash tips
- Bonuses, incentives, and referral payments
- Platform fees or commissions
- Adjustments, refunds, and tip changes
- Payout dates and amounts
- Bank statements showing deposits
If you worked for multiple apps, the multi-app bookkeeping guide for Canadian gig workers explains how to keep the platform totals separate while still arriving at one accurate annual number.
Sample reconciliation
Turn your records into one explainable income number
Platform earnings, fees, tips, adjustments, and bank deposits are compared in one worksheet. The bank deposit is a cross-check, not an additional source of income.
Example explanation
The $100 difference may reflect platform fees, payout timing, adjustments, or tips that have not reached the bank yet.
Next calculation
Gross delivery income − eligible business expenses = net business income or loss.
Illustrative numbers only. Your records and platform reporting may be different.
3. Calculate gross income—do not just total your bank deposits
Your bank statement is an important cross-check, but it is not always a complete income report. A deposit may be net of a platform fee, combine several weeks, include a delayed tip, or arrive in a different calendar period from the delivery.
Use a simple reconciliation like this:
| Record | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Platform earnings history | What the app says you earned |
| Fee and adjustment detail | Why gross earnings differ from payout |
| Bank statement | What actually reached your account |
| Tip log | Cash tips or tips not yet reflected in a summary |
| Your income sheet | The final number and your explanation for differences |
Your goal is not to force every number to be identical. Your goal is to explain the differences.
For example:
Delivery pay + tips + bonuses and incentives
= gross delivery income
Gross delivery income - eligible business expenses
= net business income or loss
Do not add the gross platform statement and the corresponding bank deposit together. They are usually two views of the same activity, not two separate sources of income.
If you need help understanding why gross app earnings are not the same as take-home pay, see the guide to how much gig drivers make in Canada.
4. Report the income and eligible expenses
For independent delivery work, the usual route is to report the activity as self-employment income and use Form T2125 to organize the business income and expenses.
Potentially relevant expenses can include the business-use portion of vehicle costs, phone and data, platform fees, supplies, and business-related parking. The expense still needs to be reasonable, connected to earning income, and supported by records. Personal costs are not automatically deductible, and mixed-use costs need a supportable business-use calculation.
The Canadian delivery-driver tax filing guide walks through T2125, mileage, CPP, GST/HST, deadlines, and the filing process in more detail. For a focused review of expenses, see gig-worker tax deductions in Canada.
If you are unsure whether your relationship with a platform is employment or self-employment, do not guess based only on whether you received a slip. The CRA looks at the actual working relationship. Gather your agreement and payment records and consider asking a qualified tax professional for help.
5. Keep a short explanation with your tax records
Create a note that says:
- Which platform did not provide the expected slip or statement
- When you checked CRA My Account and your platform account
- When you contacted the platform
- Which records you used to calculate income
- The gross income, expenses, and net amount you reported
- Any estimate or unresolved difference, and why it was reasonable
You do not normally send all your records with an electronically filed return. Keep them in case the CRA asks questions later. The CRA generally requires business records and supporting documents to be kept for at least six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.
What if you cannot get the number exactly?
Do not invent a number, and do not abandon the return while waiting forever for a document that may never arrive.
Start with the strongest records available:
- A year-end platform earnings report or downloadable tax summary
- Detailed platform payout history
- Weekly or monthly statements
- Bank deposits reconciled to the platform records
- Your own contemporaneous income and tip log
If you still cannot obtain an expected slip before filing, the CRA says you can estimate income using pay stubs or financial statements, report the estimate, and keep a note identifying the issuer, type of income, and steps you took to get the slip. For a paper return, CRA instructions also address attaching supporting statements and the note; for an electronic return, keep the documents in your records.
For delivery work, a careful platform reconciliation is usually more useful than blindly copying a single deposit total. Clearly label a reconstructed figure as an estimate and update your records if the platform later gives you better information.
What if the platform sends the T4A later?
Compare it with the amount you reported. A later slip may confirm your number, or it may reveal a difference caused by fees, adjustments, timing, or a different reporting method.
If the later information changes your return, do not panic. Keep both versions, work out why they differ, and use the CRA’s process to change the return if a correction is needed. If the difference is material or you cannot determine what the slip represents, ask a tax professional before filing an adjustment.
The important thing is that you have a transparent calculation showing how you reached your original number.
A calmer tax-season system for next year
Once this year is under control, make the next year easier:
- Download each platform statement monthly instead of waiting for tax season.
- Record cash tips on the day you receive them.
- Keep one mileage log with business and total kilometres.
- Reconcile platform earnings to bank deposits every month.
- Keep receipts in a dated digital folder.
- Back up the folder somewhere separate from your phone.
If copying numbers from three apps into separate notes is what caused the stress, the Canadian Gig Worker Dashboard is a practical next step. It is a Google Sheets dashboard for organizing platform income, kilometres, hours, and expenses in one place, with automatic earnings and hourly-rate calculations. It will not replace CRA records or tax advice, but it can give you the clean monthly trail that makes a missing slip much less frightening next time.
Bottom line
No T4A does not mean no tax return, and it does not mean you are in trouble.
Check the CRA and platform accounts, request the missing document, reconstruct your income from reliable records, report the income and eligible expenses correctly, and keep your explanation. The CRA cares about whether the income is reported accurately and whether your records support it—not whether you had a perfect piece of paper in your inbox on day one.
Official CRA sources
- CRA: Gig economy—Taxes and the platform economy
- CRA: Tax obligations for commercial ridesharing and delivery services
- CRA: Get a copy of your tax slips
- CRA: Completing Form T2125
- CRA: Business records
Editorial note: Written by Tyler Heinrichs, the independent operator of GigPulse. This guide was reviewed against CRA guidance on August 17, 2026. GigPulse explains official information in plain language; the CRA publications linked above are the authority. This article is not individualized tax advice.