Growth of thick 4H-SiC layers was performed on (0001) and (000-1) substrates off-cut towards <11-20> or <1-100>. The roughness of the epilayers, grown on the four different substrates was almost the same level, at 0.20-0.23 nm, while the epilayers grown on (000-1) exhibited particular large epi-defects with densities 10(-1) - 10(1) cm(-2) depending on the growth conditions. In both (000 1) and (000-1), basal plane dislocations (BDs) inclined towards <1-100> with a tilt in the epilayer grown on substrates off-cut towards <1-100>, while the BDs lie along <11-20> for substrates off-cut towards <11-20>. No significant difference in densities of BDs and in-grown stacking faults for the different off-directions was revealed for (0001). For both (0001) and (000-1), the carrier lifetime of 4H-SiC epilayers was comparable for the different off-cut directions.