If money you had invested paid you something during the year — interest on a savings account, dividends from a Canadian corporation, a royalty — the payer sends you a T5 slip setting out what it paid and how it is classified.
You do not prepare the slip. You receive it and use the boxes when you file.
What it reports
The T5 slip, Statement of Investment Income, reports investment income paid or credited to you during the year. The boxes separate the kinds of income, because they do not all go on the same line of your return.
Who sends it
Banks, credit unions, corporations and other payers of investment income. If you hold accounts at more than one institution, you can expect a slip from each of them.
The dividend boxes come in threes
The two dividend groups are the part of the slip people most often misread, because each group shows three figures for what is really one payment.
Boxes 10, 11 and 12 – dividends from Canadian corporations other than eligible dividends. Report as income the amount shown in box 11, on line 12010 and line 12000 of your return. The dividend tax credit you are entitled to is shown in box 12 and can be claimed at line 40425 in the Federal Worksheet.
Boxes 24, 25 and 26 – eligible dividends from Canadian corporations. Report as income the amount shown in box 25, on line 12000 of your return. The dividend tax credit is shown in box 26 and can be claimed at line 40425 in the Federal Worksheet.
In both groups, the first box is the actual amount of the dividend. The amount you report is the taxable amount in the second box, and the third box is the credit that goes with it.
The other boxes
- Box 13 – Interest from Canadian sources. See line 12100 to know how to report this amount.
- Box 14 – Other income from Canadian sources. See line 12100.
- Box 15 – Foreign income. See line 12100.
- Box 16 – Foreign tax paid. This amount is used to calculate your foreign tax credit. See line 40500.
- Box 17 – Royalties from Canadian sources. Where this one goes depends on what produced it. Royalties from a work or invention of yours go on line 10400. Royalties that have expenses associated with them go on line 13500. Otherwise, the amount goes on line 12100.
- Box 18 – Capital gains dividends. Enter this amount on line 17400 of Schedule 3, Capital Gains (or Losses).
- Box 19 – Accrued income: annuities. This is the earnings part of a general annuity. If you were 65 or older at the end of the year, or if you received the annuity payments because of the death of your spouse or common-law partner, report this amount on line 11500. Otherwise, it goes on line 12100.
- Box 30 – Equity linked notes interest. Deemed interest from the assignment or transfer of linked notes. Enter this amount on line 12100.
If a slip is late or looks wrong
The payer that issued the slip is the one to ask about an amount on it, and the one who can reissue it.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) page this article is written from does not set a date by which a T5 has to reach you, and does not state a floor below which no slip is issued. A small amount of investment income is still income even if no slip arrives for it.
What to keep
Keep the slip, and keep it whole: the box numbers are what tell one kind of investment income from another, and a statement showing only a total will not answer that question later.
If you hold investments at several institutions, keep every T5 you receive. Each one carries its own boxes, and the totals you enter are built from all of them together.
Dossier stores the slip and identifies it as a T5 so it is with the rest of your year's paper. It does not read the amounts off the slip; the figures come from the boxes in front of you when you file.
Official CRA sources
Source: Canada Revenue Agency (canada.ca). Not tax advice.