A T5007 arrives if you received workers' compensation benefits or social assistance during the year. The amounts on it are reported as income and then deducted again, which surprises people the first time they see it.
You do not prepare it. You receive it and use the boxes when you file.
What it reports
The T5007, Statement of Benefits, reports workers' compensation benefits and social assistance payments or provincial or territorial supplements paid to you in the year.
Who sends it
Workers' compensation boards, and provincial or territorial social assistance agencies.
The boxes that matter
- Box 10 – Workers' compensation benefits. Enter this amount on line 14400 and line 25000 of your Income Tax and Benefit Return.
- Box 11 – Social assistance payments or provincial or territorial supplements. Enter this amount on line 14500 and line 25000.
Each amount appears twice: once as income, once as a deduction on line 25000. That is how these benefits are counted for income-tested programs without being taxed.
Who reports box 11
Box 11 is the box with a rule attached, and it does not follow whose name is printed on the slip.
If you lived with your spouse or common-law partner when you received the social assistance payments or provincial or territorial supplements, the spouse or common-law partner with the higher net income has to report this amount. If you and your spouse or common-law partner have the same net income, the person whose name is on the slip has to report it. Whoever reports it as income can claim an equivalent deduction on line 25000.
Net income is not knowable from the slip, so this is settled on the return rather than on the paper.
Box 13 and amended slips
Box 13 is the report code, and it tells you which version of the slip you are holding: "O" for an original, "A" for an amended slip that changes the financial data or identification information, and "C" for a cancelled one.
When code "A" or "C" is used, a description such as "AMENDED" or "CANCELLED" appears at the top of the slip, along with a written explanation of the reason for filing it.
So if two T5007 slips arrive for the same year, box 13 is what tells them apart.
If a slip is late or looks wrong
The board or agency that issued the slip is the one to correct it, and an amended slip is how a correction reaches you. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) page this article is written from does not state a date by which the slip has to reach you.
What to keep
Keep the slip. Keep an amended or cancelled slip alongside the original rather than instead of it, so the sequence is clear later.
If you lived with a spouse or common-law partner during the year, keep the slip where both of you can reach it: which of you reports box 11 depends on net incomes that are only known when the returns are prepared.
Dossier stores the slip and identifies it as a T5007, so it is with the rest of your year's paper. It does not read the amounts off it, and it does not work out which spouse or common-law partner reports box 11; that is settled when you file.
Official CRA sources
The CRA's T5007 page lists no related forms or publications, so this article cites none.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency (canada.ca). Not tax advice.