Have you bought, sold, or cashed securities this year? Securities include publicly traded shares and many other financial products such as bonds, T-bills, and mutual fund units. If you’ve dealt with any of these objects in the last fiscal year you can expect a T5008 slip from your broker. What is this slip and how you report it on your taxes? We’ll answer your questions below.

What is the T5008 Slip Statement of Securities Transactions?

The T5008 slip that you receive from your broker is like a T4 slip, except that it details only your income or losses from securities transactions. You need this slip to fill out your taxes, so if you don’t receive one by the last day of February after the relevant tax year, you should reach out to your broker.

You may also find any missing forms on your CRA My Account.  You can download these for input, or if you are using TurboTax, the information will be brought into your return via the auto-fill my return process.

The slip should detail all your securities transactions, whether you bought, sold, or cashed them. For the purposes of this slip, security is:

  • Shares including publicly traded shares
  • Debt obligations, mutual fund units, options, or contracts
  • Small business corporation shares, whether deferral or eligible
  • T-bills when disposed of at maturity
  • Promissory notes, debentures, bonds, and similar properties

The amounts included in your T5008 slip may not be just money. If you cancel, exchange, or convert your securities into a property, that will also be included in your slip even though the value was not in cash. All consideration that is paid or payable to you should be included.

Understanding Your T5008 Slip Statement of Securities Transactions

When you receive your T5008 slip, you’ll notice that it has boxes just like a T4 slip. Here is what those boxes mean:

  • Box 14: The date your securities transactions occurred, December 31 if you are submitting multiple transactions.
  • Box 16: The quantity of security you disposed of.
  • Box 17: The description of the security, if multiple these may be in Box 21.
  • Box 20: The cost or book value. This is not necessarily your adjusted cost base (ACB), which you are responsible for calculating (although your broker or advisor be able to advise you of this amount). If your broker leaves this box blank, you must still calculate it and report it.
  • Box 21: If you’d like to report on a per security basis you could use this section to detail the amount you received from each security.

The adjusted cost base (ACB) is the total of the cost to acquire the asset and the related expenses incurred, such as a broker’s fee. It does not include current costs, such as the costs of running your business.

Is T5 the Same as the T5008 Slip Statement of Securities Transactions?

No, a T5 is not the same thing as a T5008 Slip. While a T5008 slip details your securities transactions, a T5 is a statement of investment income. Investment income is what you earn in interests and dividends on investments and only those in a non-registered account. Both sources of income must be reported on your T1 with your yearly tax return.

It is important to note that however, there may be an overlap between these two slips. They may reflect the same income, and therefore reporting them both would have you report the same income twice. You should consult with those who issued you the slips to understand exactly what you need to report.

Do I Need to Report T5008?

Yes, individuals need to report information from the T5008 on their tax return. Specifically, you should include the requested information in your Income Tax and Benefit Return. However, you should make sure that you have not already included this income in other sections of the T1 return, or you will be taxed for the income twice. For example, if your T5008 slip relates to your business income, then you should report it in the Business Income section of the T1 and not under Capital Gains and Losses.

If you are using information from your T5008 in your tax return, you should note that you need to include the amount in Canadian dollars. Therefore, if there is an exchange rate listed in Box 13 of your T5008, you need to use it to calculate the Canadian dollars you need to report.

If you notice that there was an error on your T5008 slips later you can have them amended and correct the error with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).

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