The tax form for GIC interest in Canada is the T5 Statement of Investment Income. Your financial institution issues it, reports the interest in Box 13, and you carry that figure to Line 12100 of your T1 return.1Canada Revenue Agency. Line 12100 – Interest and Other Investment Income One thing that surprises people: the CRA treats GIC interest as income in the year it accrues, not when the GIC pays out, so a five-year GIC generates a T5 every year even though you haven’t seen the money yet.
What the T5 Shows
The T5 is the standard slip financial institutions use to report investment earnings to you and to the CRA.2Canada Revenue Agency. T5 Slip For a plain GIC, the only number that matters is in Box 13, “Interest from Canadian sources.” That total goes on Line 12100 of your T1 Income Tax and Benefit Return.3Canada Revenue Agency. T5 Statement of Investment Income – Slip Information for Individuals
Hold GICs at more than one bank? You get one T5 from each. All the Box 13 amounts get added together on the same line. A T5 can also carry dividends or foreign interest in other boxes, and those flow to different lines, but a straight GIC stays in Box 13. Quebec residents receive a separate Relevé 3 (RL-3) for the provincial return covering the same income.
When You Get a T5, and When You Don’t
Financial institutions must issue T5 slips by the last day of February following the calendar year the income relates to.4Canada Revenue Agency. Due Date There is one exception worth knowing: if a single institution paid you less than $50 in investment income for the year, it isn’t required to prepare a T5 at all.5Canada Revenue Agency. When Do You Have to Prepare a T5 Slip
No slip does not mean no tax. You still have to calculate the interest yourself and report it on Line 12100.1Canada Revenue Agency. Line 12100 – Interest and Other Investment Income Check your GIC agreement or online statements for the rate and work out what accrued during the year. This is a common audit trigger for small investors who assume a missing slip means a missing obligation.
Most T5s also show up pre-populated in the CRA My Account portal, pulled directly from the issuing institutions. If a slip is missing there, or if a figure doesn’t match your own records, contact the institution before you file rather than guessing at the number.
Why a Multi-Year GIC Generates a T5 Every Year
Buy a five-year GIC and you don’t get to wait five years to report the interest. For investments made after 1990, the CRA requires accrued interest to be reported annually on each anniversary of the investment, under subsection 12(4) of the Income Tax Act.1Canada Revenue Agency. Line 12100 – Interest and Other Investment Income The CRA’s own example: interest earned from July 1, 2024 through June 30, 2025 goes on your 2025 return, and interest from July 2025 to June 2026 goes on your 2026 return.
The bank does the math. Each year it calculates the interest accrued to the anniversary date and reports it on a T5 even though nothing has been paid to you. The upside is that the tax gets spread across the life of the GIC instead of arriving as a lump at maturity. Compounding GICs will show a slightly larger amount each year as interest is calculated on a growing balance.
How to Enter It on Your Return
Take the amount in Box 13 of each T5 and put the combined total on Line 12100 of your T1.1Canada Revenue Agency. Line 12100 – Interest and Other Investment Income Tax software will prompt you to enter each T5 separately and add them up for you. On paper, you add the Box 13 amounts yourself and write the total on Line 12100.
If the T5 figure doesn’t match what you’d calculated from the GIC contract, use the T5. The institution has the actual accrual method and the exact contract terms on hand, and the CRA expects that number. If you truly believe the slip is wrong, ask the institution for an amended T5 before you file rather than reporting a different amount.
GICs Inside Registered Accounts
GICs held inside a TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, or RESP do not generate a T5, and you do not report the interest each year. The account type decides whether the income is permanently tax-free or just deferred.
Interest on a GIC inside a TFSA is tax-free both while it grows and when you withdraw, regardless of how much it earns.6Canada Revenue Agency. What Is a TFSA Inside an RRSP, interest is exempt from tax while it stays in the plan, and you pay tax only when you withdraw, at which point the withdrawal is added to your income for that year.7Canada Revenue Agency. Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) An FHSA gives you both features: deductible contributions, tax-free growth, and tax-free qualifying withdrawals to buy a first home. Inside an RESP, income is sheltered while it stays in the plan; when it comes out as educational assistance payments, it’s taxable in the student beneficiary’s hands.8Canada Revenue Agency. How a Registered Education Savings Plan Works
Foreign-Currency GICs
Interest on a U.S.-dollar or other foreign-currency GIC is still taxable in Canada, but you have to convert it to Canadian dollars to report it. The CRA accepts Bank of Canada exchange rates, and for practical purposes you can use the annual average rate for the year.9Canada Revenue Agency. Conversion of Foreign Currency The Bank of Canada publishes these averages by the last business day of each year.10Bank of Canada. Annual Exchange Rates
Whichever method you pick, annual or monthly averages, use it consistently from year to year. Your bank will usually issue the T5 with the interest already converted, but check it against the Bank of Canada rate yourself if the currency moved significantly during the year. Any currency gain or loss on the GIC’s principal is a separate tax matter and does not go on Line 12100.
Watch the Instalment Threshold
GIC interest has no tax withheld at source, so a large enough portfolio can push you into quarterly instalment payments instead of a single bill at filing time. The CRA expects instalments when your net tax owing is over $3,000 in the current year and was also over $3,000 in either of the two preceding years. In Quebec, the threshold is $1,800.11Canada Revenue Agency. Who Has to Pay – Required Tax Instalments for Individuals
If you should have been paying instalments and weren’t, the CRA charges instalment interest on top of the tax. The CRA sends instalment reminders in February and August with suggested amounts if you’re approaching the thresholds.
The Penalty for Missing GIC Interest
Forgetting a small amount once is unlikely to cause serious trouble. The specific penalty bites when you fail to report $500 or more in income and you also failed to report income in any of the three preceding tax years. The penalty is the lesser of 10% of the unreported income, or 50% of the difference between the tax you understated and any tax already withheld on that income.12Canada Revenue Agency. False Reporting or Repeated Failure to Report Income
The 10% applies at both the federal and provincial level, so the combined hit adds up quickly. And the repeated-failure test is the real sting: miss reporting twice in a four-year window and the CRA treats it as a pattern rather than a slip. The obligation exists even when no T5 was issued because the interest was under $50, and a miss in that situation still counts toward the pattern.
Keep the Slips
Hold on to T5 slips and your GIC paperwork for at least six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to.13Canada Revenue Agency. Keeping Records A 2026 T5 should stay in your records until at least the end of 2032. If you’ve filed an objection or appeal, keep everything until the matter is fully resolved, whatever the six-year clock says.