T3 and T5 Slips

T3 and T5 slips are tax forms issued by your brokerage, bank, or fund company that report investment income you earned during the year. You need them to file your taxes accurately.

T5 slips

A T5 (Statement of Investment Income) reports interest, dividends, and certain other types of investment income. If you hold individual stocks that pay dividends, GICs, or savings accounts that earn interest in a non-registered account, you’ll likely receive a T5.

T3 slips

A T3 (Statement of Trust Income Allocations and Designations) reports income from trusts, which includes most ETFs and mutual funds. If you hold ETFs or mutual funds in a non-registered account, distributions from those funds are reported on a T3. These can include a mix of interest, dividends, capital gains, and return of capital.

Why they matter

You only receive these slips for non-registered (taxable) accounts. Investments held inside a TFSA, RRSP, or FHSA don’t generate T3 or T5 slips because the income in those accounts isn’t taxed annually.

T3 slips are often the last tax documents to arrive, sometimes not until late March. If you file your taxes early, you may need to wait or check your brokerage’s tax document centre online.

Most brokerages in Canada make these slips available digitally through your account. Your tax software can usually import them directly, or you can enter the amounts manually. Either way, make sure you report all the slips you receive. The CRA gets copies too. Our guide to reading your brokerage statement explains where to find these documents and what the numbers mean.

Example

Say you hold a Canadian equity ETF in a non-registered account and it paid $420 in distributions over the year. You’d receive a T3 slip showing a breakdown: maybe $180 in eligible dividends, $140 in capital gains, and $100 in return of capital. Each of those amounts is taxed differently, and you need to report them on the correct lines of your return.