What Is a T5008 Slip and How Do You Report It?

What is a T5008?

The T5008 is an information return that the CRA’s T4091 guide requires traders and dealers in securities to file for purchases and sales they make on behalf of clients. The dealer sends one copy to the CRA and two to you. Dealers filing more than five slips for a year must file them electronically.

Unlike a T4 or T5, the T5008 does not show income. A sale is only taxable to the extent the proceeds exceed your adjusted cost base (ACB) plus selling costs, and you are the one responsible for that calculation.

The boxes that matter on a T5008

Most of the slip is identification. These are the boxes you use when filing:

• Box 13: a currency code if the amounts are in a foreign currency rather than Canadian dollars. You must convert to Canadian dollars for your return.
• Box 14: the settlement date (month and day). Dealers reporting a year’s total enter 1231.
• Box 15: the type of security, such as SHS (shares), MFT (mutual fund trust units), BON (bonds), OPC (options) or MET (precious metals).
• Box 16 and 17: the quantity and description of what you sold; box 18 the ISIN or CUSIP.
• Box 20: cost or book value. The CRA warns this may or may not be your ACB.
• Box 21: proceeds of disposition, the total you received before deducting commissions. It can only be negative for futures and options.

Why box 20 can be wrong

Dealers are expected to take reasonable measures to report the right cost, but the T4091 guide says the box 20 amount “may or may not reflect the investor’s ACB” and that you may need to adjust it. Box 20 is often blank or zero for shares transferred in from another broker, positions bought years ago, employee stock options and shares received in a reorganisation.

Your ACB must also follow the identical-property rule in CRA guide T4037: when you buy the same security at different times, your cost is the average cost of all units held, not the cost of the specific lot you sold. If you hold the same security at two brokers, the average is across both, which neither dealer can see. Reinvested distributions and return-of-capital amounts (box 42 of a T3 slip) also change your ACB.

Worked example: calculating a gain from a T5008

You bought 100 shares at $40.00 plus a $10.00 commission and later 50 more at $52.00 plus $10.00. Your total cost is $6,620.00 for 150 shares, an average of $44.13 per share. In 2026 you sell 120 shares at $60.00, paying $10.00 commission. The T5008 shows box 21 of $7,200.00.

Your ACB for the shares sold is 120 × $44.13 = $5,296.00. The capital gain is $7,200.00 − $10.00 outlays − $5,296.00 = $1,894.00, of which 50% ($947.00) is taxable. For an Ontario resident with $70,000 of other income, our engine puts the extra 2026 tax at about $280.78. The remaining 30 shares keep the $44.13 average cost.

How to report a T5008 on your return

You do not attach the slip or enter it as income. Instead, report each disposition on Schedule 3, Capital Gains or Losses, in the section for shares and fund units (bonds and other debt obligations have their own section). For each sale enter the number and name of the securities, the year acquired, the proceeds, the ACB and the outlays and expenses, such as commissions. Schedule 3 then gives the taxable capital gain for line 12700.

Outlays and expenses reduce the gain but cannot be deducted from other income. If your trading amounts to carrying on a business, the profit is business income reported on Form T2125 instead of a capital gain; the CRA treats this as a question of fact decided case by case.

When you will not get a T5008

The T4091 guide lists situations where no slip is required, which is why a T5008 is not a complete record of your dispositions:

• Sales inside an RRSP and other tax-exempt accounts (the guide names RRSPs, registered charities and municipalities). TFSA trades are likewise not reported on your return.
• Deemed dispositions: gifts, transfers to a trust, death and emigration. You must still report these yourself.
• The exercise or expiry of an option, right or warrant.
• Canadian-dollar money market funds trading at a constant price; their income is reported on T3 or T5 slips instead.
• Sales of currency or of precious metals in the form of jewellery, art or numismatic coins.

Losses, superficial losses and foreign currency

A T5008 showing proceeds below your ACB gives you a capital loss, which can offset capital gains this year, be carried back three years or forward indefinitely. Watch the superficial loss rule in T4037: if you or an affiliated person, such as your spouse or your corporation, buys the same or identical property within 30 days before or after the sale and still holds it 30 days after, the loss is denied and added to the ACB of the replacement shares.

If box 13 shows a currency code, the dealer reported in that foreign currency and you must convert both proceeds and cost to Canadian dollars for Schedule 3, so currency movements become part of your gain or loss. If the cost of your foreign shares held outside registered plans tops $100,000 at any time in the year, also check whether you need Form T1135.