Tax free savings account

[drovertax2017]

I received a T5008 / RI-18 slip from the bank for money market investments I transferred to a Tax free savings account.  Not sure how to enter the information as there is no box 20 on the slip and I did not dispose of the investment.  It is in the same type of investment as before now just registered as a TSFA.  How should I enter on my taxes?

[TurboTaxMonica2 · Accepted solution]

When you transferred your investments to your Tax Free Savings Account (TFSA), you disposed of your securities from your unsheltered investment vehicle and any gain needs to be reported into your return for the year.

From here onwards, any gains/loss from investments in your TFSA need not be reported on your return and you should not be receiving any T-slips for them.

[drovertax2017]

When I read the CRA site and the Turbo Tax Help it seemed to classify this as a deemed disposition and that deemed dispositions do not need to be reported when being transferred to a TSFA.  Is this correct?  If I need to report any capital gains/losses, how do I determine such if there is no box 20 on the slip?

[TurboTaxMonica2]

Yes, it is a deemed disposition, but the gain still needs to be reported because the TFSA is a tax sheltered vehicle. That said, if you had a loss, you won't be able to claim it.

The box 20 generally don't show up on your slip. Most financial institution doesn't keep track of the cost of your securities. You need to manually go through your statements and track down when you bought those securities and the price you bought it at and put that amount into box 20. It is possible that you bought them a few years ago, so you will need to track down the statements for a few years ago to get the cost amount.

Sometimes if you call your financial institution, they can send you a summary of all your transactions. This may help you track down the cost. Or if you can log into your trading account, you may be able to go back through your transactions to determine the cost of those securities.

[drovertax2017]

Thank you for your help.  This seems like an impossible task as the investment goes back several years that includes several purchases and withdrawals over time.  It is the same investment just now transferred under the TSFA umbrella.

[TurboTaxMonica2]

Yes, I feel your pain as I have to do the same for my father in law every year. Good luck!