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It's pure obstinacy on the part of EQ. Many of us have complained about this in the past both online and directly. Accordingly, I don't buy GICs from them.

Bill, we get one T5 from TD Waterhouse with both our names on it, with the primary account holder's name above the secondary holder's name.

Only the primary account holder's SIN is shown (in box 22), just as it is with any other T5. The recipient type is shown in box 23. In our case there are two recipients, so the number 2 is shown. Presumably if there were, say, 3 joint holders, then the box would contain the number 3. The joint interest from Canadian sources is shown in box 13.

We also receive from TD Waterhouse an investment income summary and a trading summary. These show the purchases and sales of any investments that we have made during the taxation year, and both documents also show both our names but only the primary holder's SIN. I believe that copies of these documents are also sent by TD Waterhouse to the CRA.

We will report the percentage split for each purchase and sale on our income tax returns.

Thanks, anon52, yeah, that's standard format. i.e. only one SIN per T5 no matter how many account holders there are.

So if your SIN's T5 shows $X as interest income but you report only half of that on your tax return you'd think there would be CRA follow-up, same as if someone had underreported T4 income compared to the T4 slip amount, etc. But as there isn't then either the amounts are too small for them to care about or else they've linked spouses' SINs so they can see the underreporting by one spouse is matched by an equivalent overreporting by the other spouse. Interesting.

That's the theory. I was primary on a joint broker account once so T5 came with both names but my SIN. All the income was the other joint holder's as I had contributed no money yet to the account, we sent everything off to CRA (hardcopy) as you described, Norman1, with each tax return, and initial reassessments came back accepted, all ok.

The problem happened some months later, when CRA's computer runs its T-slip-to-SIN matching program, and they reassessed me for the "missing" T5 amount with my SIN that was not reported on my return. When I called CRA they said they had no record of everything we'd sent in and insisted I needed to pay or else get the fi to reissue the T5 with the right SIN (which the fi wouldn't do, they just issue with SIN of primary, end of story). Only when we sent CRA all the info again and submitted a T1 Adjustment request to my reassessment, and after I'd made it clear I'd be very happy to meet them in court, especially as it was inconsistent that they weren't offering a credit to the other joint owner who had obviously reported more income than the T-slips issued with their SIN totaled to (?!), did I finally get another reassessment cancelling the previous one plus all the accumulated interest. The amount was large & growing, their Collections department was hounding me regularly. The whole thing took about a year and a half, so now I'm very careful to set things up ahead so that income is reported with the SIN I want as clearly it's the SIN that CRA is fixated on. Perhaps if the amount was small none of this would have happened.

I remember reading or hearing somewhere that it is unwise to assign 0% to a joint owner. The idea was that CRA finds this hard to accept, whether it's a human or a computer, and therefore it is more likely to be questioned.

But I agree with Norman. If it's got your name and your SIN on it, you have to report it, regardless of portion size.

I wish they'd get rid of this silly system of primary and secondary. It means nothing and just adds complications.

You don't have to file the T5 with your return if your share is $0.00

It is optional to include a note

and no "The person who has his SIN on the T5 slip always has to file the T5"

In Bill case , it's more likely at one point in the past years he did report an income from that account (T5).

You are 110% right "CRA agents knew nothing"

A report found that the agency gave wrong answers to their questions nearly 30 per cent of the time.

Norman1 said

agit said
You don't have to file the T5 with your return if your share is $0.00

It is optional to include a note

and no "The person who has his SIN on the T5 slip always has to file the T5"

…

Yes, you do. If one is using software, one has to do the same and enter that one's share is 0%.

You obviously don't know what you're talking about.  

it happen that this is my profession for many years so i do know what i am talking about. how about you? do you know what you're talking about? i dont think you have an idea except guessing

Norman1 said
I trust...and people from RBC Wealth.

RBC WEALTH
This article may contain several
strategies, not all of which will
apply to your particular financial
circumstances. The information in
this article is not intended to provide
legal or tax advice. To ensure that
your own circumstances have been
properly considered and that action is
taken based on the latest information
available, you should obtain
professional advice from a qualified tax
and/or legal advisor before acting on
any of the information in this article

Just for the record, I had not previously used the joint account in question, it was a new-ish account that I hadn't funded yet. Also it wasn't with my wife, that would have made it easier.

My impression is part of the problem was that documentation provided involved a number of paper (hardcopy) documents, including the returns themselves, and all the young folks at CRA seemed to be unfamiliar and uninterested with the process for paper, they were all about e-filing, looking at screens, me doing things electronically, etc. I might be wrong but I got the impression they don't have a proper filing system for paper anymore, their eyes glaze over and only brighten up if you start talking about technology.

semi-retired said
Went to Scrivens financial brokers in Ottawa today & purchased 2 2yr. GIC's.The rate was 5.57% & they were with Windsor Family Credit Union.  

I checked that out today too. Great rate. And solid-looking CU as well.