Making a GIC Joint after purchase | Page 2 | GIC discussions | Discussion forum

That's my understanding of, and experience with, CRA.

I'd be interested to hear if anyone here has reported joint interest split with another person on their 2 separate tax returns (i.e. the secondary person reporting part of the interest without a corresponding T5 with their SIN on it) and then not been subsequently ever questioned by CRA. (Amounts have to be significant, I get that CRA's computer and their agents have an ever-changing threshold below which they don't care, not worth their time.)

Right! As I said in #12 above, the question is about CDIC , not CRA.

But, for those who want to talk about CRA...
If OP changes the ownership of the GIC to joint, then the T5 will surely show joint owners; if questioned, OP will be able to demonstrate that these funds came from a joint account (although we have no info on how the money was acquired or by whom).
This is a one-year GIC, so there are no other years to worry about.

I don't see any evidence to support the assertion that CRA looks only to match SIN and total income received.
Bill has said in the past that he and his wife report joint GIC income as if it were single, with the primary owner reporting all of it. Since this has not been questioned, he has concluded that this is what CRA is looking for.
However, as has been pointed out, interest is meant, by law, to be attributed to contributor and CRA is very aware that joint account can mean two contributors. Whether or how they choose to pursue this is another matter. My experience, as I have explained to Bill in the past, is that splitting the reporting between joint owners does not create any issues with CRA. In my case at least, it is the honest way to go as it reflects our respective contributions. For the first year in which we had joint GIC income, I noted that our accountant automatically split the income 50:50 without asking us, so I conclude this is the default norm.

Loonie said
I wondered about that too. The reason to bother seems to be to enable maximum insurance through CDIC for longest possible time through judicious use of joint and single investments.  

You just have to make sure you remember to change it to joint before dying. If the GIC matures before you die then no harm in having that GIC held either way ...

Making a GIC joint is a lot easier if you have it printed on very thin paper, like the wrappers on tampons.
RetirEd
(GROAN! Sorry, I resisted this yesterday but it came back to haunt me...)

T5s for joint income show SIN for primary only plus both names.

It may be that Bill was only referring to joint savings accounts in terms of how the income was reported, but it doesn't make any difference as the T5s do not distinguish between savings and GICs.

I don't think we should assume that a "small" GIC T5 amount under 10K would not be an issue. To get over $3k annually from a GIC in recent years requires an investment over CDIC limits. For the GIC investor, however, the cumulative total of GIC and savings income from several sources can be substantial.

It may be that CRA only gets interested if there is a significant income discrepancy between joint holders, but we don't know that. While they may not have the SIN of the secondary handy, they will know how much the primary is claiming.
Not all joint accounts are held by couples anyway. Often it's parent and child, who may have significant income disparities - and the source of funds is typically the parent only.

I would say it can be done as long as no interest has been paid out and your spouse is a customer there as well. The question is, will Tangerine do it? I am not a Tangerine customer.