I had a folder for tax slips and a different folder for bank statements. That arrangement nearly hid $18.42 of interest from an ordinary savings account.
No T5 had arrived. I assumed that meant the amount was too small to matter, until I checked what the threshold actually described.
No slip does not mean no income
A T5 may not be issued when total investment income is below $50, but taxable interest still has to be reported. For an ordinary bank account, use the interest paid or credited for the year, even without a slip. CRA's interest-income instructions.
I reviewed the annual statement and added the monthly interest entries to check the total. I kept the calculation with the statement and marked the amount as not already included on another slip. That last step mattered: I wanted to include the interest once, not twice.
This example concerns a non-registered savings account. Interest within a TFSA or another registered plan has different rules; the word "savings" in an account nickname does not identify its tax treatment.
Check ownership and timing
For a joint account, the interest is generally allocated according to contributions to the account, rather than automatically split in half. Keep records of the money contributed. Transfers between family members can introduce attribution rules.
Term deposits and compound GICs can also have annual interest-reporting requirements before the cash is paid at maturity. A bank-statement cash total is therefore not a universal method for every investment.
My $18.42 needed a simple statement entry and a note. It didn't need a fabricated T5 or a guess about the bank's reporting system. I changed my checklist from "collect all slips" to "collect slips and check the accounts that may not issue one."
Checked October 20, 2026. For a slip expected from an employer, see missing T4s.
