The T1135 trips people up not because it's conceptually hard, but because the answer depends on records most people never keep during the year — and then scramble to reconstruct in the spring. The fix is boring and effective: track a couple of numbers per foreign account, month by month, so the threshold question is answerable at any moment. This guide is about that habit.
What the form is asking, in plain terms
At a high level, the T1135 concerns specified foreign property with a total cost base over $100,000 CAD. (Treat that figure as the headline threshold to organize around, and verify the current amount and exactly what counts on the CRA page linked above before you rely on it.) The practical implication for record-keeping is simple: you need to know, across all your foreign holdings, what they cost you in Canadian dollars — and to have enough detail to discuss balances through the year. That's an organizational problem, and organizational problems have organizational solutions.
The method: two numbers per foreign account
For each foreign account or holding — a US brokerage, an Indian bank account, a foreign-held mutual fund — keep:
- Cost base in CAD. What you paid to acquire the property, converted to Canadian dollars at the rate on the acquisition date. This is a fact fixed at purchase; record it once and don't lose it.
- Month-end balance. The value (or balance) at each month-end, so you can see the shape of the year rather than one blurry snapshot.
Keep those per account, and the "am I near the threshold?" question stops being a spring panic and becomes a glance.
A worked example: keeping the running picture
Suppose you hold two foreign assets and record their CAD cost base as you acquire them:
| Foreign holding | CAD cost base |
|---|---|
| US brokerage account | $62,000 |
| Indian savings + deposits | $41,000 |
| Running total cost base | $103,000 |
Because you tracked cost base per account as you went, you can see the combined figure crossed the $100,000 CAD headline threshold — the exact moment the question "does the T1135 apply to me?" becomes one worth taking to your tax professional. Without the running total, you'd only discover this while assembling a return under time pressure. (Confirm the current threshold and applicability on the CRA page; this example is about organization, not a determination that you must file.)
Why month-end balances, not just year-end
A single year-end number hides how you got there. Month-end balances let you and your advisor see whether a holding was above a threshold during the year, spot the FX swings that moved a CAD-converted balance, and reconstruct acquisition timing without digging through raw statements. It's the difference between a summary you trust and one you hope is right.
The FX detail people forget
Foreign holdings live in a foreign currency, but the records that matter here are in Canadian dollars — and the conversion isn't a single rate you apply once. Cost base is fixed at the CAD value on the day you acquired the property; a month-end balance uses the CAD rate at that month-end. Mixing those up is the most common record-keeping error: valuing an old holding at today's rate, or valuing every month at year-end's rate. Keep the rate tied to the right date for the right purpose, and store it alongside the amount so you can always show your work. This is exactly why keeping the original-currency figure and the applicable historical rate together — rather than an already-converted lump — makes the records durable and checkable.
Where Orbiq helps
Orbiq is a personal-finance app, not a tax filer, and it does not decide your obligations. What it does do is the record-keeping this guide describes: it holds transactions in their original currency, applies the historical FX rate at the time of each transaction, and keeps per-account history — so cost base and month-end balances for foreign accounts are already captured rather than reconstructed. The features page covers the multi-currency and FX engine; the home page has the overview. When it's time to actually assess or file, take those tidy records to a professional and to the CRA's T1135 page.