This is a first check, not a filing decision. Rules have exceptions, and the penalty for filing late can be $25 a day, up to $2,500, even when no tax is owed. For your own situation, read the CRA's T1135 page or ask a tax professional.
What counts
Usually counts
- Money in bank accounts outside Canada
- Shares of foreign companies (US stocks, for example), even when held in a Canadian non-registered brokerage account
- Rental or investment property outside Canada
- Money owed to you by someone outside Canada
- Interests in foreign funds and trusts
Usually doesn't
- Anything held inside an RRSP, TFSA, RRIF or RESP
- Property used mainly for personal use, such as a holiday home you don't rent out
- Property used only in an active business you run
- Canadian mutual funds and ETFs, even when they hold foreign stocks
- Shares of a foreign affiliate (reported on a different form)
What you hold, at cost
Use what you paid (the cost amount), not today's market value, at the highest point of the year. Labels stay in your browser; nothing you type is sent anywhere except a currency code, to fetch today's rate.
Add what you hold outside Canada to see where you stand.
The two lines
- $100,000. Over it at any time in the year, total cost of specified foreign property: you file T1135 with your return, by its due date.
- $250,000. Under it all year: the simplified method (Part A, a checkbox per type of property) is available. Over it at any time: the detailed method (Part B, property by property).
Orbiq keeps each foreign account in its own currency and records the rate on the day money moved, so the cost of what you sent abroad is a figure you can look up, not a reconstruction in April. How to track it through the year →
Track every transfer automatically. Orbiq keeps both your countries in one ledger and prices every transfer against the mid-market rate on its own day.