If you have answered “Yes” to any of the above questions, a foreign reporting information return is required to be filed.
Foreign property includes:
- Shares of foreign corporations;
- Interests in foreign trusts;
- Real property (real-estate) outside Canada;
- Foreign mutual funds;
- Precious metals held outside Canada;
- Funds on deposit outside of Canada i.e., foreign bank accounts; and
- Foreign bonds.
Foreign property does not include:
- Personal use property, e.g. Florida Condo;
- Foreign property held in RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, or Canadian mutual funds; and
- Shares of foreign Affiliates (T1134).
Failure to file a T1135 or T1134 by the due date can result in substantial penalties ranging from $25 a day with a minimum penalty of $100, to a maximum of $2,500. In the case of gross negligence, the penalty can be as high as $1,000 a month to a maximum of $24,000. For T1135’s after 24 months, the penalty is 5% of the value of the specified property.
T1135 filing requirements: Please note these important guide on simplified reporting of assets with a cost of less than $250,000 CDN and more than $100,000 CDN (Part A). For individuals with more than $250,000 CDN in foreign assets, the form T1135 (Part B) requires taxpayers to disclose the following information for each property including:
- The name of each foreign bank account or investment must be listed;
- The country for the investment;
- The maximum cost in the year and the cost at the end of the year;
- The income or loss for each investment
- The capital gain or loss on disposition of the investment
Taxpayers’ normal reassessment period will be extended by an additional three years should they fail to report their foreign investments correctly or if they did not file on time. This would extend the statute of limitations to six years from the date of assessment.
A taxpayer who held specified foreign property with a Canadian registered securities dealer (as defined in subsection 248(1) of the ITA) or with a Canadian trust company (as determined under paragraph (b) of the definition of restricted financial institution stated in subsection 248(1) of the ITA) can report the aggregate amount of all such property in category 7, “Property held in an account with a Canadian registered securities dealer or a Canadian trust company.”
The category 7 table should be completed as follows:
- All of the property held with a particular securities dealer or trust company should be aggregated on a country-by-country basis;
- You can provide aggregate totals per country for each account;
- The maximum fair market value during the year may be based on the
- maximum month-end fair market value per country for each account.
Although the fair market value is used for this category, the criteria to determine if a taxpayer held foreign property at any time in 2024 with a total value of more than $100,000 remains based on cost, not the fair market value, pursuant to section 233.3 of the ITA.
Please contact advisor for T1135 report and provide other details of foreign assets within the cost reporting thresh-hold noted above.