T1135 maximum cost amount

Tax Topics
1

In T1135 (https://www.canada.ca/content/dam/cra-arc/formspubs/pbg/t1135/t1135-22e.pdf), Part B 1 “maximum fund held during the year” is not defined in the “instructions part” but “the maximum cost amount” was defined as “the maximum month-end cost amount”

My difficulty is that many of my home country bank statement date is not month-end but usually in the middle of a calendar month or even the first week of a calendar month.

Is if ok if I use the value shown in the monthly bank statements for finding out the maximum cost amount, regardless whether the statement date is at the month-end or Mid-month as long as the statements of a particular bank is released regularly?

Similarly, can I use the value shown in my December statements to be the “ Funds held at year-end” even though it’s not exactly on 31/12?

Thanks in advance!

2

Could you not check the next month’s bank statement to get the correct month-end amount?

3

Yes but I have too many accounts as even one single bank can have more than 10 accounts which make it quite difficult to get the right one

I also notice “maximum fund” is not defined in the form and the value only reflect asset while not taxable so I wonder if the rules is that strict and need so much effort for a value that won’t affect the taxable income.

4

I doubt that you have to figure out the maximum balance for each day of the year, to the penny. It’s not like CRA can verify those amounts without going through a lot of international red tape. But, you should make an effort to provide a reasonable, verifiable value. If you have bank statements, use the value that shows the highest balance. If CRA asks for supporting documents, you can provide a copy of that statement which matches the number you provided.

If you’re wondering why we have to give that information at all, here’s CRA’s answer:

The objectives of this reporting requirement are:

  1. to enhance compliance with tax laws that require reporting of foreign-source income
  2. to increase taxpayers’ awareness of these laws
  3. to provide information to the CRA for the purpose of verifying taxpayers’ compliance with these laws
  4. to better target international tax evasion and aggressive tax avoidance
1 Like
5

Thanks for reply. Yes I also think it makes more sense to provide a figure that can easily match with the monthly statement balance instead of doing a lot of counting just to make it absolutely month-end figures which will easily get wrong

I am struggling about the year-end figure, whether I should use the same approach

6

Download the bank accounts to Excel for the year Jan 1 - Dec 31. One formula to give you the max value and you have the Dec 31 value at hand.
Takes about 5 minutes per bank account

7

Thanks for reply. I wish I could do that but the format of some is not quite compatible to convert to csv and some are even paper statements