Investment Bookkeeping
Bookkeeping for investment holding companies and investors in Calgary, with organized records of holdings, dispositions, adjusted cost base and investment income.
An investment holding company has different bookkeeping needs from an operating business. There are fewer sales and expenses, but each transaction carries more weight: a purchase sets the cost base, a sale creates a capital gain or loss, and every dividend and interest payment has to be recorded in the right category.
We work from your brokerage statements, trade confirmations and bank records to keep a clear record of what the company owns and what it has sold. That includes tracking adjusted cost base as positions are bought, sold, split or reinvested, recording capital gains and losses on each disposition, and separating interest, eligible and non-eligible dividends, and foreign income. At year end we reconcile the T5, T3 and T5008 slips you receive against the records so the figures used for the corporate tax return agree with what the institutions reported to the CRA.
This service is bookkeeping and record preparation. We do not recommend, buy or sell investments, and we do not manage portfolios. We work alongside your investment advisor, who makes the investment decisions, and we keep the records those decisions produce in order.
What's Included
- Recording of investment purchases, sales and transfers across brokerage and bank accounts
- Adjusted cost base tracking for each holding, including reinvested distributions
- Capital gains and losses records for each disposition
- Reconciliation of T5, T3 and T5008 slips against the investment records
- Year-end reporting for investment holding companies, ready for the corporate tax return
FAQ
Why does adjusted cost base matter so much?
The adjusted cost base is what a capital gain or loss is measured against when an investment is sold. If it is wrong, the gain reported on the tax return is wrong. Brokerage statements do not always track it correctly, particularly after transfers between institutions or reinvested distributions, so we keep our own record.
Do the slips from my brokerage not already cover this?
Slips report the income and proceeds the institution paid out, but they do not always include an accurate cost base and they arrive after year end. Reconciling them against the bookkeeping records catches missing slips, duplicates and cost base differences before the tax return is prepared.
Will you advise on which investments to hold?
No. Investment Bookkeeping covers record keeping and reporting only. For questions about how investment income is taxed, see Investment & Tax Advisory. Investment decisions remain with you and your investment advisor.
Need help with Investment Bookkeeping?
Tell A4SB about your accounting needs and we can discuss the support that may be relevant to your situation.