T5013 Partnership Return: Who Files, When, and What the Boxes Mean

On this page

• Who Has to File a T5013 Partnership Information Return
• The Exemptions: Partnerships That Do Not Have to File
• Deadlines: March 31 vs Five Months After Year End
• Late Filing Penalties and How Fast They Add Up
• What Goes on the T5013 FIN, the Schedules and the Slips
• Received a T5013 Slip? A Box by Box Reporting Guide
• The Boxes That Confuse Investors Most: 104, 105, 113, 118, 128 and 247
• Limited vs General Partners: Different Boxes, Different Treatment
• How Partnership Income Flows to Your T1 or T2
• FAQ: The T5013 Partnership Return
• Have a Partnership? Let Us Handle the T5013 and the Slips

Who Has to File a T5013 Partnership Information Return

There are two completely different people reading this page, so let us split them up right away.

You received a T5013 slip from an investment and have no idea what to do with it. Skip to the box by box section. The short version: a partnership does not pay tax itself. It reports its income and allocates your share to you, and you report that share on your own return, even if you never received a cent of cash.

Now the detail on both.

A partnership has to file if any one of these is true.

Size tests

Test	Threshold
Revenue plus expenses, absolute values, worldwide	More than $2 million
Assets, worldwide, at cost	More than $5 million

Note the word absolute. You add total revenues and total expenses together, you do not net them. A partnership with $1.2 million of revenue and $1.1 million of expenses is at $2.3 million and has to file, even though the profit is only $100,000. This catches a lot of people by surprise.

Structural tests, at any time in the fiscal period

• A corporation or a trust was a partner
• The partnership was part of a tiered structure, meaning it had a partnership as a partner or was itself a partner in another partnership
• It invested in flow through shares of a principal business corporation that renounced Canadian resource expenses to it
• The Minister requested a return in writing

That first bullet is the one that catches most real world partnerships in BC. The moment one partner incorporates and holds their interest through a company, the filing obligation appears, regardless of size.

 

The Exemptions: Partnerships That Do Not Have to File

• Small partnerships of individuals that fall under both size thresholds and have no corporate or trust partner, no tiered structure and no flow through shares. This is the large majority of two person businesses.
• Partnerships where all members are registered or entitled to be registered under the Indian Act, where all income is earned at a permanent establishment on a reserve.

Even when no T5013 is required, the partnership still has to compute its income at the partnership level and each partner still reports their share. Not filing the information return does not mean there is nothing to do. It means CRA is not asking for the summary.

A final return is due the earlier of 90 days after the business ceases and the normal filing date.

 

Deadlines: March 31 vs Five Months After Year End

Who the partners are, throughout the fiscal period	Due date
All individuals or trusts	March 31 of the following calendar year
All corporations	Five months after the end of the fiscal period
A mix of the two	The earlier of the two dates above

That last row is the trap. A partnership with a December 31 year end and both an individual and a corporate partner is due March 31, not May 31. People assume the corporate deadline applies because a corporation is involved. It is the opposite: the mixed case gets the earlier date.

 

Late Filing Penalties and How Fast They Add Up

Late filing the return: the penalty is $25 per day, with a minimum of $100 and a maximum of $2,500. That maximum is reached in 100 days, so a return that is four months late is at the cap.

Failing to file electronically when required: partnerships filing more than 5 slips must file electronically. The penalty for not doing so is fixed by volume.

Number of slips	Penalty
6 to 50	$125
51 to 250	$250
251 to 500	$500
501 to 2,500	$1,500
More than 2,500	$2,500

The bigger cost is usually indirect. Partners cannot complete their own returns without the slips. A late T5013 means every corporate partner files a late or estimated T2 and every individual partner files a late T1, each with their own penalties and interest. A $2,500 partnership penalty routinely becomes five figures once it cascades.

 

What Goes on the T5013 FIN, the Schedules and the Slips

The “T5013 return” is not one form. It is a package.

Form	What it does
T5013 FIN	The partnership financial return, the cover form
T5013 SCH 1	Net income or loss for tax purposes, the reconciliation from book to tax
T5013 SCH 50	Partner information, including each partner’s share and at risk amount
T5013 SCH 100	Balance sheet information
T5013 SCH 125	Income statement information
T5013 SCH 141	Notes checklist, who prepared the financial statements and on what basis
T5013 SUM	Summary of partnership income
T5013 slips	One per partner, showing their allocated share

Other schedules come into play depending on activity: Schedule 8 for capital cost allowance, Schedule 6 for dispositions of capital property, Schedule 9 for related and associated partnerships, Schedule 52 for resource properties.

Schedules 1, 50, 100, 125 and 141 are the mandatory core. If you are preparing this yourself and skipping any of them, the return is incomplete.

 

Received a T5013 Slip? A Box by Box Reporting Guide

Here is the practical map from slip box to the line on your return.

Box	What it is	Where it goes on a T1
104	Limited partner’s net business income or loss	Line 12200
105	Limited partner’s at risk amount	Nowhere. Reconciliation only
106	Adjusted at risk amount	Reconciliation only
107 / 110	Net rental income or loss	Form T776, then line 12600
113	Return of capital	Nowhere on income. Reduces the ACB of your interest
114	Other income	Line 13000
116	Business income or loss (general partner)	Form T2125, then line 12200
118	Gross business income	Line 13499
120 / 121	Professional income and gross professional income	T2125, lines 13700 and 13699
122 / 123	Commission income and gross commission	T2125, lines 13900 and 13899
128	Interest from Canadian sources	Line 12100
129 / 130	Non eligible dividends, actual and taxable	Dividend lines, with the credit in box 134
132 / 133	Eligible dividends, actual and taxable	Dividend lines, with the credit in box 134
134	Dividend tax credit	Line 40425
151	Capital gains or losses	Schedule 3, line 17400
210	Total carrying charges	Line 22100
247	Variable A, interest and financing expenses (EIFEL)	T2 SCH 130 for corporations, T3 SCH 130 for trusts

 

The Boxes That Confuse Investors Most: 104, 105, 113, 118, 128 and 247

Box 104 vs box 116. Both are business income. Box 104 is for a limited partner, box 116 for a general partner. They go to the same line on your T1, but the loss rules are completely different, which is why the partnership separates them.

Box 105, the at risk amount. This is the number that stops you from doing what people used to do with tax shelters: claiming losses far exceeding what they actually put in. As a limited partner, your deductible loss is capped at your at risk amount. Do not enter box 105 anywhere as income. It is there so the software and CRA can check that the loss in box 104 is allowable. Losses you cannot deduct this year become limited partnership losses carried forward indefinitely, usable only against future income from that same partnership.

Box 113, return of capital. The single most misreported box. It is not income. It is the partnership handing back some of your own money. You reduce the adjusted cost base of your partnership units by that amount. Ignore it for years and your ACB will be far higher than it should be, so when you eventually sell you will understate your capital gain. If the ACB goes negative, that negative amount is treated as a capital gain in the year.

Box 118, gross business income. This is not a second helping of income. It is the gross figure that supports the net income in box 104 or 116, required on line 13499 because CRA wants gross and net both. Enter it. Do not panic that you are being taxed twice; you are not.

Box 128, Canadian interest. Ordinary interest income, fully taxable, line 12100. No gross up, no credit.

Box 247. This one appeared with the excessive interest and financing expenses limitation rules. It only matters to corporate and trust partners, who take it into Schedule 130. An individual receiving a slip with an amount in box 247 can generally ignore it, but check with whoever prepares your return rather than assuming.

Maxpro Financials prepares partnership returns and the resulting partner filings together, which is the only way to keep a slip and the return that consumes it consistent.

 

Limited vs General Partners: Different Boxes, Different Treatment

	General partner	Limited partner
Business income box	116	104
Liability	Unlimited, personally	Limited to the investment
Loss deductibility	Generally full, subject to the usual rules	Capped at the at risk amount
Excess losses	Ordinary non capital loss treatment	Become limited partnership losses, carried forward indefinitely, usable only against income from that same partnership
Typical situation	Operating business partnerships	Real estate syndications, flow through funds, private funds

If you invested in a limited partnership expecting the losses to shelter your employment income, box 105 is where that expectation goes to be tested.

 

How Partnership Income Flows to Your T1 or T2

The sequence is always the same:

1. The partnership computes income at the partnership level, including CCA, and does so for tax purposes rather than book purposes.
2. That income is allocated to partners per the partnership agreement, whether or not any cash is distributed.
3. Each partner reports their allocated share on their own return, keeping the character of the income. Capital gains stay capital gains, dividends stay dividends, interest stays interest.
4. Each partner tracks their own adjusted cost base in the partnership interest: increased by income allocated and capital contributed, decreased by losses allocated and draws or returns of capital taken.

Point 2 is the one that stings. You can be taxed on $40,000 of allocated income in a year where the partnership distributed nothing, because it reinvested. That is normal and it is why cash flow planning around partnership investments matters.

Point 4 is the one everyone forgets until they sell. Nobody tracks ACB for you. If you have held units for eight years and never adjusted the base, reconstructing it from eight years of slips is a genuinely unpleasant afternoon.

 

FAQ: The T5013 Partnership Return

Does a partnership pay tax? No. It files an information return and allocates income to the partners, who pay the tax on their own returns.

We are two individuals in a small partnership. Do we file a T5013? Probably not, if you are under both size thresholds with no corporate partner and no tiered structure. You still each report your share of the income.

One of my partners just incorporated. Does that change anything? Yes. A corporation as a partner triggers the filing requirement regardless of size.

What is the deadline if we have both individual and corporate partners? The earlier of March 31 and five months after the fiscal period end. For a December year end that is March 31.

I got a T5013 but no cash. Do I still pay tax? Yes. Allocation, not distribution, is what triggers the tax.

What do I do with box 113? Reduce the adjusted cost base of your partnership interest. It is not income and it does not go on an income line.

Why is box 105 so much bigger than box 104? Box 105 is your at risk amount, an investment measure, not income. It exists to test how much loss you are allowed to claim.

Can I deduct a limited partnership loss against my salary? Only up to your at risk amount. Anything above that becomes a limited partnership loss, carried forward and usable only against future income from that same partnership.

What is the penalty for filing the T5013 late? $25 per day, minimum $100, maximum $2,500, plus electronic filing penalties. The larger cost is usually the knock on effect on every partner’s own return.

Do I need to file a T5013 for a joint venture? A true joint venture is not a partnership and does not file one. The distinction is legal, not cosmetic, and it is worth getting right before the first return rather than after.

 

Have a Partnership? Let Us Handle the T5013 and the Slips

The T5013 is one of those returns where the preparation is not hard but the coordination is. The partnership return has to be right before any partner can file, the allocations have to match the agreement, and the at risk and ACB tracking has to carry forward year over year or it quietly falls apart.

Maxpro Financials prepares partnership information returns and the partners’ T1s and T2s together for businesses and investment partnerships across BC and Alberta, including ACB tracking so the numbers still make sense when the interest is eventually sold. If you received a T5013 slip from an investment and are not sure what half of it means, send it over and we will tell you what actually has to go on your return.

Book a consultation or call BC +1 (778) 951 1269 / Alberta +1 (403) 437 6016.