Is a GIC Taxable in Canada?
Yes, when you hold it in a non-registered account. The interest is fully taxable, taxed at your marginal rate. The Canada Revenue Agency taxes it every year as it builds up, before the GIC matures. Hold the same GIC inside a TFSA, RRSP, RRIF, or FHSA and that interest is sheltered.
Non-registered account
Taxed every year
Interest is fully taxable at your marginal rate, reported annually as it accrues.
TFSA
Never taxed
Interest is tax-free inside the account and tax-free on withdrawal. It stays off your return.
RRSP · RRIF · FHSA
Sheltered in the plan
No yearly tax while it stays in the plan. Taxed as income on withdrawal for RRSP and RRIF, or tax-free for a qualifying FHSA home purchase.
The direct answer
A GIC held outside a registered account is fully taxable
Many credit unions call these products term deposits, and some banks use that name too. The Canada Revenue Agency treats GICs and term deposits as the same kind of investment, so every rule on this page applies to both.
Interest from a guaranteed investment certificate is fully taxable as income. It lands on line 12100 of your return alongside bank and term-deposit interest, and it is taxed at the same marginal rate as the next dollar of your salary.
Interest carries none of the relief that softens other investment income: there is no fifty percent inclusion the way there is for capital gains, and no dividend tax credit. A dollar of GIC interest costs you more tax than a dollar of capital gains on the same amount.
Two people holding an identical GIC can keep different amounts of it. Someone with a lower income hands less of the interest to the CRA than someone whose income already sits in a higher bracket. The estimator below puts real numbers on that gap for your own province and income.
How the three are taxed
- GIC / interest income100% included
- Capital gains50% included
- Eligible dividendsDividend tax credit
Interest gets the least favourable treatment of the three.
The timing rule
Interest is taxed every year, before the GIC matures
A multi-year GIC is taxed before you have received a cent of the money. The CRA requires you to report the interest each year as it is earned, measured over the contract's own investment year, even on a compound GIC that pays out everything at the end. A five-year compound GIC produces a taxable amount in all five years.
The clock runs from the contract's anniversary. Buy a GIC on July 1 and the interest earned up to June 30 goes on that year's return; the stretch from the next July to the following June goes on the year after. Your financial institution tracks this and reports it on a T5, so the amount you include each year matches the slip even though no cash has reached your account yet.
Year 1
interest taxed
Year 2
interest taxed
Year 3
interest taxed
Year 4
interest taxed
Year 5
interest taxed
Maturity
cash paid out
A five-year compound GIC: the CRA taxes each year's interest as it accrues, even though the cash arrives only at maturity.
Estimate it
What the tax costs you
Enter a GIC and your situation. The marginal rate comes from the 2026 federal and provincial brackets the rest of this site runs on, applied to the income you enter. Switch the account type to see how much of the interest the tax treatment hands back to you.
Marginal rate applied
29.6%
Tax over the full term
$1,606
Tax on year one
$297
due before any payout
After-tax yield
2.88%
posted 4.00%
On a 4% GIC, 29.6% tax turns the posted return into 2.88% after tax. The year-one bill is owed even though the GIC has paid out nothing yet.
Estimate only. It applies one marginal rate to the interest using the income you enter; a full return can move the result if the interest crosses a bracket. The numbers run on the same CRA tax engine as the site's other calculators.
Inside a registered account
The same GIC, sheltered
Inside a registered account the GIC is the same product earning the same rate; only the tax treatment changes.
TFSA
Tax-free, in and out
Interest is tax-free. It never appears on your return, and you can withdraw it tax-free whenever you want. For a GIC, this is the cleanest shelter available.
RRSP and RRIF
Deferred, taxed on withdrawal
Interest is not taxed while it stays in the plan. It is taxed as regular income when you withdraw it, or when an RRSP becomes a RRIF and pays out in retirement.
FHSA
Tax-free for a first home
Interest grows without yearly tax. A qualifying withdrawal to buy a first home comes out tax-free, including the growth, if every condition is met.
RESP
Sheltered, taxed on payout
GIC interest builds up untaxed in the plan. It is taxed when paid out: as an Educational Assistance Payment in the student's hands, or as an Accumulated Income Payment to the subscriber if school does not happen.
A closer look: a GIC inside an RESP
A GIC is a common conservative RESP holding. Inside the plan, the GIC interest builds up untaxed, and the tax happens when the money is paid out.
Your contributions come back to you tax-free. The GIC interest, together with the Canada Education Savings Grant and any other government grants, is paid to the student as an Educational Assistance Payment and reported on a T4A. The student includes it in income for the year they receive it, often at a low rate because a student usually has little other income.
If the child does not pursue eligible post-secondary studies, the accumulated interest can instead be paid to you as an Accumulated Income Payment, taxed as regular income plus an additional 20 percent (12 percent for residents of Quebec). You can shelter up to a $50,000 lifetime maximum from that by moving it into your RRSP or related plan room, if you meet the conditions.
Your contributions
Returned to you tax-free.
Interest and grants
Paid to the student as an EAP, taxed in the student's hands.
If post-secondary doesn't happen
Interest can return to you as an AIP: income tax plus 20 percent (12 percent in Quebec), or rolled into RRSP room up to $50,000.
Reporting
The T5 slip and the $50 reporting line
When the interest paid to you in a year reaches $50 or more, your financial institution sends a T5 slip and files a copy with the CRA. The amount goes on line 12100 of your return.
A small GIC can earn under $50 in a year and produce no slip. The income is still taxable. You report interest you were paid or credited even when no slip arrives, and the CRA already has the institution's filing to match against.
Joint and gifted GICs
Who reports the interest on a shared GIC
On a joint GIC, the interest is divided for tax by how much each owner contributed. A GIC funded entirely from one spouse's money is generally that spouse's interest to report in full, even when both names sit on the account.
Moving money to a lower-income spouse so the interest is taxed in their hands runs into the attribution rules, which generally send that interest back to the spouse who provided the funds. Holding the GIC inside a registered plan sidesteps the problem, since there is no annual interest to attribute back.
One owner funded it
That owner reports all of the interest.
Both contributed
Each reports their share by contribution.
Funds gifted to a spouse
Attribution sends the interest back to the giver.
Holding GICs tax-efficiently
Put the most heavily taxed money in the shelter first
GIC interest is taxed at your full marginal rate with no break, which makes it one of the better things to shelter. If you hold both a GIC and investments that already get lighter treatment, the GIC is usually the one that belongs inside the TFSA or RRSP, and the lighter-taxed holdings can sit outside.
A credit union GIC inside a TFSA keeps the interest tax-free, and credit union GIC rates often run ahead of the Big Five.
Common questions
GIC tax, answered
A tax-free GIC starts with the right account
Hold a GIC inside a TFSA and the interest stays yours. Credit union GIC rates frequently run ahead of the Big Five, so the shelter and the rate can work together.