In canada, does one have to pay taxes for interest earned in a gic investment with Royal Bank of Canada?

also, if i have no work income, no medical expenses, do i even need to declare?

this is my last tax post for the year any help would be much appreciated!

thanks!

Hi Healing, the answer to your question is definitely yes!

You must declare interest even if you didn't receive an interest slip. The interest I am referring to is from GIC's, bank accounts, and refund interest from CRA too, if applicable. You would complete schedule 4 and indicate the interest sources, and report the total amounts indicated from schedule 4 (line 121) to your T1 general income tax return.

If your income is below $8,839.00 federally, and below $8,377.00 provincially (Ontario) then you owe no tax whatsoever.

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tax/individuals...

EDIT @ 6:05 PM MAY 1, 2007

I would strongly recommend filing your 2006 income tax return to claim any tax credits that you may be eligible to receive, such as the GST, provincial tax credits and/or CCTB/UCCB if applicable.

Another excellent reason for filing your tax return would be to keep your data up to date in CRA's database.

I have seen several taxpayers choose not to file in a given year, and if you decided to file the outstanding return at a much later date, you would probably have to do so in a paper format, which can be time consuming.

Best to be compliant and keep everything up to date with CRA to avoid problems in the future.

I hope this information helps you.

Yes you have to claim it as income, although interest is not treated like employment income.
If you truley have NO income you still want to apply for GSt credit, Social Assistance and other programs, and you need to have the current years taxable income for those calculations.
In doing your income taxes the GSt and child and family benefits are how you apply.

If you have no other income, you do not have to declare income, but it might be to your benefit to do so because you will build up RRSP room. Right now the threshold is about $9000 for not having to pay tax, your GIC income is probably below that. but you should still declare the income. But normally, GIC income is fully taxable as normal income.