Running your business as a partnership lets you share the workload and the profits. But it also means you have to understand and follow the rules on reporting partnership income established by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). The rules are surprisingly simple in most cases, but you may have some extra reporting requirements as your partnership starts to earn more money or accumulate more assets. Part of the requirements may include filling out form T5013. Find out whether or not your business needs to complete this form before tax season to help you avoid any missed paperwork.

What Is Form T5013?

Form T5013  is a Partnership Information Return form certain  businesses run as partnerships  use. This form is only for informational purposes. It lets the CRA double-check to make sure all of the partners report income correctly. It doesn’t serve as your actual tax return, and it doesn’t help calculate your tax liability. The form includes fields for partnership income and expenses, members of the partnership, and details on each partner’s share in the organization. For example, you might share the business equally with one partner, so each of you have 50% of the business. Or you might choose a different split, such as 70% and 30%. When you fill out this form, you need to know your share in the company to fill out the form correctly.

Who Needs to File Form T5013?

Not all partnerships need to file this form. You only need to file it if you meet certain partnership reporting requirements. Those requirements include:

• You’re a tiered partnership where one of the partners is in another partnership or your partnership serves as a partner in another partnership
• One of the partners is a corporation or a trust
• Your partnership invested in flow-through shares for a principal-business corporation incurring Canadian resource expenses
• You get a written request from the minister of national revenue to complete the form
• Your partnership has more than $5 million in worldwide assets or if the absolute value of revenues plus the absolute value of expenses is more than $2 million at the end of the fiscal period. For example, if you collect $1.5 million in revenue and you have $600,000 in expenses, these numbers add to $2.1 million — meaning you have to file Form T5013.

The requirements apply to any Canadian partnerships with foreign or domestic operations or investments as well as non-Canadian partnerships that do business in Canada.

Completing Form T5013

To fill out the form, you need a Business Number (BN) and an RZ Program Identifier. If you don’t already have a BN, you first need to register for one. You can do that online through the  Business Registration Online  service. You can also register for the RZ program when you get your BN, either online or by mail. If you prefer to register by mail, you can fill out form RC1 Request for a Business Number and Certain Program Accounts.

Filing Form T5013

The CRA lets you file form T5013 online through a secure system that encrypts your information. You get confirmation within minutes of submitting online, so you know when the CRA receives your form. If you notice any errors in what you submit, you can submit amendments to the form online as well. You also have the option to fill out a paper version, which you mail to the appropriate tax centre for processing. This option takes longer because of the mailing time and the manual processing once the CRA receives it.

Knowing whether or not you need to complete form T5013 and report partnership income before you start preparing your taxes makes the process easier. QuickBooks Online can help you maximize your tax deductions. Keep more of what you earn today.