Every DRIP share purchase adds to your adjusted cost base. Miss even a few years of DRIP transactions and your ACB is understated — which means you'll report more capital gain than you owe.
Return of capital from Canadian ETFs reduces your adjusted cost base every year it's paid. If you don't track ROC adjustments, your capital gain at sale will be larger than expected.
Canadian tax law requires one pooled ACB for identical securities across all your taxable accounts — not one per brokerage. Here's what that means in practice.
T5008 Box 20 is the number your broker reports — not the number CRA expects you to use. Here's why the difference matters and how to reconcile it.
Canadian investors who hold US-listed stocks must convert proceeds and adjusted cost base to CAD using the Bank of Canada rate on each transaction date — not a flat annual average.
Adjusted cost base is the average cost of your investment across all taxable accounts. Your broker doesn't calculate it for you — here's what it is and why it matters.
ACB fundamentals for Canadian investors: how to calculate adjusted cost base, what changes it, and why accurate tracking reduces capital gains tax.