Canadian Registered-Account Tax Guide

Every stock report on Travis Valuation includes a registered-account comparison table for dividend-paying tickers — not just TSX-listed ones, since the most useful comparison is often a US stock held across Canadian account types. It shows the same stated dividend yield taxed under Non-Registered/TFSA/FHSA/RRSP/RESP rules side by side. This page explains the numbers behind that table.

This table has no “best account” output. Every row is a fact about how that account type is taxed — not a recommendation for where to hold anything.

Reference case

All figures below are for an Ontario resident in the top tax bracket, at 2026 rates. The research page's table starts there too, until you choose your own province or territory and income. This will not match most people's actual province or bracket; the point is to show the relative shape of how each account type is taxed, not to be a personal tax estimate.

The numbers, at 2026 rates

• Capital gains inclusion rate: 50%. The federal government's proposed increase to 2/3 was cancelled in March 2025.
• Eligible-dividend effective rate: 39.34% (38% gross-up plus the federal 15.02% dividend tax credit and Ontario's provincial credits combined).
• Ontario top ordinary marginal rate: 53.53% — the rate foreign (e.g. US) dividends are taxed at in a non-registered account, since they don't qualify for the Canadian dividend tax credit.
• US withholding tax: 15%, under Article X of the Canada-US Tax Treaty, on dividends paid by a US company. RRSPs and RRIFs get a full exemption from this withholding under Article XXI(2) of the treaty, for US stocks and US-listed funds they hold directly. TFSAs, FHSAs and RESPs do not, and a Canadian-listed fund holding US stocks pays the withholding inside the fund in every account, an RRSP included. In a non-registered account the 15% is credited against Canadian tax, but only up to the tax on that income at your average rate, so at lower incomes part of it isn't recovered.
• FHSA (First Home Savings Account, 2023–) is treated like a TFSA for this table's purposes: no Canadian tax on income while held, and — like a TFSA or RESP — not covered by the RRSP treaty exemption, so the same 15% US withholding applies. That tax-free treatment holds for a qualifying withdrawal (buying a first home); a non-qualifying withdrawal is instead taxed as ordinary income, the same as an RRSP withdrawal.

How the table decides where a dividend comes from

The table decides whether a dividend is Canadian, US or from another country by where the company is legally based, read from its ISIN, not by the currency its shares trade in, so TD's dividends count as Canadian on the NYSE too. A few kinds of listing get no figures, because their payouts follow rules the table doesn't model: limited partnerships, Canadian depositary receipts, funds whose names don't say what they hold, and listings other than common or preferred shares. Where a company's details aren't on file yet, the table falls back to the listing currency and says so. Always confirm a specific company's tax residency before relying on the withholding row.

Not a substitute for professional advice

This table is a reference, not tax advice. Tax rules and rates change, your actual bracket and province almost certainly differ from the Ontario/top-bracket reference case shown, and account-type decisions depend on your full financial picture. Speak with a qualified tax professional or financial advisor before making decisions based on anything on this page or in the app.