Is the Wealthsimple referral bonus taxable in Canada?

Start with what Wealthsimple’s terms actually say

Start with the provider’s own wording. The standard referral terms (effective June 8, 2026, last updated September 11, 2026) contain a short tax section. It says, in plain words, that there are tax implications to bonuses of this nature in most instances, that clients should consult an accountant or tax professional, and that Wealthsimple will not be issuing a tax slip for bonuses paid to a non-registered account. The same clause ends with “Clients are solely responsible for any required tax reporting.”

Three things follow from that paragraph. The provider is not promising the money is tax-free. It is not going to send you paperwork about it. And it is leaving the reporting decision with you. The $25 is paid to a Chequing account, which Wealthsimple lists among its non-registered accounts, so the no-slip sentence is the one that applies to a normal referral payout.

Notice what the terms do not say. They do not call the bonus interest, income from property or other income, and they do not name a line on the return. That silence is why the rest of this article leans on CRA material rather than on the provider.

No slip does not mean no reporting

It is tempting to treat the absence of a slip as the answer. The CRA does not see it that way. Its line 12100 guidance states that you may not receive a T5 when total investment income is under $50, “but you must still report the income.” The line 13000 page describes that line as the place for “any taxable income that is not reported or should not be reported elsewhere on your return.” Wealthsimple’s own help article on reporting interest without a T5 repeats the same expectation for small amounts.

The slip thresholds explain why nothing arrives. Under the CRA’s T5 guide, a payer does not prepare a T5 when the year’s total to one recipient is under $50, and the guide’s list of reportable payments covers dividends, interest and royalties rather than promotional bonuses. The T4A rules only require a slip, as a matter of administrative policy, when other payments to one person exceed $500 in a year. A $25 referral bonus sits well below both. The threshold governs the paperwork, not the character of the payment.

So the honest framing is this: Wealthsimple says tax implications exist in most cases, the CRA says report taxable income with or without a slip, and neither document tells you the precise line. Keep that gap in mind when a referral site states the answer as if it were settled.

Gift, windfall or something you earned?

The CRA publishes the tests it applies to one-off receipts in Income Tax Folio S3-F9-C1. A windfall is not taxed, but the folio lists the factors it weighs: the taxpayer had no enforceable claim to the payment, neither sought nor solicited it, and did not earn it through an activity or pursuit of gain. A gift needs a voluntary transfer with nothing given in return.

Hold a referral bonus against that list. The referee signs up, applies a code and moves at least $100 of external money within 30 days. The referrer shares the code and must have a funded account. Both have a contractual claim under published terms once the conditions are met. The referrer, at least, has plainly solicited the payment. The folio on registered-plan advantages, S3-F10-C3, goes further and says in so many words that it is the controlling individual who earns a referral bonus, not the plan. Those are the CRA’s own descriptions, and they point away from “gift” and “windfall.”

What the CRA has not done is publish a page, folio paragraph or technical interpretation that rules on a bank or brokerage referral bonus paid to a non-registered account. A search of canada.ca and the public interpretation archives turns up registered-plan material and nothing specific to a Chequing payout. That is the uncertainty worth stating plainly, and it is the reason the terms say “in most instances” rather than “always.”

Where a reported bonus would go, and what it is not

The bonus is not interest. Interest is paid for the use of money over time; the referral bonus is a fixed payment for completing a set of actions. That rules out treating it like the Chequing interest that appears on a T5 when the year’s total reaches $50. Among the lines the CRA describes, line 13000 is the catch-all for taxable income that belongs nowhere else, which is why third-party pages usually name it. The CRA’s list of line 13000 examples does not mention referral bonuses, so treat that placement as the common reading rather than a published instruction, and confirm it with the CRA or a tax professional before filing.

A fictional example

Priya applies a code on October 1, funds a TFSA with $150 from her bank on October 9 and sees a $25 bonus in her Chequing account on November 2. In February she looks for a slip and finds none, because none is issued. She notes the date, the amount and a copy of the terms, and raises it with the person who prepares her return. Separately, the interest her Chequing balance earns from November onward is ordinary interest and follows the usual T5 and line 12100 rules. Nothing in this example is a filing instruction; it shows the records that make the question easy to answer.

Two claims you will see elsewhere are not supported by any CRA document we could find: a specific dollar “tax cost” of the bonus, and statements about how likely the CRA is to check small amounts. The first depends entirely on your marginal rate and whether the amount is reported at all. The second is a guess about enforcement, not a rule.

If a bonus lands in a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA

This is where the CRA has been specific. Wealthsimple’s referral confirmation article says that if a bonus is deposited into a registered account such as an RRSP or TFSA, it is reported to the CRA as a contribution, that you are responsible for monitoring room and any excess-contribution penalties, and that a bonus already applied to a registered account cannot be reversed. The CRA’s advantages folio agrees: where an individual directs a referral bonus into their registered plan, the payment is treated as a contribution or premium to that plan.

Two consequences matter. First, the bonus uses contribution room in that account, which is a problem only if room is tight. Second, the folio’s exception for promotional incentives offered to a broad class of customers in a normal commercial context means a broad-based bonus is generally not an “advantage” subject to the 100 per cent advantage tax. That exception is about the registered plan’s status; it does not say anything about whether the bonus is income when paid to a non-registered account.

For the current referral program this is mostly background. Since July 3, 2025 the bonus is applied to a Chequing account, and the 2026 terms require a Chequing account you own before it is paid. The registered-account rules still matter for older referral relationships, for other Wealthsimple promotions that pay into an investing account, and for anyone comparing providers whose bonuses are credited inside a TFSA or RRSP.

The short record that answers the question later

Whatever you and your tax preparer decide, the decision is easier with four things on file: the date the bonus was applied, the amount, a saved copy of the terms in force that day, and the confirmation that the referral was linked. Wealthsimple’s tax-slip timetable tells you when the ordinary T5, T3 and T5008 documents arrive by early March, so you know when to stop waiting for a slip that will not come.

Quebec residents receive RL slips alongside federal ones for ordinary investment income; provincial treatment of a small bonus was not reviewed here, and the same confirm-with-a-professional advice applies. If your situation involves a business account, a trust or a non-resident year, the general reasoning above may not fit at all.

Is $25 worth this much thought? Probably not on its own. The value of knowing the rule is that it transfers to larger promotions, matched transfers and other providers, where the amounts are big enough that the slip thresholds and registered-account rules change the outcome. Our bonus hold guide covers the 180-day retention rule, which is a separate condition from anything on this page.

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