Tax Slips & Tariff Update

Before we get into some commentary on the Canada/USA tariff situation, let's first tackle an item that should be more important to you - filing your tax return! Most of you should have tax slips sent to you by mail, however it does seem that there could be some delay in the mail being delivered. If you want access to your tax documents earlier, you can also download most of your tax documents online through your investment portal.

In order to do this, you have to login on the following site:  https://clientportal.aligned.digital/signin

Your username will be your last name (ALL CAPS), followed by your first initial (ALL CAPS), followed by the last 3 digits of your social insurance number. As an example, mine would be: ADOMAITJ999

Once you login, you'll want to head over to the documents section by clicking the "Documents" section on the banner. See below:




Now you'll want to click on the filter button just to the left of the "Status" column and filter for tax documents. See below:




Keep in mind when viewing these documents you will want to only download the ones that are from the upload year of 2025, since these will be for the 2024 tax year. In this portal, the documents you might receive are T4RIF's, T4FHSA's, T5008's, and RRSP contribution slips. RRSP contribution slips for contributions made in the first 60 days of 2025 should be uploaded to the portal today, and should be coming in the mail shortly thereafter.

If you had a non-registered account in 2024, it's possible that you will also receive T3's, T5's from the investment firms directly. If you are unsure if you have all the required documents or worried if you are missing something, please don't hesitate to reach out - I would love to help!

Now, onto the Tariff situation...

There is no doubt that the markets have seen turmoil to start the year, based on trade tensions between the US and other major Countries. The stock markets in US and Canada are negative on a year to date (YTD) basis - see below.



The S&P/TSX Composite Index (Canadian Stock Market) is down -1.24% to start the year, while other major indexes in the US are down -3.59%, -5.32%, and -9.38%.

Should we be making any changes to our investment strategy? The short answer is no. Corrections in the market are normal and occur from time to time, and just as quickly as the uncertainty caused a drawdown in the market, the market can rebound once trade certainty occurs. 

As an example of how frequently drawdowns can occur in the market, check out the chart below.



In the chart above, the orange line shows the drawdown of the Nasdaq Composite Index (Major US Stock Market Index). Even though the returns over the last few years were phenomenal, the Nasdaq index still had 3 periods where the market corrected over 10% from its high.

The S&P 500 Index (another major US Stock Market Index) is represented by the purple line, and it too has shown a drawdown of 10% from it's peak this year, along with a drawdown of 10% in 2023 as well. These 5% and 10% corrections are normal, and shouldn't be reason for changing your investment strategy.

Although much more could be said - I think most of us have heard too much about the Tariffs already!


Best,

Jon


Jonathan Adomait
Financial Planner | CFP, CIM, B.Eng