M THE DAILY INSIGHT
// news

What is ACB in accounting?

By Chloe Ramirez

In the Canadian tax system the term Adjusted cost base (ACB) refers to the cost of an investment adjusted for several tax-related items including acquisition costs. It is used in the calculation of capital gains or losses.

Do you pay taxes on proceeds from house sale?

It depends on how long you owned and lived in the home before the sale and how much profit you made. If you owned and lived in the place for two of the five years before the sale, then up to $250,000 of profit is tax-free. If you are married and file a joint return, the tax-free amount doubles to $500,000.

Does selling affect ACB?

When you sell shares, the ACB per share doesn’t change, even though the number of shares you own goes down. This is a key point to remember. To calculate the total ACB of the remaining shares, multiply the ACB per share by the number of shares you still hold.

Does ACB include commission?

When calculating your capital gains or losses, you need to know your asset’s ACB, as well as any outlays or expenses incurred to buy this asset. Outlays and expenses can include finder’s fees, commissions, broker’s fees, surveyor’s fees, legal fees, advertising costs, and transfer taxes.

What is cost or book value on t5008?

It reflects the total amount paid to purchase a security and generally includes adjustments for transaction charges, reinvested distributions, returns of capital and/or certain corporate reorganizations related to the security.

The adjusted cost base (ACB) is usually the cost of a property plus any expenses to acquire it, such as commissions and legal fees. Special rules can sometimes apply that will allow you to consider the cost of the capital property to be an amount other than its actual cost.

How do you keep track of ACB?

To calculate your ACB, simply add up all of the money you invested to acquire the shares. If you divide the total sum by the number of shares, you get your ACB per share. For simple buys and sells, calculating the ACB and capital gain is straightforward. For example, say you bought 100 shares of XYZ Corp.