GIFI stands for General Index Of Financial Information.
Created by the Canada Revenue Agency in 1999, the GIFI is a system which assigns a unique code to a list of items commonly found on income statements, balance sheets, and statements of retained earnings.
The purpose of the GIFI is to allow the CRA to collect and process financial information more efficiently; for instance, the GIFI lets the CRA validate tax information electronically rather than manually.
What does the GIFI mean to you? If you file a T2 tax return (the tax return for corporations), then you need to use the GIFI, choosing the GIFI code that best matches the items that you report.
The complete GIFI index is contained in the CRA's Guide To The General Index Of Financial Information (GIFI) For Corporations which you can download or get in a paper or diskette version from your nearest tax services office. You will find links to both the Guide To The General Index Of Financial Information (GIFI) For Corporations and the GIFI Short Form in my Corporate Tax Library.
Using the GIFI lets you electronically file your T2 tax return, and in turn means faster processing of your return.
Most tax processing and accounting software programs designed for use by Canadian corporations now include the GIFI.
