TFSA Contribution Room Calculator

$109,000 is the total for someone who was 18 or older and a Canadian resident in 2009 and has never contributed. Turn 18 later or arrive in Canada later and your room starts from that year instead.

The Annual Limit, Every Year Since 2009

Set by the government each January 1, indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500. The same for everyone.

Two oddities worth knowing. 2015 was a one-off $10,000 — the limit was raised and then rolled back to $5,500 the following year, which is why any cumulative total worked out from an average is wrong. And the limit has moved only five times in eighteen years, because indexation rounds to the nearest $500 and inflation has to accumulate before it crosses a step.

The withdrawal trap: your room comes back on January 1, not today

This causes more TFSA over-contributions than everything else combined, and it catches careful people. The CRA's wording is exact: any amount you withdraw during the year is added back as contribution room the next calendar year, on January 1.

March — you withdraw $10,000 for a car
August — you put the $10,000 back
Result — a $10,000 over-contribution, taxed at $100 a month
January 1 — the room finally appears, too late

It feels wrong because the money was yours and the account is yours. But a TFSA is not a chequing account: taking money out and putting it back in the same year counts as a fresh contribution against the room you had. The only safe moves are to wait until January, or to re-contribute only into room you already had spare.

Over-contributing costs 1% a month, and you hear about it late

The excess is taxed at 1% per month for as long as it remains in the account — not 1% a year, and not a one-off. $10,000 over is $100 every month, $1,200 a year. Withdraw it the moment you notice; the tax stops accruing once the excess is gone.

Two things people get wrong after fixing it. First, you must still file a TFSA Return reporting the excess even after withdrawing — the withdrawal stops the clock, it does not erase the months already accrued. Second, you do not need to phone the CRA, because your financial institution reports the withdrawal automatically.

The part that hurts is the timing. The CRA notifies people in late spring, once the institution has reported the year. An over-contribution made in February can therefore run for more than a year before anyone tells you, with the 1% accruing monthly throughout. Nobody stops you at the counter either — your bank will happily accept a contribution that puts you over, because it has no idea what your other TFSAs hold.

Newcomers: you do not get the $109,000

Room starts accruing the year you became a Canadian resident, if you were 18 or older. Unlike most tax amounts it is not prorated by arrival date — arrive in December and you still get that whole year's limit — but the years before you arrived do not count.

The CRA publishes this as a cautionary example: someone who became a resident in 2024, received an inheritance and contributed $95,000 to a new TFSA, believing the cumulative room applied. It did not. He had $7,000. The other $88,000 was an excess at 1% per month — $880 every month it stayed there. Set residency to 2024 above and the calculator reproduces exactly that.

One more trap specific to non-residents: contributions made while you are a non-resident are taxable at 1% per month regardless of room. Withdrawals still create room for later, but do not contribute again until you are a resident. The wider picture is in our newcomer money guide.

Why your CRA account figure may be wrong

Your CRA account shows a TFSA room figure and it is tempting to treat it as authoritative. It is not quite. It is assembled from what financial institutions report, and those reports lag — the CRA states that 2025 records are processed by April 2026.

So the figure on screen can be most of a year out of date. Anything you contributed or withdrew since the last reporting date simply is not in it. Check it in late spring, after processing, and even then cross-check against your own records — especially if you hold TFSAs at more than one institution, because the limit applies across all of them combined and neither bank can see the other.

Two things that do not affect your room, despite common belief: investment gains and losses (though withdrawing grown money does add that larger amount back next January, which is a genuine advantage of holding growth in a TFSA) and account fees — management and investment-counsel fees paid by the account are not withdrawals and create no room. Compare the account against an RRSP in our TFSA vs RRSP guide, or check your RRSP side with the RRSP room calculator.

TFSA Room — Frequently Asked Questions