How TFSA contribution room works, in plain words
Updated November 2026, from the Canada Revenue Agency's published table
Room is built year by year, and it never expires
Every year, the Government of Canada sets one dollar limit for everyone. If you were 18 or older and a resident of Canada that year, that limit became part of your contribution room, and unused room carries forward for life. The limits were $5,000 a year from 2009 to 2012, $5,500 in 2013 and 2014, $10,000 in 2015, $5,500 from 2016 to 2018, $6,000 from 2019 to 2022, $6,500 in 2023, and $7,000 in 2024, 2025 and 2026. Added together, a Canadian who was eligible from the very start has been given $109,000 of room by 2026.
A worked example
Take the numbers this calculator opens with. Born in 2000, you turned 18 in 2018, so your room starts with that year's $5,500 limit. From 2018 to 2026 the limits add up to $57,000. You have contributed $20,000 over the years and withdrew $3,000 in earlier years, which came back as room on a later January 1. Your room today is $57,000 minus $20,000 plus $3,000: $40,000. That is the amount you could contribute today, across all your TFSAs together, without going a dollar over.
Now the cautionary version. Contribute $60,000 on those same facts and you are $20,000 over your room. The CRA taxes the excess at 1 percent a month: $200 for every month it stays in. People rarely do this on purpose. They do it by trusting a stale number, or by putting a withdrawal straight back in the same year, before it has returned as room.
How to read your result
Your room today is the headline: the most you can contribute right now without an excess. The lifetime total shows what the annual limits built you, so a surprising answer can be checked against your own history. If the result says you are over, treat it as a prompt to check your dated records carefully, not as a verdict: one forgotten contribution in either direction moves the answer, and the CRA works from the dated record.
Sources
- Canada Revenue Agency, Before you contribute to a TFSA: the annual dollar limit table from 2009 to 2026, and how new room arrives each January 1. Read on November 10, 2026.
- Canada Revenue Agency, Calculate your TFSA contribution room: how room is made up, and the note that CRA records update once a year in the spring. Read on November 10, 2026.
Educational information only, not tax or financial advice. Your own dated records and your CRA account are the final word on your room.
Frequently asked questions
How much TFSA room do I have in 2026?
It depends on your own history, which is the whole problem. The most anyone can have in 2026 is $109,000: every annual limit from 2009 to 2026 added up, for someone who was 18 or older and living in Canada the whole time and never contributed. Your real room is that kind of total for your own eligible years, minus everything you have ever contributed, plus withdrawals from earlier years.
How is TFSA contribution room calculated?
Start with the annual dollar limit for every year from the later of 2009 and the year you turned 18, as long as you were a resident of Canada in that year. Add the limits up. Subtract every contribution you have ever made to any TFSA. Add back withdrawals, which return to your room on January 1 of the year after you took the money out. What is left is your room.
Do withdrawals give my TFSA room back?
Yes, but not right away. Money you withdraw is added back to your contribution room on January 1 of the following year, not the day you take it out. Putting the same money back in the same calendar year uses room twice and is one of the most common ways people over-contribute by accident.
What happens if I contribute more than my TFSA room?
The CRA charges a tax of 1 percent per month on the highest excess amount in your TFSA for that month, and it keeps charging for every month the excess stays in. It is a small percentage of a number that can be large, charged quietly, and it is the main reason knowing your real room matters before you contribute, not after.
Why might the CRA show a different TFSA room number?
Because the CRA's own figure can be behind. Financial institutions report your TFSA transactions once a year, and the CRA updates its records in the spring with the previous year's activity. A contribution or withdrawal from this year may not be in their number yet. Your own records, added up the way this page adds them, are the safer source.
What if I lived outside Canada for some years?
A year you were not a resident of Canada gives you no new TFSA room for that year. This calculator assumes you were a resident for every year since you turned 18, and says so on the page. If you lived abroad, your real room is lower, and a year-by-year record is the honest way to rebuild it.
Where does my information go when I use this calculator?
Nowhere. The calculation runs entirely in your browser on your own device, and the numbers you type are never sent to us or stored. Like every Kollaz page, this one counts visits with cookies only if you accept them; the consent banner explains that choice, and it is yours to decline.
