TFSA contribution room calculator, 2026

The TFSA dollar limit for 2026 is $7,000. If you've been 18 or older and living in Canada since 2009 and have never put money in, you have $109,000 of room. Enter your birth year and what you've put in and taken out to see your own number. The math runs in your browser, so nothing you type leaves your device.

• $7,000TFSA dollar limit for 2026
• $109,000Room since 2009 if you've never contributed
• 1%Tax per month on an over-contribution
• Jan. 1When last year's withdrawals come back as room

TFSA limits by year, 2009 to 2026

The Canada Revenue Agency adds the year's dollar limit to your room on Jan. 1.² The limit is the same for every TFSA holder. Unused room carries forward, so you can put in more than one year's limit only if you have room left from earlier years.¹

Dollar limits from the CRA.^1,13 "Total since 2009" and "Turned 18 that year" (your room by 2026 if that was your first eligible year) are our sums of those limits. Both assume you lived in Canada every year and never contributed. If you turned 18 before 2009, use the 2009 row.

The limit started at $5,000 in 2009 and rose with inflation, rounded to the nearest $500. It was $10,000 for 2015 only. In December 2015, the federal government returned it to $5,500 for 2016 and brought back indexation, measured from the $5,000 limit of 2009.^15,14 The limit has been $7,000 since 2024.¹

What about the 2027 limit?

As of Oct. 7, 2026, the CRA hadn't announced it. Its registered plans news page lists the 2026 limit, announced Dec. 1, 2025; the 2025 limit came on Nov. 29, 2024, and the 2024 limit on Nov. 29, 2023.¹² Expect the 2027 figure around the same time of year.

Some finance writers already say it will be $7,500. A Globe and Mail column ran on Dec. 22, 2025, under the headline "Why the 2027 TFSA contribution limit will rise to $7,500."¹⁸ The limit moves in $500 steps because the CRA rounds the inflation-indexed amount to the nearest $500.¹ Until the CRA posts the 2027 figure, treat $7,500 as a forecast. The calculator leaves 2027 out and shows your Jan. 1, 2027, room as "plus the 2027 limit."

How your room adds up

The CRA's formula for the room you have right now:²

• Room starts at 18. If you live in Canada, you get the full dollar limit for the year you turn 18. The CRA's example is a man who turned 18 on Dec. 21, 2024, and had $14,000 of room on Jan. 4, 2025: the limits for 2024 and 2025.¹ In provinces and territories where you must be 19 to sign a contract, you open the account at 19 and carry over the room from the year you turned 18.⁸
• Newcomers start in their year of residency. You get no room for years before you became a resident, even if you were an adult. In the CRA's example, a 40-year-old who arrived in 2024 and put in $95,000 had $7,000 of room and an $88,000 excess.¹
• Years abroad add nothing. You get no new room for a year you were a non-resident for the whole year. A resident for part of a year gets that year's full limit. Contributions made while you're a non-resident are taxed at 1% a month.⁹
• Growth and losses don't count. Interest, dividends and gains inside the account don't use up room, and a loss doesn't give room back.^1,3
• All your TFSAs share one limit. You can hold more than one TFSA, but your room is the total for all of them combined.¹
• Move money with a direct transfer. A transfer arranged by the receiving institution doesn't touch your room. Withdraw and redeposit it yourself and the deposit counts as a new contribution.¹⁰

Contributions aren't tax deductible, unlike RRSP contributions. Income in the account and withdrawals are generally tax-free, and neither affects federal benefits such as Old Age Security, the Guaranteed Income Supplement, Employment Insurance or the Canada child benefit.¹¹

Withdrawals come back on Jan. 1

Taking money out doesn't free up room right away. The CRA adds the amount back on Jan. 1 of the next year, along with the new dollar limit.^4,2 Put it back sooner only if you still have unused room to cover it.

The CRA's own example: Taylor starts 2026 with $7,000 of room. She puts in $4,000 in January, takes $4,000 out in February and puts $3,500 back in October. Her room was $3,000 after the first deposit and the withdrawal didn't change it, so she is $500 over.³ On Jan. 1, 2027, she gets the $4,000 back as room, plus the 2027 limit.

From the CRA's "How to contribute to a TFSA" page.³ Enter it in the calculator with $4,000 "taken out in 2026" and you get the same result.

If you put in too much

The CRA taxes an excess at 1% a month, on the highest excess in the account during each month, for as long as it stays in.⁶ Take out $2,000 of excess in the same month you put it in and you still owe $20. Leave it from June to September and you owe $80. Pull out only part of it and you pay on the highest amount that month.⁶ A deliberate over-contribution can be taxed at 100%.⁶

• Take the excess out now. Don't wait to hear from the CRA. Once you withdraw it, you don't need to call; your financial institution reports the withdrawal.⁵
• File a TFSA return. Form RC243 and Schedule A are due by June 30 of the year after the excess. You have to file whether or not the CRA writes to you.^6,5
• Watch for a letter in late spring. Issuers report a year's transactions by the end of February, so an excess can sit for months before the CRA notices. The CRA sends some holders a notice through their CRA account or by mail.⁵
• Ask for the tax to be waived. Send the CRA a letter explaining the error. It looks at whether the tax came from a reasonable error and whether you've withdrawn money to correct it.⁷

Why CRA My Account can show the wrong room

The CRA tells you not to rely on its own number. It says to use your own records, because the TFSA figure in your CRA account is "only updated once per year in the spring with your transactions of the previous year."² A deposit you make today isn't reflected there yet,³ and on Jan. 1 the account adds the new limit before last year's activity has been processed. This year the CRA said 2025 records would be processed by April 2026.²

If you think the CRA has a transaction wrong, contact the institution that holds your TFSA. The issuer has to send the CRA an amended report before the CRA can fix its records.² To check your number by hand, use the CRA's RC343 worksheet¹⁶ or the "Do your own calculation" option in My Account. The year-by-year mode above follows the same steps.

What people are saying

We read 15 threads on r/PersonalFinanceCanada from the past year. Most of the confusion is about three things: the room figure in CRA My Account, how much room newcomers get, and putting a withdrawal back too soon.

• "Use your own calculation. CRA doesn't update monthly but yearly."

  Commenter on r/PersonalFinanceCanada, Oct. 19, 2025²⁴

  Right. The CRA says the TFSA figure in your account is updated once a year, in the spring, and tells you to use your own records.²

• "I had this happen. I went with the assumption that the all knowing government was right. Here i am today with a $2000 over contribution bill and confusion."

  Commenter on r/PersonalFinanceCanada, Oct. 19, 2025²⁴

  The CRA warns that the figure in your CRA account may not include your latest transactions, and tells you to check your own records and your financial institution's before you contribute.²

• "I landed in Canada in Aug 2023 ... I checked the CRA website, and it shows that I have a whopping 54k contribution room as of Jan 1 2025."

  Original poster on r/PersonalFinanceCanada, Dec. 15, 2025²⁵

  A newcomer's room starts in the year they become a resident.¹ Arriving in 2023 gives $20,500 by Jan. 1, 2025, before any contributions: $6,500 for 2023 and $7,000 for each of 2024 and 2025 (our sum of the CRA limits).

• "CRA tax residency is based on where you live on the last day of the year."

  Commenter on r/PersonalFinanceCanada, Feb. 4, 2026, replying to a newcomer who arrived in late December²⁶

  The CRA says residency is decided case by case, on residential ties such as a home, a spouse or dependants in Canada.⁹ If you're a resident for any part of a year, you get that year's full limit.

• "I meant to put $100K into my RRSP but accidentally sent it to my TFSA instead. ... Even though the $100K was put there by mistake and I moved it out right away, it still counts as a contribution, and withdrawing it doesn't give me that room back until the following year?"

  Original poster on r/PersonalFinanceCanada, Sept. 4, 2026²⁷

  That's the rule: a withdrawal comes back as room on Jan. 1 of the next year.⁴ The CRA can waive the tax when it came from a reasonable error and the money was taken out to correct it.⁷

• "Don't panic and don't remove anything yet. The 1% penalty only kicks in at the end of the month you're over, so you have time to understand what's actually happening first."

  Commenter on r/PersonalFinanceCanada, April 9, 2026²⁸

  Not quite. The CRA says to withdraw an excess as soon as possible. The tax is 1% of the highest excess in each month, and an excess removed in the same month it went in still costs that month.^5,6

What the calculator doesn't cover

• A TFSA inherited from someone who died. A spouse or common-law partner named as successor holder becomes the new holder. Other beneficiaries follow different rules, and the type of beneficiary decides whether money you receive can go into your own TFSA without using room. Quebec doesn't recognize successor holder designations for TFSAs other than annuity contracts.¹⁷
• Divorce or separation transfers. A direct transfer between the two of you, made while you live apart under a court order or written separation agreement, doesn't affect either person's room.¹⁰
• Timing inside a year. The calculator works with yearly totals. It can tell you that you went over, but not for how many months, which is what the 1% tax depends on.

Claims we checked

Most bank and broker pages we read had the 2026 numbers right. These are the errors we found while researching this page.

• False
  Total TFSA room for someone eligible since 2009 is $102,000 in 2026.

  Life Money's 2026 room guide says so in its summary, its table and its FAQ, where it adds $7,000 for 2026 and still lands on $102,000.¹⁹ The CRA's limits for 2009 to 2026 add up to $109,000.¹ $102,000 was the total for 2025.

• False
  The 2026 TFSA dollar limit is $7,500.

  Questrade's withdrawals guide, updated in March 2026, says on Jan. 1, 2026, your room grows by "the new annual TFSA dollar limit for 2026 (e.g., $7,500)."²¹ The CRA set the 2026 limit at $7,000.¹²

• Not confirmed
  The 2027 TFSA limit is $7,500.

  Richify's calculator page states it as fact in its FAQ, while also noting the CRA hadn't announced it.²² The CRA had not posted a 2027 limit as of Oct. 7, 2026.¹² $7,500 may turn out right, but it's a forecast until then.

• Misleading
  You earn no TFSA room for any year in which you aren't a resident of Canada.

  Life Money's withdrawals guide says you don't earn room "for any year in which you are not a resident of Canada."²⁰ The CRA rule is narrower: no new room for a year you were a non-resident for the entire year. If you were a resident for part of the year, you get that year's full limit.⁹ The same guide's fix for a contribution made while abroad is to withdraw it "and notify CRA"; the CRA's instructions are to withdraw all of it and file a TFSA return with Schedule B by June 30 of the next year.²³

Questions people ask

How we did this

The dollar limits, the room formula and the rules on withdrawals, newcomers, non-residents and over-contributions come from the Canada Revenue Agency's TFSA pages, retrieved Oct. 7, 2026. The history of the 2015 and 2016 limits comes from the Department of Finance. Running totals in the limits table are our arithmetic.

We tested the calculator against the CRA's own worked examples: Joe, Brayden, David, Alexis, Alex, Cedric, Twyla, Taylor, Isla and Daniel. It matched every figure the CRA gives. A TFSA notice of assessment that a Reddit user posted in July shows the CRA's arithmetic for one real account: unused room of −$5,283.24 at the end of 2024, plus $13,571 of withdrawals and the $7,000 limit, for $15,287.76 on Jan. 1, 2025.²⁹ The calculator gives the same figure. One example on the CRA's "Calculate your TFSA contribution room" page, about a holder named Moira, mixes up 2025 and 2026, so we left it out. The calculator runs in your browser and doesn't send or store anything you enter.

This page is general information, not financial or tax advice. Your official room is the one the CRA assesses, so check your own records against your CRA account before you make a large contribution.

Update log

• Oct. 7, 2026, 10:20 p.m. ETFirst published. Limits and rules checked against the CRA on Oct. 7, 2026. The 2027 limit had not been announced.