The TFSA dollar limit for 2026 is C$7,000. Your room is that limit, plus any room you haven’t used since you turned 18, plus anything you withdrew last year. If you’ve been an adult resident of Canada since TFSAs began in 2009 and never put anything in, you have C$109,000 of room in 2026. Go over it and the CRA charges 1% a month on the excess.
The TFSA glossary entry has the short version. This guide shows how to work out your own number.
The yearly limits
Room builds every year from the year you turn 18, as long as you’re a resident of Canada, whether or not you’ve opened an account. Unused room never expires.
Your room in 2026, if you’ve never contributed
Years you lived outside Canada for the whole year don’t add room, so newcomers start counting from the year they became resident, or the year they turned 18 if that came later.
How to work out your own number
The CRA’s formula for any year is:
- This year’s dollar limit (C$7,000 for 2026)
- plus your unused room carried from earlier years
- plus everything you withdrew last year
- minus what you’ve already contributed this year
Say you ended 2025 with C$20,000 of unused room, and you’d withdrawn C$5,000 during 2025. Your 2026 room is the C$7,000 limit, plus C$20,000, plus the C$5,000 withdrawal: C$32,000.
The withdrawal only comes back on January 1. Within the same year, taking money out and putting it back in uses fresh room each time.
Where to check it
CRA My Account shows a TFSA room figure, and it’s the right starting point. But it lags. The CRA says 2025 records would be processed by April 2026, and it can’t see this year’s activity until your provider reports it. Before a large contribution, add up your own statements for the year across every TFSA you hold. The CRA’s own advice is to check your room against your financial institution’s records.
Rules that catch people out
- Overcontributions cost 1% a month on the highest excess in each month it stays in. Taking out part of it doesn’t lower that month’s tax, so take out the whole excess. You report it on Form RC243 by June 30 of the next year, and you can ask the CRA to waive or cancel the tax.
- Contributions while you’re a non-resident are taxed at 1% a month for as long as they stay in.
- Moving a TFSA between banks should be a direct transfer through the receiving institution. If you withdraw the money and deposit it at the new bank, it counts as a new contribution and can push you over.
- Contributions aren’t deductible, but growth and withdrawals are generally tax-free, and the CRA says TFSA income and withdrawals don’t affect federal income-tested benefits and credits, such as Old Age Security.
Common mistakes
- Putting a withdrawal back the same year. The most common way people go over. Wait until January if you don’t have other room.
- Trusting the My Account number in February. It may not include last year’s contributions yet.
- Forgetting a second TFSA. Room is per person, not per account. Every TFSA you hold shares it.
- Using the TFSA as a low-interest savings account for decades. It’s allowed, but the tax-free growth is worth most on investments that grow.
- Contributing after moving abroad. The 1% monthly tax applies until you take it out.
- Ignoring US tax. The US doesn’t treat a TFSA as tax-free for its citizens and residents. Read our guide to cross-border advisors before you contribute.
Questions to ask
- What’s my exact room today, counting this year’s activity in every TFSA I hold?
- Should new savings go to my TFSA, RRSP or FHSA first?
- Are my TFSA investments the ones I expect to grow most?
- In retirement, which account should I draw from first to keep my income below the OAS clawback threshold?
- Who is named as successor holder or beneficiary on my TFSA?
For any advisor, ask: “Do you or your firm earn anything from the funds you’d hold in my TFSA?” A fee-only planner answers no. Many bank and commission-based advisors are paid through the fund’s management expense ratio or a trailer fee.
When a fee-only planner is worth it
You don’t need a planner to work out TFSA room; the formula above and your statements will do it. A planner earns the fee when the TFSA is part of a bigger decision: RRSP vs TFSA in a year your income changes, drawing down an RRSP early in retirement and refilling the TFSA (see the RRSP meltdown strategy), or timing withdrawals around OAS clawback planning and when to take CPP.
In Canada, advice-only planners who publish prices charge a median C$1,900 for a one-time plan (middle half C$950 to C$3,000), C$250 an hour (middle half C$170 to C$298), or C$2,300 a year for ongoing planning. The samples are small, 46 firms for plans, 15 for hourly rates and 21 for ongoing planning, so compare at least two quotes. The CRA doesn’t let you deduct fees for services connected to a TFSA, so count the fee at its full price. Our guide to what fee-only advisors charge in Canada explains what each price buys.
Where to look
Browse fee-only planners by province in the public graph: Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia. You can also start from the retirement planning specialty, advisors for newcomers, or the lists of fee-only advisors in Ontario and flat-fee advisors.
Saving for a home or a child instead? See the FHSA guide and the RESP guide.