TFSA contribution room calculator
If you were 18 or older and a Canadian resident continuously since 1 January 2009, and you have never contributed and never withdrawn, your total TFSA contribution room in 2026 is $109,000. If you turned 18 later, or arrived in Canada later, your room is smaller, because it only starts accruing in that year. The 2026 annual limit is $7,000. Withdrawals do not come back until 1 January of the following year, and the room figure shown in your CRA account is a stale snapshot that ignores everything you have done this year. Enter three numbers below and this page works out what you actually have left.
Do not trust the number in your CRA account. The CRA states that TFSA records from 2025 will be processed by April 2026. Issuers report once a year, not in real time, and the figure shown excludes every contribution and withdrawal you have made in the current year. Relying on it mid year is the single most common way Canadians overcontribute.
Your TFSA contribution room calculator
One primary input drives everything: the first year you were eligible. Room accrues from the later of 2009 and the year you turned 18, and only for years of Canadian residency. The secondary inputs are lifetime totals across every TFSA you have held at every institution, because room is one personal pool, not one pool per account.
Warning: you withdrew money this year.
Read this before you contribute. This figure is only as good as the two totals you typed. It cannot see your accounts and it does not know whether an institution reported your history correctly. Check your own statements rather than the CRA snapshot, and if your records are incomplete the CRA directs you to Form RC343 to work out your current year room.
Figures verified 2026-09-23 against CRA: MP, DPSP, RRSP, TFSA limits and the YMPE. Thresholds change; check the source before acting on a number.
TFSA annual dollar limits, 2009 to 2026
Every year since the TFSA launched, with the running cumulative total for someone already 18 and resident in 2009. Note two anomalies that break any assumption about the limit only ever rising: 2015 was a one year legislated jump to $10,000, and 2016 fell back to $5,500 when that increase was reversed.
| Year | Annual limit | Cumulative room if eligible since 2009 |
|---|---|---|
| 2009 | $5,000 | $5,000 |
| 2010 | $5,000 | $10,000 |
| 2011 | $5,000 | $15,000 |
| 2012 | $5,000 | $20,000 |
| 2013 | $5,500 | $25,500 |
| 2014 | $5,500 | $31,000 |
| 2015 | $10,000 | $41,000 |
| 2016 | $5,500 | $46,500 |
| 2017 | $5,500 | $52,000 |
| 2018 | $5,500 | $57,500 |
| 2019 | $6,000 | $63,500 |
| 2020 | $6,000 | $69,500 |
| 2021 | $6,000 | $75,500 |
| 2022 | $6,000 | $81,500 |
| 2023 | $6,500 | $88,000 |
| 2024 | $7,000 | $95,000 |
| 2025 | $7,000 | $102,000 |
| 2026 | $7,000 | $109,000 |
| 2027 | Not yet announced | Not yet announced |
The 2027 TFSA annual dollar limit had not been published as of 23 September 2026. Watch for a specific trap: the 2027 RRSP dollar limit of $35,390 IS already announced on the same CRA page, which leads people to assume the TFSA figure is out too. It is not, and no projection is printed here, because a projected number on a page like this gets quoted back as fact.
RRSP dollar limits by year, including 2027
The RRSP dollar limit is the ceiling on new room in a year, not what you get. Your room is 18 percent of prior year earned income, and the dollar limit only bites once that 18 percent would exceed it. For 2026 the $33,810 ceiling is reached at $187,833 of 2025 earned income. The RRSP dollar limit for a year equals the money purchase limit for the year before, which is why 2027 is already known.
| Year | RRSP dollar limit |
|---|---|
| 2027 | $35,390 |
| 2026 | $33,810 |
| 2025 | $32,490 |
| 2024 | $31,560 |
| 2023 | $30,780 |
| 2022 | $29,210 |
| 2021 | $27,830 |
| 2020 | $27,230 |
| 2019 | $26,500 |
| 2018 | $26,230 |
| 2017 | $26,010 |
| 2016 | $25,370 |
| 2015 | $24,930 |
How TFSA contribution room actually accrues
Three conditions have to be met before room starts building: you are 18 or older, you have a valid social insurance number, and you are a resident of Canada. Residency is the test, not citizenship.
Age is the part people get wrong in their own favour. Room begins in the calendar year you turn 18 and is not prorated by birth month: turn 18 on 30 December 2026 and you get the whole $7,000 for 2026. In the seven provinces and territories where the age of majority is 19, an 18 year old generally cannot sign the account contract and so cannot open a TFSA until the following year. The room still accrues from the year they turned 18 and is waiting when the account opens.
Newcomers get it wrong in the other direction, and it is more expensive. There is no retroactive accrual. Someone who became a Canadian resident in 2026 at age 30 has $7,000 of room, not $109,000. The $109,000 figure belongs only to people who were already 18 and resident in 2009, which in practice means born in 1991 or earlier. Newcomers who contribute against the headline number are one of the most common overcontribution cases in the system.
Canadians who leave are the mirror image. Room does not accumulate for any year in which you were a non resident throughout the entire year. You keep the account and the room you already had, but the meter stops. Contributions made while non resident attract a separate 1 percent per month tax on the contributed amount until it comes back out, distinct from the excess amount tax and capable of stacking with it.
Unused room carries forward indefinitely. Nothing expires, and a year you skip is simply added to the pile. The only thing that permanently consumes room is a contribution.
Where the $500 steps come from
The annual limit is indexed to inflation and then rounded to the nearest $500. The rounding, not the inflation, produces the long flat stretches: the underlying figure creeps up year by year and the published limit only moves when it crosses a threshold, which is why 2019 through 2022 were all $6,000. The 2015 figure of $10,000 was a statutory override, and the 2016 return to $5,500 put the indexed track back in place.
The recontribution timing trap, with a worked example
Withdrawals are added back to your contribution room at the beginning of the following year. Not immediately, not after 30 days. On 1 January. This one rule causes more TFSA penalties than everything else combined, because the account is sold on its flexibility and the flexibility has a one way valve in it.
The worked example. You are fully contributed, zero room left. In June you withdraw $10,000 toward a house purchase. In November the purchase falls through, so you put the $10,000 straight back. You now hold an excess TFSA amount of $10,000 for November and December, because the withdrawn room does not return until 1 January. The tax is 1 percent per month on the highest excess in each month: $100 for November plus $100 for December, a $200 bill on money that was yours the whole time.
Note the phrase highest excess amount in that month. There is no proration by days, so an excess lasting a single afternoon triggers a full month of tax. If you realise you have overcontributed, fix it today rather than at the start of next month, but expect the current month to be charged anyway.
Moving a TFSA between banks is where people trip
If you ask institution A to transfer your TFSA directly to institution B, that is a qualifying transfer and it does not touch your room. If you withdraw the cash yourself and deposit it at B, the CRA sees a withdrawal and a fresh contribution, and if you had no room you have created an excess. Moving your own money between your own accounts is no defence. Always ask for a direct transfer.
The 1 percent per month overcontribution tax
If at any time in a month you have an excess TFSA amount, you owe 1 percent on the highest excess amount in that month. Left uncorrected for a full year that is 12 percent of the excess, comfortably more than a normal year of index returns.
- There is no buffer. The TFSA gives you no cushion at all. One dollar over is an excess. The RRSP, by contrast, gives you $2,000 before its own 1 percent per month tax begins.
- It is a tax, not interest. It applies whether the excess was deliberate or an honest mistake. The CRA may waive it where the excess arose from a reasonable error and was withdrawn without delay, but waiver is discretionary.
- It is reported by you. Form RC243, the TFSA return, is due 30 June of the following year. Nobody calculates it for you in advance.
- Deliberate overcontributions get worse. Income earned on a deliberate overcontribution can additionally attract a 100 percent advantage tax, which removes the entire point of trying it.
Why the CRA figure in My Account is stale
This deserves a full section, because it is the mechanism behind most accidental overcontributions by otherwise careful people. The CRA number looks authoritative, sitting in a government portal under your name. It is also, for most of the year, wrong.
Four things go wrong at once. First, TFSA issuers report to the CRA once a year rather than in real time, with a deadline at the end of February for the prior calendar year. Second, the CRA processes those records over the following weeks, and states plainly that TFSA records from 2025 will be processed by April 2026. Third, and this is the big one, the figure is a snapshot as at 1 January and reflects nothing you have done since. Fourth, issuer errors and late filings flow straight through with nothing to catch them.
So what should you do? Treat the CRA figure as a 1 January starting point and nothing more, then adjust it yourself for everything since. That is what the calculator above does. Keep your own record of contributions and withdrawals by date: your institution statements are the primary evidence and reach you months before the CRA sees them. Where your records are incomplete, the CRA directs you to Form RC343. If you check the portal at all, do it shortly after April, once prior year records have been processed.
Figures verified 2026-09-23 against CRA: before you contribute to a TFSA. Thresholds change; check the source before acting on a number.
Figures verified 2026-09-23 against CRA: calculate your TFSA contribution room. Thresholds change; check the source before acting on a number.
How RRSP contribution room is calculated
RRSP room works on a different principle. A TFSA gives everyone the same annual number regardless of income. An RRSP ties your room to what you earned, and to last year rather than this year.
New room for a year is the lesser of 18 percent of prior year earned income and the RRSP dollar limit, reduced by your prior year pension adjustment and any net past service pension adjustment, increased by any pension adjustment reversal, and added to unused room carried forward.
- Earned income is last year. Your 2026 room is 18 percent of your 2025 earned income. A big raise this year does nothing for your room until next year.
- Investment income creates no room at all. Earned income is mainly employment income, net self employment income, net rental income, CPP and QPP disability benefits, royalties and taxable support received. It excludes investment income, capital gains, pension income, OAS, CPP retirement benefits and RRIF withdrawals. A seven figure XEQT position generates precisely zero new RRSP room. This is the most relevant RRSP mechanic for a DIY index investor, and it is why room stalls the moment employment income stops.
- The dollar limit is a cap, not a target. For 2026, 18 percent reaches the $33,810 ceiling at $187,833 of 2025 earned income. Above that, no further room accrues.
- A workplace pension eats your room. The pension adjustment in box 52 of your T4 reflects value accrued in an employer pension plan or DPSP and is deducted from the following year of room, so pension members and non members end up with comparable total tax assisted saving. Someone in a rich defined benefit plan can have close to no new RRSP room.
- Carry forward is indefinite. Any part of your deduction room accumulated after 1990 that you do not use carries forward with no expiry.
Your authoritative personal number is the RRSP Deduction Limit Statement on your latest notice of assessment, or Form T1028. It carries the same staleness problem as the TFSA figure: it knows nothing about contributions made since it was issued, so subtract those yourself.
The $2,000 RRSP buffer and the contribution deadline
Excess RRSP contributions are measured as contributions exceeding your deduction limit for the year plus $2,000. That $2,000 is a lifetime cushion, not an annual one, and it is only available at 18 or older, so an overcontribution by a minor is penalised immediately. It shelters you from the penalty tax but does not create a deduction. Past the cushion, the tax is 1 percent per month on the excess, reported on Form T1-OVP, due 90 days after year end.
Note the asymmetry.
The RRSP gives $2,000 of headroom then charges 1 percent per month. The TFSA gives nothing then charges 1 percent per month. Only one of them lets you be slightly wrong for free.
On timing, the RRSP deadline is the first 60 days of the following calendar year. The CRA published 2 March 2026 as the deadline for the 2025 tax year, rolled forward because 1 March 2026 fell on a Sunday. For the 2026 tax year the same rule points at 1 March 2027, but the CRA had not published that date as of 23 September 2026, so treat it as the rule rather than a confirmed date. Contributing and deducting are separate decisions: you can contribute in one year and deduct in any later year, which is worth doing if you expect a higher marginal rate ahead. The contribution still consumes room in the year you make it.
One hard deadline. The year you turn 71 is the last year you can contribute to your own RRSP, and that deadline is 31 December of that year with no 60 day grace period. A 71 year old who waits for the usual February RRSP season has missed it permanently. Spousal RRSP contributions can continue past 71 as long as the contributing spouse has room and the annuitant spouse is 71 or younger.
Home Buyers Plan and Lifelong Learning Plan limits
Both let you take money out of an RRSP untaxed, provided you put it back on schedule.
- Home Buyers Plan: $60,000 maximum. Per person, so a qualifying couple can withdraw $120,000 between them. Funds must generally have been in the RRSP at least 90 days before withdrawal or the deduction is denied, and the home must be bought or built before 1 October of the year after withdrawal. Current as at the CRA page last modified 20 January 2026.
- Home Buyers Plan repayment: 15 years. One fifteenth per year, normally starting the second year after withdrawal. There is a temporary deferral: for first withdrawals between 1 January 2022 and 31 December 2025, extended to first withdrawals between 1 January 2026 and 31 December 2028, repayment starts in the fifth year after the year of first withdrawal instead. A 2026 first withdrawal starts repaying in 2031, a 2027 one in 2032, a 2028 one in 2033. Miss a repayment and that year amount is added to your taxable income, with no room restored.
- Lifelong Learning Plan: $10,000 a year, $20,000 in total. Per participation period, repayable generally over 10 years at one tenth a year. These limits were not raised alongside the Home Buyers Plan and remain current as at the CRA page last modified 17 September 2026. The LLP covers your own or your spouse or common law partner full time training, not a child education, which is what an RESP is for.
Figures verified 2026-09-23 against CRA: withdraw funds from an RRSP under the Home Buyers Plan. Thresholds change; check the source before acting on a number.
Figures verified 2026-09-23 against CRA: participating in the Lifelong Learning Plan. Thresholds change; check the source before acting on a number.
TFSA or RRSP first for an index investor
This page is not going to hand you a rule, because the honest answer depends on your marginal rate now versus in retirement and nobody knows the second number. What it can do is point at the mechanics that matter when the thing you are buying is one broad equity ETF you intend to hold for decades.
The room mechanics quietly favour starting the TFSA early. TFSA room arrives every year regardless of whether you worked, so a student, a parent on leave or an early retiree living off a portfolio keeps accruing $7,000 a year. RRSP room arrives only in proportion to prior year earned income, and since dividends and capital gains are not earned income, a large portfolio generates none of it. If your income is low now and expected to be higher later, the deduction is worth more later, and the RRSP lets you contribute now and defer the deduction anyway.
One narrower point specific to a global equity fund: in a TFSA, foreign withholding tax on the foreign portion is not recoverable, a small but permanent drag that does not apply in the same way to US listed holdings inside an RRSP. Real, but minor relative to getting money invested at all.
We have written both of these up properly elsewhere: the account by account comparison lives on TFSA vs RRSP for XEQT, and if you are still working out what the fund itself holds, start with what is XEQT.
What this calculator does not do
Being clear about the edges beats pretending there are none.
- It does not connect to the CRA or to your institutions. It knows only the numbers you typed, and if those totals are wrong the answer is wrong by the same amount.
- It does not model partial residency. Full calendar years spent as a non resident should be excluded, and a single start year input cannot express a gap in the middle.
- It does not calculate the 1 percent per month tax you may already owe. It flags that you are in an excess position, not what the bill is. That needs month by month balances and Form RC243.
- It does not compute your personal RRSP room, which needs your prior year earned income, pension adjustment and carry forward. The tables above are here so you can check the CRA figure, not replace it.
- It does not project a 2027 TFSA limit, and it will not, until the CRA announces one.
- It does not tell you whether contributing is a good idea, or what to buy.
Frequently asked questions
If you were 18 or older and a Canadian resident continuously from 1 January 2009, and you have never contributed and never withdrawn, your cumulative room in 2026 is $109,000. That figure applies only to people who were already 18 in 2009. If you turned 18 or became a resident later, room starts accruing in that year instead and the total is smaller.
It has not been announced. As of 23 September 2026 it does not appear on the CRA limits page. Be careful here, because the 2027 RRSP dollar limit of $35,390 IS already published on that same page, which leads people to assume the TFSA one is out too. It is not, so treat any 2027 TFSA figure quoted elsewhere as a guess.
Yes, but not in the same calendar year unless you already had unused room. A withdrawal is added back at the beginning of the following year. If you were at your limit, withdrew in June and put the money back in November, you are in excess for November and December and owe 1 percent per month on the highest excess in each.
Because it is a snapshot, not a live balance. Issuers report once a year rather than in real time, and the CRA states that TFSA records from 2025 will be processed by April 2026. The figure also excludes everything you have done in the current year: contribute $7,000 in January, check in March, and you may still see $7,000 of room that no longer exists.
No. RRSP room is 18 percent of prior year earned income, capped at the annual dollar limit. Earned income is mainly employment, net self employment and net rental income. Dividends, interest and capital gains are excluded, so a portfolio of index ETFs generates zero new RRSP room however large it gets. A TFSA has no such link to income.
You owe 1 percent per month on the highest excess amount in each month it exists, with no buffer at all. It is reported on Form RC243, due 30 June of the following year. The RRSP differs: it gives a $2,000 lifetime cushion before its own 1 percent per month tax starts.
Figures verified 2026-09-23 against CRA Guide T4040: RRSPs and other registered plans for retirement. Thresholds change; check the source before acting on a number.
Figures verified 2026-09-23 against CRA: important dates for RRSP, RRIF and RDSP. Thresholds change; check the source before acting on a number.
Figures verified 2026-09-23 against CRA: where to find your RRSP deduction limit. Thresholds change; check the source before acting on a number.