TFSA Contribution Room Since 2009: Your Real Limit

How much can I actually put into my TFSA this year? It sounds like a question with one answer. It isn't. The dollar limit the government announces every January is the same for everybody. Your number is personal, and if you have never built it from your own records, there is a fair chance it is off.

Here is how to work it out from scratch, and what to do if it turns out you have already gone over.

Start with the annual limits since 2009

The TFSA launched in 2009 and the annual dollar limit has moved around a lot since. Straight from the CRA's before you contribute to a TFSA page:

• 2009 to 2012: $5,000 per year
• 2013 and 2014: $5,500
• 2015: $10,000
• 2016 to 2018: $5,500
• 2019 to 2022: $6,000
• 2023: $6,500
• 2024 to 2026: $7,000

For 2026, the TFSA dollar limit is $7,000, which the CRA also confirms in its registered plan limits table.

Add every year in that list together and you get $109,000. That is the lifetime room for someone who was 18 or older in 2009, resident in Canada the whole time, and has never contributed a dollar. Worth noting: the CRA doesn't publish that running total as a single official figure, so the $109,000 is simply the sum of its own table. Do the addition yourself rather than trusting a number you saw on a forum.

If you turned 18 later than 2009, you start counting from your own birthday year instead.

The BC wrinkle: room at 18, account at 19

British Columbia's age of majority is 19, and the CRA addresses this directly on its opening a TFSA page: "In some provinces and territories, you must be at least 19 years of age to enter a contract (such as a TFSA). In this case, after the individual turns 19, they may open a TFSA and carry over the contribution room of the year they turned 18."

So a young person in Burnaby or Coquitlam who turned 18 in 2025 could not open a TFSA that year. The 2025 room is not lost, though. It carries forward. I have met plenty of families who assumed that year simply evaporated.

To open an account at all, the CRA requires you to be a resident of Canada for income tax purposes, 18 or older, and to have a valid Social Insurance Number.

The formula

The CRA lays it out plainly on its calculate your TFSA contribution room page. Your available room is the current year's dollar limit, plus any unused contribution room from previous years, plus any withdrawals made the previous year, less any contributions you have already made this year.

Read that third piece twice. Withdrawals do come back to you as room, but not immediately. The CRA's wording: "When you withdraw from your TFSA, you will regain the same amount as new available contribution room on January 1 of the following year."

That one sentence explains most overcontributions I see.

The mistake almost everyone makes

You take $10,000 out in March to fix a roof. In September the cash frees up and you put it straight back. Feels neutral, like you borrowed from yourself. It isn't neutral. That March withdrawal doesn't become room again until January 1 of the following year, so the September deposit lands as a brand new contribution against whatever room you had left. If you were anywhere near maxed out, you are now over.

The second most common one: two TFSAs at two different institutions. You get one limit, not two. The room belongs to you, not to the account.

Don't trust the CRA figure on its own

This surprises people, because it feels like the most authoritative number available. The CRA itself warns against relying on it: "Use your own financial records to calculate your available contribution room, not the information in your CRA account." The reason is timing. "The TFSA information in your CRA account is only updated once per year in the spring with your transactions of the previous year."

So in October 2026, the figure showing in your CRA account reflects your activity up to the end of 2025. Everything you have done in 2026 is invisible to it. Treat it as a starting point you reconcile against your own statements, not a live balance.

What it costs if you go over

The CRA charges "a tax of 1% for every month that the excess contributions stay in your account(s)", according to its tax tip published July 24, 2025. The detail page on tax owing on excess TFSA amounts is more precise: the tax "is calculated on the highest amount of excess in your account for each month it remains."

Two things follow from that. Part of a month counts as a month, since the test is the highest excess during it. And the meter only stops once the excess is actually out of the account.

If the overcontribution is deliberate, it gets far worse. The CRA notes that "excess amounts that are a result of deliberate over-contribution may be taxed at the 100% advantage rate."

How to fix it

1. Withdraw the excess. Today if you can. The CRA's over-contribution page says to "withdraw it as soon as possible", then file a TFSA return.
2. File the paperwork. That is Form RC243, Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) Return, plus Form RC243-SCH-A, Schedule A, Excess TFSA Amounts. Forms and payment are due "by June 30 of the calendar year after the year the tax applies."
3. Ask for relief if it was honest. The CRA can waive or cancel the tax. You send a letter explaining "why the tax liability arose, and why it would be fair to cancel or waive all or part of the tax" to the TFSA Processing Unit at either the Sudbury or Winnipeg Tax Centre, or upload it through the Submit documents service in your CRA account.

On the mail you might get: the CRA sends either an educational letter or a notice of assessment. Per its page on TFSA excess amount correspondence, "if you receive an educational letter and you have already removed the excess TFSA amount, you do not have to do anything else." A notice of assessment is the serious one, and it arrives with a calculation attached.

If you have lived outside Canada

This catches a lot of Metro Vancouver families with ties overseas. The CRA is blunt on how non-residency affects your TFSA: "You will not accumulate any new available contribution room for any year in which you are a non-resident for the entire year." Any non-resident contribution "is subject to a 1% tax for each month the contribution remains in the account." And money withdrawn while you were a non-resident only comes back as room once you regain residency.

Stack those and you can end up paying two separate 1% monthly taxes on the same deposit, if it was both a non-resident contribution and over your limit.

What this doesn't tell you

• It doesn't give you your number. The only reliable way to get it is to pull every TFSA statement since you opened the account and reconcile contributions and withdrawals year by year. It is tedious and there is no real shortcut.
• Residency for tax purposes isn't the same as citizenship or immigration status. The test is factual and turns on your ties to Canada. If you have spent years abroad, that is its own conversation with an accountant.
• Waiver requests are discretionary. The CRA publishes what to include but no threshold for success, so similar-sounding situations can end differently.
• Direct transfers are not withdrawals. If you are moving a TFSA between institutions, ask for a direct transfer. Pulling the cash out yourself and redepositing it elsewhere is a withdrawal and a contribution, with all the timing consequences above.
• Future limits don't exist yet. There is no 2027 figure to plan around, and the limits have both risen and fallen before.
• What you hold inside the TFSA is a separate question. Contribution room says nothing about whether cash, a GIC, funds or something else suits your timeline.

This article summarises published CRA rules for general information, is current as of September 21, 2026, and is not personalized financial, tax or legal advice. Rules and limits change, so check the CRA pages linked above before acting.

Sources

• Canada Revenue Agency, "Before you contribute to a TFSA", 2026. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/tax-free-savings-account/contributing/before.html
• Canada Revenue Agency, "Calculate your TFSA contribution room", 2026. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/tax-free-savings-account/contributing/calculate-room.html
• Canada Revenue Agency, "Opening a TFSA", 2026. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/tax-free-savings-account/opening.html
• Canada Revenue Agency, "MP, DB, RRSP, DPSP, ALDA, TFSA limits, YMPE and the YAMPE", 2026. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/registered-plans-administrators/pspa/mp-rrsp-dpsp-tfsa-limits-ympe.html
• Canada Revenue Agency, "If you over-contribute to a TFSA", 2026. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/tax-free-savings-account/contributing/overcontribute.html
• Canada Revenue Agency, "If you owe tax on excess TFSA amounts", 2026. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/tax-free-savings-account/owing-tax/excess.html
• Canada Revenue Agency, "TFSA excess amount correspondence explained", 2026. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/tax-free-savings-account/tax-payable-on-tfsas/tfsa-excess-amount-correspondence-explained.html
• Canada Revenue Agency, "How non-residency affects your TFSA", 2026. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/tax-free-savings-account/non-resident.html
• Canada Revenue Agency, "Reminder: Tax Free Savings Account, Watch your limit and stay within it!", July 24, 2025. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/news/newsroom/tax-tips/tax-tips-2025/tax-free-savings-account-limit.html

If you would like a hand reconciling your own TFSA history, or you have opened an envelope from the CRA and you're not sure what it means, book a free no-pressure call with Milo. He works with families across Burnaby, Vancouver, Coquitlam and New Westminster, in English or Tagalog, and there is no obligation at the end of it.