TFSA Contribution Room Calculator

1. How to Use the TFSA Contribution Room Calculator

Start with three facts about you. Your birth year tells the calculator when you turned 18. The year you became a resident tells it when a newcomer’s room began; leave it blank if you have always lived in Canada. The years-abroad box takes any full calendar years you lived outside Canada, such as “2016, 2017”, because those years add no room.

Your province. This sets the age at which you can open a TFSA: 18 in Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec and Saskatchewan, and 19 in British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, the Northwest Territories, Nova Scotia, Nunavut and Yukon. It does not change your room: someone who must wait until 19 to open a TFSA still earns room from the year they turn 18.

Then your history. Enter total contributions and total withdrawals made before 2026, then contributions and withdrawals made so far in 2026. Keep the two periods separate. They are treated differently, because withdrawals made in 2026 do not add room until January 1, 2027.

Reading the result. The headline figure is your room available now. Below it you see the room earned since your start year, your room on January 1, 2026, what you have used this year, and your room on January 1, 2027, which is shown as an amount “plus the 2027 limit” until CRA publishes that limit. The table lists each year’s limit and your running total.

2. The Rules Behind the Numbers

Your start year. The calculator starts counting in the latest of three years: 2009, when TFSAs began; the year you turn 18; and the year you became a resident. From that year to 2026 it adds each year’s limit, except any year you list as a full year abroad.

The room formula. Room for the year = the current year’s limit + unused room from earlier years + withdrawals made in the previous year – contributions made this year. Unused room carries forward with no expiry, so the calculator simply adds up every year.

No proration. The year you turn 18, arrive in Canada or leave Canada each count in full. A December arrival gets the same room for that year as a January arrival.

The limits it uses. These are CRA’s annual TFSA dollar limits. The limit is indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500.

What it leaves out. Investment growth and losses do not affect room, so the calculator never asks for your balance. Direct transfers between your own TFSAs, transfers to a former partner under a court order or written separation agreement, and a surviving spouse’s exempt contribution filed with Form RC240 also do not use room, so leave them out of your contribution totals. For the full year-by-year history, see our TFSA contribution limit page.

Other accounts have their own room. TFSA room is separate from RRSP room, which comes from earned income, and from FHSA room, which is $8,000 a year once the account is open. Our RRSP tax refund calculator, FHSA calculator and RESP grant calculator handle those accounts, and the RESP guide covers saving for a child’s education. To decide which account to fill first, see FHSA vs TFSA, our guide to investment accounts in Canada, or all our calculators.

3. Worked Examples: Three People, Three Results

4. Reference Tables: TFSA Room by Age and by Arrival Year

Room by age. Find your age at the end of 2026. The figure is your total room in 2026 if you have been a resident since the year you turned 18 and have never contributed. Anyone 35 or older at the end of 2026 was 18 by 2009 and has the full $109,000.

Room for newcomers by arrival year. If you became a resident of Canada at 18 or older, your room starts in your arrival year, which counts in full. The table assumes you have stayed a resident since arriving and never contributed. If you arrived before turning 18, use the age table instead, because your room starts in the year you turned 18.

The newcomer rule in one line. Room starts on the day you become a resident, only years of residency count, and you need a valid SIN to open the account. CRA’s own example: a person who became a resident in 2024 had $7,000 of room for 2024, not the total since 2009.

Mixed cases. If you arrived, left for some full years and came back, or arrived as a teenager, the tables cannot cover you exactly. The calculator handles any mix of birth year, arrival year and years abroad.

5. How Withdrawals and Re-Contributions Work in the Calculator

Earlier withdrawals add room now. Withdrawals made before 2026 have already been added back to your room on the January 1 after each one. That is why the calculator adds your total pre-2026 withdrawals straight into your room on January 1, 2026.

This year’s withdrawals wait. A withdrawal made in 2026 does not change your room for 2026. The calculator shows it only in your January 1, 2027 figure. For example, if Leah from section 3 withdrew $10,000 in 2026, her room now would still be $41,000, and her January 1, 2027 room would be $51,000 ($41,000 + $10,000) plus the 2027 limit.

Putting money back. You can redeposit at any time up to your room now. Anything above that figure is an excess until the next January 1. Run the calculator before you put back a withdrawal made this year, because the redeposit uses room just like a new deposit.

Growth comes back too. Enter withdrawals at the amount actually taken out, including any growth. If you contributed $10,000 and later withdrew $14,000, enter $10,000 as a contribution and $14,000 as a withdrawal. Your room ends up $4,000 higher than if you had never contributed, which is correct.

Transfers are not withdrawals. If you moved a TFSA from one institution to another by direct transfer, leave it out of both boxes. If you withdrew and redeposited it yourself, enter both amounts, because that is how CRA counts them. Our TFSA withdrawal rules guide covers timing and transfers in detail, and our guide on how to transfer a TFSA explains the direct-transfer process.

6. If the Calculator Shows You Are Over

A negative result is an excess. If your room now is below zero, you have contributed more than your room allows. The calculator shows the amount and an estimate of the monthly tax.

The tax. An excess is taxed at 1% per month on the highest excess amount in each month it remains. There is no grace amount, and a month counts in full even if the excess existed for only part of it.

What to do. Please withdraw the excess as soon as you find it. Then file the TFSA Return and pay the tax by June 30 of the following year. The excess also ends when new room arrives on January 1 and covers it, but waiting costs 1% for every month until then.

Deposits while abroad. A contribution made while you are a non-resident is taxed at 1% per month on its own, until it is withdrawn or you become a resident again. If it also exceeds your room, the 1% excess tax applies on top.

Check the cost. Use this calculator to see the tax on any excess for the number of months it stayed in the account, and how much you save by removing it a month sooner.

7. How Much TFSA Room Do I Have? Our Figure vs CRA My Account

Two sources, one answer. CRA keeps its own record of your TFSA room, which you can see in CRA My Account. It is built from the contributions and withdrawals your TFSA issuers report to CRA. Our calculator is built from what you enter. When both use the same history, they agree.

Why they can differ. CRA’s figure may not yet include recent transactions, especially deposits and withdrawals made this year. An institution may have reported a transfer as a withdrawal and a new contribution. Or a TFSA you forgot about may show up in CRA’s records but not in yours.

How to compare. Start with the room on January 1 of the current year, because that is the figure least affected by timing. Compare it with the calculator’s “Room on January 1, 2026” line. If they match, apply this year’s deposits yourself. If they do not, list every contribution and withdrawal by year and institution and look for the gap.

When CRA shows less than we do. Treat the lower figure as your limit until you know why. Depositing up to the higher figure risks the 1% monthly tax if CRA’s records turn out to be right.

Fixing a reporting error. If an institution reported a transaction wrongly, ask it to correct what it filed with CRA. Keep statements that show each transaction, because they are your evidence if CRA later says you were over.

Use both. CRA’s figure is the official record. The calculator is a fast way to check it, plan this year’s deposits, and see your January 1, 2027 starting point before CRA updates anything. How we check the limits it uses is set out in our editorial standards.

8. What Your TFSA Room Could Grow To

Room is the ceiling, growth is the point. Every dollar of room you fill can earn interest, dividends and gains that are never taxed in a TFSA. The longer the money stays in, the larger the share of the final balance that comes from growth.

A simple illustration. This example is hypothetical, and 5% is not a forecast. Depositing $7,000 at the start of each year and earning 5% a year, compounded yearly, gives $7,350 after one year ($7,000 x 1.05), $15,067.50 after two ($14,350 x 1.05) and $23,170.88 after three ($22,067.50 x 1.05). After 20 years the balance is $243,034.76, of which $140,000 is deposits ($7,000 x 20) and $103,034.76 is growth. Future TFSA limits are not known, so the $7,000 a year is an assumption.

Catching up with a lump sum. Someone who deposits the full $109,000 of room at once and earns a hypothetical 5% a year for 10 years ends with $177,549.51 ($109,000 x 1.05 to the power of 10). All $68,549.51 of growth is tax-free inside the TFSA.

Try your own numbers. This calculator adds monthly deposits at the end of each month and shows the balance year by year. Because it uses monthly deposits, its results differ slightly from the yearly example above.

Where the money sits matters. Savings accounts and GICs give a fixed or variable interest rate; investments can earn more or less. Compare current high-interest savings rates and GIC rates, or the brokerage options in our best TFSA accounts list and the Wealthsimple TFSA review. For US holdings, read about US stocks in a TFSA and the best TFSA for US stocks. The full compound interest calculator page has more options.