The TFSA limit for 2026 is $7,000. It's the figure that goes around every January, and it's also the one that helps you least: it says what the government adds to your room this year, not what you can deposit. Your real limit is almost always higher, sometimes by a lot.
Your room builds up whether you use it or not
Your contribution room is the space you're allowed to fill. Every year since 2009, the annual limit gets added to it. There's nothing to apply for, nothing to declare, and it never expires: a year where you put in nothing stays available forever.
Concretely, someone who was already 18 when the TFSA was created and has never touched it has $109,000 today. Not $7,000: the sum of 18 years of limits.
A year counts for you when three things line up: it's 2009 or later, you turned 18 that year, and you were a Canadian resident. Turning 18 on December 30th is enough to get the whole year's limit. And unlike the RRSP, your salary has nothing to do with it: a student with no income builds the same room as an executive.
The calendar rule that costs 1% a month
This is the one most people learn too late, usually from a letter from the Canada Revenue Agency. What you withdraw from the TFSA only comes back as room on the following January 1st. Never in the year of the withdrawal.
March
You withdraw $10,000 for an unexpected expense. Your room doesn't move: it comes back in January.
September
The expense never happened. You put the $10,000 back, telling yourself it's your own money. You are now $10,000 over the limit.
September to December
The CRA counts 1% a month on the excess: $400 for 4 months. The letter arrives the following year.
January 1st
March's $10,000 finally returns to your room. The excess disappears; the penalty is still owed.
Why the CRA's figure is a year behind
Your room shows up in My Account on the CRA website. It's the official source, and it's frozen at January 1st. The reason is administrative: your bank reports your contributions and withdrawals once the year is over, not as they happen. Everything you've done since January isn't in there, often until the following spring.
The CRA remains the only reference for your history, especially if you've switched banks along the way. But to know what you can deposit today, you have to start from its figure and apply the current year yourself.
Run it on your own numbers
The Atlas TFSA contribution room calculator does it from four figures: your birth year, what you've contributed over the years, your withdrawals from past years, and this year's. That last field is the one that changes everything: it's what separates the room you have now from the room you'll have in January. Free, no account, and nothing leaves your browser.
And if your question is really “TFSA or RRSP first”, that's the subject of TFSA or RRSP: which account comes first?
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