Your TFSA contribution room is the maximum amount you can put into all of your Tax-Free Savings Accounts combined. It is not a limit set by your bank. It is a Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) limit, and it applies across every TFSA you hold, whether you have one account or five.
Before year-end is a good time to check it. A withdrawal you make in 2026 does not give you room back until January 1, 2027, and a contribution you make without room can trigger a penalty. Here is how to work out exactly where you stand.
The 2026 TFSA limit at a glance
- 2026 annual TFSA dollar limit: $7,000
- The limit has been $7,000 in 2024, 2025, and 2026
- The limit is indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500, which is why it holds steady for a few years and then steps up
- Maximum cumulative room in 2026 for someone who was 18 or older in 2009, has been a Canadian resident every year since, and has never contributed: $109,000
That $109,000 figure is the sum of every annual limit since the TFSA began in 2009. It is not a separate lifetime cap. If you turned 18 after 2009, your room starts from the year you turned 18, so your total will be lower.
How your contribution room is calculated
Your available room is made up of three things:
- The current year’s dollar limit — $7,000 in 2026
- Any unused room carried forward from previous years
- Any amounts you withdrew from a TFSA in a previous year, which are added back on January 1 of the following year
Unused room carries forward indefinitely. You do not lose TFSA room on December 31 just because you did not use it.
Worked example: if you have $5,000 of unused room carried forward from previous years, your available room in 2026 is $7,000 plus $5,000, for a total of $12,000. That is the maximum you can contribute in 2026.
A contribution reduces your available room immediately, by the same amount you contributed. So if you contribute $4,000 from $7,000 of room, you are left with $3,000 of room.
How to check your actual room
The most reliable way to know your room is to calculate it from your own financial records. Add up the annual limit for every year since you became eligible, add back withdrawals from previous years, and subtract everything you have ever contributed.
You can also check CRA My Account, but treat that number with care. The TFSA information in your CRA account is only updated once a year, in the spring, with your transactions from the previous year. If you contributed or withdrew money this year, those transactions may not be reflected yet. The CRA itself says to use your own records, not just the CRA account figure, before you contribute.
If the two numbers disagree, trust your own records and your financial institution’s statements, and sort out the difference before making a large contribution.
The withdrawal trap: room does not come back right away
TFSA withdrawals are tax-free, and you can take money out at any time, for any reason. But the room from a withdrawal is not restored immediately. It comes back on January 1 of the following calendar year.
Example: if you have maxed out your TFSA and you withdraw $10,000 in 2026, you cannot re-contribute that $10,000 in 2026 unless you already have unused room sitting there. That room returns on January 1, 2027, along with the new year’s annual limit.
This is the mistake that catches the most people. Re-contributing a withdrawal in the same calendar year, without spare room, creates an over-contribution — even though the money originally came out of your TFSA.
If you are planning a TFSA withdrawal near year-end and you intend to put the money back, the timing matters. A withdrawal in December 2026 gives you the room back in January 2027. A withdrawal in January 2027 does not give you the room back until January 2028.
What happens if you over-contribute
If you put in more than your available room, the CRA charges a tax of 1% per month on the highest excess amount for each month the excess stays in the account.
Example: a $2,000 over-contribution left in the account for October, November, and December would cost $60 in penalty tax — $2,000 times 1% times 3 months.
To stop the penalty from growing, withdraw the excess amount as soon as you notice it. If the CRA assesses the excess, you will need to file a TFSA return and pay the tax owing.
A simple year-end checklist
- List every TFSA you hold. Your room is shared across all of them.
- Work out your room from your own records: annual limits since you turned 18, plus previous years’ withdrawals, minus all contributions.
- Compare that figure with CRA My Account, remembering the CRA figure lags by up to a year.
- If you withdrew money in 2026 and want it back in, wait until January 1, 2027, unless you have unused room already.
- If you have spare room and spare cash, there is no December 31 deadline forcing you to act — your room carries forward — but contributing sooner means any growth inside the TFSA is sheltered sooner.
The bottom line
For 2026, the new TFSA room is $7,000, on top of whatever unused room you already have. The two rules worth remembering are that room carries forward, so there is no use-it-or-lose-it rush, and that withdrawals only give you room back the following January 1, so never re-contribute a withdrawal in the same year without checking your room first.
Check your room before you contribute, not after — a one-minute calculation now beats a 1%-per-month penalty later.
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