Your TFSA contribution room is one number, but there are two places to get it, and they rarely agree. The Canada Revenue Agency shows one figure in your CRA account. Your own statements, added up, give another. When they differ, the CRA's own guidance is clear about which one to trust before you contribute: yours.
This guide shows where the CRA figure lives, why it is behind by design, and how to turn it into the number you actually need: how much you can put in today without paying the 1% monthly overcontribution tax. The authoritative reference is the CRA page Calculate your TFSA contribution room.
The short version
- The CRA figure is your room at the start of the year, built from what your banks and brokers reported for last year.
- Trust it only after the spring update. From January to April it already includes the new year's limit but can still miss last year's contributions.
- It never includes anything you did this year. Contributions since January 1 have not been subtracted yet.
- Your real room today = the CRA figure for January 1, minus everything you have contributed to any TFSA since January 1.
- This year's withdrawals do not count yet. They come back as room next January 1.
- If you have no CRA account, you can rebuild the number from your birth year with the free TFSA contribution room calculator.
Step 1: find the figure in your CRA account
The CRA lists the path itself:
- Sign in to your CRA account (My Account).
- Select your Individual account.
- Select Savings and pension plans.
- Select View TFSA details.
- Select Contribution room.
The page shows your contribution room at the start of the year. Write it down with the date it applies to, usually January 1 of the current year. That date matters more than the figure, because it tells you which contributions are already counted.
The same screen offers a calculator: in the warning message, select the link to calculate your room with your own records, then Do your own calculation. The paper version is the TFSA contribution room worksheet, Form RC343.
Step 2: understand why it lags
The CRA does not see your TFSA in real time. Each bank and broker sends the CRA one report a year with your contributions and withdrawals for the previous calendar year. The CRA then updates your account once, in the spring. For 2026, the CRA said it would process 2025 records by April 2026 and called that "the best time to check".
That schedule creates three gaps:
- This year is missing entirely. In October, your CRA figure knows nothing about the contributions you made in February, June or September.
- Last year can be missing before spring. On January 1 the new dollar limit is added right away, but last year's contributions may not be reported yet, so the figure can be too high. The CRA's own example is a saver who checks on January 1, sees room that still ignores the contribution she made the year before, deposits on that basis, and overcontributes.
- A late or wrong report stays wrong until it is fixed. If you disagree with what an issuer reported, the CRA asks you to contact that issuer, who must send the CRA an amended report.
None of this is a bug. It is why the CRA page says, in plain words, to use your own financial records to calculate your available room, not the information in your CRA account.
Step 3: correct it with your own records
The CRA's formula for this year's room is:
- this year's dollar limit ($7,000 in 2026)
- plus unused room from previous years
- plus withdrawals made last year
- minus contributions already made this year
Once the spring update is in, the first three lines are what the CRA figure gives you. So in practice you only do the last line yourself:
Room today = CRA room on January 1 − contributions to all your TFSAs since January 1
A worked example. In May 2026, after the spring update, your CRA account shows $23,500 of room at the start of 2026. Since then you put $4,000 into your TFSA at your bank in February and $6,000 into a second TFSA at your broker in August. Your room today is $23,500 − $4,000 − $6,000 = $13,500.
Two details catch people:
- Withdrawals this year add nothing yet. If you also took $5,000 out in May, your room today is still $13,500. That $5,000 comes back on January 1, 2027. Putting it back sooner, while you are near the limit, is an overcontribution. The TFSA recontribution timing guide has the full rule.
- Transfers between institutions are not contributions when they are done as a direct transfer. Moving a TFSA from one bank to another with the transfer form does not use room. Withdrawing the cash and depositing it yourself does.
If you have never had a CRA account
You can still get the number. Your total room is the sum of every annual dollar limit since the later of 2009, the year you turned 18, and the year you became a resident, minus what you have contributed, plus withdrawals from earlier years. Someone who was 18 or older and a resident in 2009 and has never contributed has $109,000 of room in 2026.
The TFSA limits by year table lists every annual limit and the total by birth year. The TFSA contribution room calculator does the sum for you and subtracts what you enter as contributed. You can also contact the CRA and ask.
Why your bank cannot tell you
Your bank or broker knows exactly what you put into its TFSA. It does not know about the TFSA you opened elsewhere, and it does not see your room. That is why an institution will accept a deposit that puts you over the limit without any warning.
The tax on an excess is 1% per month on the highest excess in the month, and it runs until you withdraw the excess or new room arrives on January 1. The TFSA overcontribution penalty guide works through the cost in dollars and the fix. The protection is simple: before any large deposit, redo Step 3 with every TFSA you hold.
Keeping the number current
The method above works with a notebook. The hard part is remembering every contribution across every account until the next spring update.
In Mozaic, the Contribution Room view (under Analytics) is built around exactly this method. You enter the room figure from your CRA account and the date it applies to, and Mozaic subtracts the contributions it detects in your connected TFSAs after that date, across every institution. You review the detected entries (switching off a transfer that does not use room, for example), and a badge shows whether you are on track or over the limit. Withdrawals come back as room on January 1 of the following year, as the rule says. If you have no CRA figure, you can enter your birth year for an estimate instead, labelled as an estimate.
It is a tracking aid, not tax advice: the CRA remains the official source, and it is worth checking your CRA account before a large contribution. Mozaic is free for manual tracking; automatic syncing of your bank and brokerage accounts is $99 CAD a year, and the pricing page has the details.
The bottom line
Check your CRA account once a year, after the spring update, and write down the figure with its date. If you need the number between January and April, start from last spring's figure and your own records instead. Between updates, subtract what you contribute. Leave this year's withdrawals out until January. Do that, and the CRA figure and your own will match every spring, and you avoid the 1% tax.