TFSA contribution room calculator

On January 1 of the following year, not straight away. Take out $5,000 in March and put it back in June of the same year and the $5,000 going back in counts as a brand new contribution against your existing room. If you had none left, you have now over-contributed and owe 1% per month on the excess. This is the rule that costs people the most money.

No. Room accrues every year from the later of 2009 and the year you turned 18, whether or not you have ever opened a TFSA. Unused room carries forward forever, so someone who has never contributed still has every dollar of it waiting.

No. Your room is per person, not per account. Splitting savings across three institutions does not create any more of it, it only makes your own total harder to keep track of.

The number in CRA My Account is only current to the last return they processed, so it usually lags your recent contributions. That is exactly why a calculator is useful, and also why you should treat both numbers as estimates until your next assessment.

The limit is indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500, which is why it holds steady for years at a time. 2015 is the one exception: it was raised to $10,000 for a single year and rolled back to $5,500 in 2016.