TFSA Calculator

How to use this tax-free savings account calculator

Give it your birth year and it works out how much TFSA room you have accumulated, because room starts the year you turn 18 rather than the year you open an account. Add what you have already contributed and what you have withdrawn, and it tells you what is left to put in, whether you have gone over, and what the balance grows to at the rate you choose.

The two withdrawal fields are separate on purpose. Money you took out in an earlier year is already back in your room. Money you took out this year is not, and will not be until January 1. That single distinction is behind most accidental over-contributions in Canada.

How TFSA contribution room works

Your TFSA contribution room is not tied to your income, and you do not need to file a return to earn it. You accumulate room every year from the later of 2009 or the year you turned 18, as long as you are a Canadian resident with a valid SIN. Room you do not use carries forward indefinitely, which is why someone who has never contributed can be sitting on more than a hundred thousand dollars of unused space.

The arithmetic is simple enough to do by hand. Add up the annual limits for every year you have been eligible, subtract everything you have ever contributed, then add back any withdrawals you made in previous years. That is the number the calculator above produces from your birth year.

TFSA contribution limits by year

Year	Annual limit
2009 – 2012	$5,000 per year
2013 – 2014	$5,500 per year
2015	$10,000
2016 – 2018	$5,500 per year
2019 – 2022	$6,000 per year
2023	$6,500
2024 – 2026	$7,000 per year

Someone who has been eligible since 2009 and has never put a dollar in has $109,000 of room in 2026. Limits are indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500, so they move in steps rather than every year.

The withdrawal rule that catches people out

When you withdraw from a TFSA, that room comes back — but not straight away. It is restored on January 1 of the following year. Take out $10,000 in June and put it back in September of the same year, and unless you had $10,000 of room sitting unused, you have over-contributed for those months.

This is the most common TFSA mistake in Canada, and it is an easy one to make because the account feels like a savings account. It is worth treating a TFSA withdrawal as a decision you cannot reverse until the calendar turns.

What over-contributing costs

The CRA charges 1% per month on the highest excess amount in your account, for every month the excess stays there. It is a recurring charge, not a one-time fee. Being $5,000 over for a full year is $600, and the CRA will send you a form asking for it.

If the calculator above tells you that you are over, the fix is to withdraw the excess promptly. The charge stops accruing the month after the money is out.

What interest rate should you use?

A lot of people arrive looking for a TFSA interest calculator, expecting the account itself to pay a rate. It does not. A TFSA is a wrapper, and the interest or return comes from whatever you hold inside it. The rate you enter above is doing all the work, so it is worth being honest about which number applies to you.

What you hold	Rate to enter
High-interest savings TFSA at a big bank	1% to 2%
High-interest savings TFSA at an online bank	2% to 3.5%
GIC held to term	Whatever rate you locked in
Bond ETF	Roughly the current yield to maturity
Global equity ETF	7%, as a long-run average

A savings TFSA and a GIC genuinely pay interest, and that interest compounds tax-free. An equity ETF has no rate at all. It has returned roughly 7% a year on average over long periods, with individual years ranging from badly negative to strongly positive, so a single rate is a simplification rather than a promise. The calculator compounds annually either way, which makes the rate you pick the single largest lever on the final number.

That gap is worth seeing rather than reading about. On $500 a month for 25 years, 2% compounds to roughly $196,000 while 7% reaches about $406,000 — on identical contributions of $150,000. Change the expected return field above and the projection updates immediately.

What to actually hold in a TFSA

A TFSA is an account, not an investment. The tax shelter only matters if there is something growing inside it. Money parked in a savings TFSA at 2% is safe, but the shelter is doing very little work.

For a long time horizon, many Canadians use a single globally diversified equity ETF and leave it alone — XEQT being the common choice, holding over 12,000 stocks at a 0.20% management fee. Whether that suits you depends on your timeline and how you handle a bad year. If you need the money within a few years, an equity fund is the wrong tool regardless of the tax treatment.

If you want to compare a TFSA against your other registered options, the RRSP planner and FHSA planner run the same style of projection for those accounts.

Common questions

How much TFSA contribution room do I have?

Your room is the total of every annual TFSA limit since the later of 2009 or the year you turned 18, minus everything you have contributed, plus anything you withdrew in previous years. Someone who has been eligible since 2009 and never contributed has $109,000 of room in 2026. The calculator on this page works this out from your birth year.

What are the TFSA limits by year?

$5,000 for 2009 through 2012, $5,500 for 2013 and 2014, $10,000 for 2015, $5,500 for 2016 through 2018, $6,000 for 2019 through 2022, $6,500 for 2023, and $7,000 for 2024 through 2026. Unused room carries forward indefinitely.

When can I re-contribute money I withdrew from my TFSA?

On January 1 of the year after you withdrew it. Putting it back in the same calendar year, when you have no other room available, is the single most common way Canadians accidentally over-contribute.

What is the penalty for over-contributing to a TFSA?

The CRA charges 1% per month on the highest excess amount in your account for each month the over-contribution remains. It is not a one-time fee, so the cost grows every month until you withdraw the excess.

What return should I use for a TFSA calculator?

It depends what you hold. A high-interest savings TFSA might return 2-3%. A globally diversified equity ETF like XEQT has historically returned closer to 7% a year over long periods, though with real year-to-year volatility. The default here is 7%.

Does a TFSA pay interest?

Not by itself. A TFSA is a wrapper around whatever you hold, so the interest rate comes from the investment rather than the account. A high-interest savings TFSA pays roughly 1-3%, a GIC pays the rate you locked in, and an equity ETF pays no rate at all but has averaged closer to 7% a year over long periods. Enter the rate that matches what you actually hold.

Does this work for a Wealthsimple TFSA?

Yes. Contribution room is set by the CRA and follows you, not the institution, so the room figure is the same whether your TFSA is at Wealthsimple, a big bank, or split across several providers. Enter the total you have contributed across every TFSA you hold, and use the expected return that matches what you own inside it.

Do I pay tax on TFSA withdrawals?

No. Withdrawals are completely tax-free and do not count as income, so they will not affect income-tested benefits like OAS or the GIS. That is what separates a TFSA from an RRSP.