How Much TFSA and RRSP Room Do You Actually Have?

You're about to put money into a TFSA or an RRSP, and you want to know how much room you've got before a penalty kicks in. Your CRA account shows a number for each, and neither is quite up to date. The TFSA figure gets rebuilt once a year, in the spring, from what your bank reported the previous February, so anything you've done since then isn't in it. The RRSP figure is firmer, because it comes off your last tax return, but it was worked out before you'd put in a single dollar this year.

Key takeaways

• The CRA's own page tells you to use your own records for a TFSA, not the figure it shows you, because that figure describes last year.
• Your 2026 TFSA room is $7,000, plus everything you never used, plus anything you withdrew last year. Eligible since 2009 and never contributed? It's $109,000.
• Your 2026 RRSP room is 18% of last year's earned income, capped at $33,810, less any pension adjustment, plus room you never used.
• Both accounts charge 1% a month if you go over. An RRSP lets you be $2,000 over before any tax starts. On a TFSA the tax starts at the first dollar.

Why the number on your screen is behind

Your bank doesn't report your TFSA contributions as you make them. It sends in a summary of your whole year, and it's got until the end of February of the following year to do that.⁵ The Canada Revenue Agency, or CRA, loads every one of those summaries at once, then refreshes your figure in the spring.¹

So the number you're looking at today is describing your last year, not the one you're in. If you contributed in March, took some out in July and opened a second account in September, none of that has reached your file yet. On that same page you'll find the instruction to work from your own records rather than the figure on your screen.¹

Your RRSP number is steadier. Your deduction limit gets worked out once, from your tax return, and printed on your notice of assessment.⁸ It's right on the day you get it, and it stays right up until the first contribution you make after that, which for most people is a few weeks later.

How much TFSA room do you have?

Four things go into your number, and you can do them on the back of an envelope. Start with this year's limit, which is $7,000 for you and for everyone else. Add every dollar of room you've never used. Add anything you withdrew last year. Then take off whatever you've already put in this year.¹

Your room started building the year you turned 18, as long as you were living in Canada, and it never expires.³ So if you were 18 or older in 2009, you've been here ever since, and you've never contributed a dollar, you're sitting on $109,000.²

You get one total, not one per account. Three TFSAs at three banks share a single number, and a dollar into any of them comes off that one total.³

Working out your RRSP room

This one's a formula, and its first line does most of the work: 18% of what you earned last year, so your room grows with your pay.⁶ If that comes to more than the annual cap, you get the cap instead. For 2026 the cap is $33,810, which you'd only reach on just over $187,800 of earned income.² Most people never touch it.

Then two adjustments to your figure. If you're in a pension plan at work, your pension adjustment comes off, because you're already building retirement money there.⁶ And any room you didn't use in earlier years gets added to yours, with no expiry.⁶

You can keep contributing until December 31 of the year you turn 71.⁶ After that your own plan closes to new money, and any room you never used closes along with it.

What does it cost if you go over?

Both accounts charge you 1% a month. What each one does before that is different.

An RRSP lets you go $2,000 over your deduction limit before any tax starts.⁷ That $2,000 is not extra room. You can't deduct it, and it only keeps the tax away. Past it, the 1% a month runs on everything above, and you report it on a Form T1-OVP within 90 days of year end.⁷

A TFSA has no such allowance. Your tax starts at the first dollar over, and it's charged on the highest excess your account held during that month.⁴ Say you're $6,000 over in August and you take $4,000 out in the middle of September, and you'll still pay on the full $6,000 for both of those months.⁴ The tax stops the month after the excess is gone, so the sooner it comes out the smaller the bill, and you file for it on a Form RC243 by June 30 of the following year.⁴

What happens to your room when you take money out

Your two accounts work in opposite directions here.

Take money out of a TFSA and you do get that room back, but not until January 1 of the next year.¹ Say you take $10,000 out in March and put it back in November. As far as your room is concerned, you've contributed $10,000. If you didn't have $10,000 spare to start with, you're over, and your 1% has been running since November.

Take the same amount out of an RRSP and your room is gone permanently. There's no January 1 and no restoration, which is a real part of why your two accounts suit different jobs, and why the order you fill them in is its own question.

You can go over on a TFSA in three ways: your own arithmetic, putting a withdrawal back in the same year, or several accounts nobody adds up.⁴

Whose situation sounds like yours

Four sets of numbers, all illustrative, and one of them probably sits closer to yours than the rest.

Maya has been accumulating TFSA room since 2020, so she has $45,500 of it and has used $6,000. Her first full year of salary was $52,000, which gives her $9,360 of RRSP room, so her TFSA room is nearly five times the size of it. Her next step is writing down what she's actually contributed, because she's never checked. "The Raise," where more money arrives and then vanishes.

Nadia and Theo run one budget, but their room isn't shared. She earned $58,000 last year and he earned $71,000, so they have $10,440 and $12,780 of RRSP room, in two names that can't be pooled. So they need two lists, not one. "The Same Page," where they stop guessing at each other's numbers.

Frank works for himself, and his room comes off what he actually earned rather than what he invoiced. He billed $180,000 last year and his net business income after expenses was $96,000, so his room is $17,280, not $32,400. Before he moves any money he needs that net figure off his return.

Joanne has $41,000 of unused RRSP room stacked up behind her and a few working years left. She can keep contributing right through the calendar year she turns 71, and then her own plan closes.⁶ Her next step is deciding how much of that room to use while she's still earning.

None of those four is you exactly. Borrow from whichever one starts where you started. On the TFSA side that's your first year of room, and on the RRSP side it's whether you have a pension, a salary, or income you add up yourself.

What moves your room up or down

A pension at work is the biggest single factor on your RRSP side. Your pension adjustment comes off your 18%, so you and someone on an identical salary can end up thousands apart.⁶ Your notice of assessment has that subtraction done for you already.⁸

Arriving in Canada as an adult means your TFSA room starts on the day you became a resident, not back in 2009.³ A new resident who put in $95,000 on the other assumption had $7,000 of room.³

Paying into your spouse's RRSP uses your room rather than theirs, and you can keep doing it until December 31 of the year they turn 71.⁶

Holding accounts at several institutions gives you no extra room.³ No institution can see what you hold at the others.

You can't work out your pension adjustment yourself, because it depends on what your plan credited you last year. Your notice of assessment carries it with the subtraction already applied, and if you changed employers part-way through a year, your plan administrator can tell you what yours will be this time.⁸

Where your real numbers are written down

1. Find your latest notice of assessment. Your RRSP Deduction Limit Statement is on it, and it's the one figure you don't have to work out yourself. If it isn't on yours, you'll have been sent a Form T1028 instead.⁸
2. Take off every RRSP dollar you've put in since. A contribution made by early March can go against last year's return or this one, but it only counts once against your room.⁶
3. Pull your own TFSA statements, from every institution. Every contribution you made, every withdrawal you took, every year you've held one. There's a worksheet for this, Form RC343, and it walks you through it.¹
4. Add them into one figure per account type. One TFSA number and one RRSP number, however many institutions you've spread them across.
5. Check your arithmetic. There's a calculator that walks both of your accounts year by year and shows its working. Run your own numbers.

If you're starting this with ten years of history and nothing written down, it looks like a lot. You only have to do it once. After that, one line in a note on your phone keeps the total current.

Leaving yourself a margin

Most people who've tracked their own contributions for a few years stop a few hundred dollars short of the number they calculated, on purpose. Being slightly under your room costs you nothing. Being slightly over it costs you 1% a month plus a return to file.

Most people with a long TFSA history and no paperwork land on rebuilding the whole thing once, from statements, then keeping a running total from there. Most people on a straightforward salary with no workplace pension take their notice of assessment figure and get on with it, because for them it's right. And most people who've made a TFSA withdrawal during the year wait for January rather than work out whether putting it back fits.

That split runs mostly on records. If you have yours, you work from them. If you don't, you wait for January.

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Common questions

Will the CRA tell me if I've over-contributed?+

Eventually. Notification usually comes through your CRA account or by mail in late spring, after your bank has reported the year. An excess can sit in the account for months before that, and you have to file a TFSA Return for it whether you're notified or not.

Can I put back money I took out of my TFSA this year?+

Only if you had unused room to begin with. The withdrawal itself doesn't come back as room until January 1 of the next year, so putting it back in the same year is one of the most common ways people go over.

What should I do if I go over by accident?+

The tax runs for every month the excess sits there, so most people take it out first and file after. For a TFSA that's Form RC243 by June 30 of the following year. For an RRSP it's Form T1-OVP within 90 days of year end, and you can ask for the tax to be waived if the excess came from a reasonable error and you've taken steps to clear it.

Do I lose RRSP room if I don't use it?+

No. Unused room carries forward and stays available until December 31 of the year you turn 71, which is when your own plan stops accepting contributions.

Does my spouse's income change my contribution room?+

No. Your room is worked out from your own earned income. You can contribute to your spouse's RRSP, but it uses your deduction limit rather than theirs.

Sources

1. CRACalculate your TFSA contribution room. The 2026 dollar limit of $7,000, the four-part calculation, the once-a-year spring update, the instruction to use your own records, the January 1 rule on withdrawals, and the Form RC343 worksheet. Accessed 2026-09-02.
2. CRAMP, DB, RRSP, DPSP, ALDA, TFSA limits, YMPE and the YAMPE. Every TFSA dollar limit from 2009 onward, and the RRSP dollar limit of $33,810 for 2026. Accessed 2026-09-02.
3. CRABefore you contribute to a TFSA. Room accumulating from age 18 for a resident of Canada, room being shared across all your accounts, and the rule for new residents. Accessed 2026-09-02.
4. CRAIf you owe tax on excess TFSA amounts. The 1% monthly tax on the highest excess held in a month, the three common causes, and Form RC243 by June 30. Accessed 2026-09-02.
5. CRAIf you over-contribute to a TFSA. Issuers reporting a calendar year's transactions by the end of February following, and notification in late spring. Accessed 2026-09-02.
6. CRAHow contributions affect your RRSP deduction limit. The 18% of previous-year earned income calculation, the pension adjustment, the contribution deadline, and the age 71 cut-off. Accessed 2026-09-02.
7. CRAExcess contributions to an RRSP, PRPP or SPP. The $2,000 allowance, the 1% monthly tax above it, Form T1-OVP within 90 days of year end, and the waiver route. Accessed 2026-09-02.
8. CRAWhere can you find your RRSP deduction limit. The RRSP Deduction Limit Statement on your notice of assessment, and Form T1028. Accessed 2026-09-02.

Educational, not financial advice. Figures verified against primary sources on the date shown.

See it in a story: "The Raise," where Maya's pay goes up and the money still disappears. For where a TFSA fits alongside cash you might need quickly, see the guide on holding an emergency fund, or browse the whole tax hub.