TFSA and RRSP contribution room and deadline
How room accrues, why withdrawals differ between the two accounts, when the RRSP deadline actually matters, and the overcontribution traps that cost real money.
August 15, 2026 · 9 min read · Reviewed September 6, 2026
Contribution room is one of the few areas of personal finance where the penalty for a small mistake is immediate and mechanical. The CRA does not send a warning before it starts charging.
The two main registered accounts behave differently in almost every respect, and conflating them is the most common source of error. For how they sit alongside the FHSA and the RESP, see the Canadian registered account types.
TFSA: room comes back, but not immediately
TFSA room accrues every year from the later of 2009 or the year you turn 18, provided you are a Canadian resident. It accumulates whether or not you open an account, so someone who opens their first TFSA at 35 has years of accrued room waiting.
The rule that catches people is the withdrawal timing:
A TFSA withdrawal restores contribution room on January 1 of the following calendar year, not immediately.
Withdraw in March and re-contribute the same amount in June of the same year, and you have overcontributed unless you had unused room to cover it. The penalty is 1% per month on the excess, for every month it remains.
This trips up people using a TFSA as a flexible savings vehicle, moving money in and out across a year, who reason that they are "putting back what they took out."
Other TFSA specifics worth knowing: contributions are not deductible, growth and withdrawals are not taxable, and holding US dividend-paying stocks means the 15% US withholding tax is generally not recoverable, because a TFSA is not a recognised retirement account under the Canada–US tax treaty. The US withholding tax calculator works out what that costs on your own dividend figure, in each account.
The annual limits, and the total they add up to
| Years | Annual TFSA limit |
|---|---|
| 2009–2012 | $5,000 |
| 2013–2014 | $5,500 |
| 2015 | $10,000 |
| 2016–2018 | $5,500 |
| 2019–2022 | $6,000 |
| 2023 | $6,500 |
| 2024–2026 | $7,000 |
Someone who has been eligible every year since 2009 and never contributed has $109,000 of room in 2026. The 2015 figure is not a typo, the limit was raised to $10,000 for one year and then reduced again, which is why a rule of thumb based on "about $6,000 a year" understates the total by thousands.
If you turned 18 after 2009, your room starts in the year you turned 18, not in 2009. That is the single most common reason a person's own number is lower than the total above.
RRSP: room is earned, and withdrawals do not restore it
RRSP room is a function of income, not age. Each year you accrue 18% of the previous year's earned income, up to an annual maximum, reduced by any pension adjustment from an employer plan. Unused room carries forward indefinitely.
Withdrawals do not restore room. Money taken out of an RRSP is gone from the account permanently, taxed as income in the year of withdrawal, and subject to withholding at source. The two exceptions, the Home Buyers' Plan and the Lifelong Learning Plan, are repayable loans to yourself with their own schedules, and a missed repayment becomes taxable income. That is the accumulation side of the question. What the same rule does to a retirement that starts early is the subject of retiring early in Canada.
The deduction is also separable from the contribution. You can contribute this year and carry the deduction forward to a year when your marginal rate is higher, which is worth considering if your income is unusually low this year.
Unlike a TFSA, US dividends inside an RRSP are generally exempt from the 15% withholding under the treaty, which is why US-listed holdings often sit there.
The word US-listed in that sentence is doing more work than it looks. The exemption applies to a dividend paid to the plan, so it survives a US-listed fund bought inside the RRSP and does not survive a Canadian-listed fund that holds the US shares on your behalf: in that case the fund is the holder, an ETF is not an RRSP, and the withholding happens before the money reaches your account.
The overcontribution buffer that is not a buffer
RRSP room is 18% of your prior year's earned income, capped at a dollar limit that rises each year, $33,810 for 2026 (verified 2026-09-06, same CRA table as above). The cap is what makes the 18% figure misleading above roughly $187,800 of earned income: past that point the percentage stops mattering and the ceiling is the only number in play.
RRSPs carry a $2,000 lifetime overcontribution allowance before penalties apply. This is widely described as a cushion. It is more accurately a margin for error: the amount is not deductible, and once you have used it, you have no protection left against a genuine mistake later.
TFSAs have no equivalent. The first dollar over is penalised.
The RRSP deadline, and what it actually governs
The deadline to contribute for a given tax year is 60 days after that year ends. For the 2026 tax year that is Monday, March 1, 2027. Where the 60th day lands on a weekend or a holiday the CRA moves it to the next business day; in 2027 it does not, so March 1 is the date.
What the deadline governs is narrower than most people assume, and the distinction is worth getting right:
The deadline decides which tax year you may deduct against. It does not decide whether you may contribute.
A contribution made on March 2, 2027 is not rejected and nothing is lost. It simply counts toward the 2027 tax year instead. If you have room, you can contribute on any day of the year. The pressure people feel in late February is entirely about the deduction.
Three things follow from that, and each one catches somebody every year:
- A contribution made in January or February has to be reported on the previous year's return, in the first-60-days section, even if you intend to carry the deduction forward. Reporting it and deducting it are separate steps.
- The deduction can wait; the contribution cannot be backdated. Contributing before the deadline and deducting in a later year is a deliberate strategy when you expect a higher marginal rate. The reverse does not exist.
- The deadline does nothing for room you do not have. Rushing a contribution in February against room you have already used is how the overcontribution penalty above gets triggered, and the deadline is the reason people skip the check.
The contribution room calculator applies this attribution to a list of deposits and shows which tax year each one lands on, which is the check the February rush is skipping.
The TFSA has no equivalent deadline. Its room is a calendar-year quantity: the new annual amount appears on January 1, and withdrawn amounts come back on January 1 of the year after the withdrawal. There is nothing about the end of February that matters to a TFSA, and treating the two accounts as sharing a deadline is a common conflation.
One other date is worth holding alongside this one. If you are realising a capital loss in a taxable account to apply against gains, the relevant cut-off is in December, not March, because it depends on the trade settling within the calendar year, and the superficial loss rule can deny the loss entirely if you repurchase inside its window. Two different deadlines, two different accounts, and they are frequently confused with each other.
Where the authoritative number lives
Your CRA My Account shows both figures. This is the number that counts, and it is the only one that does.
Two caveats that matter:
- The figure is only as current as your last assessed return. Contributions made this year, especially recent ones, may not be reflected yet.
- Transfers between institutions, corrections, and prior-year reassessments can move it after the fact.
Any figure a tool shows you, including Luum's, is an estimate built from what you have told it. It is useful for planning and for catching an obvious problem early. It is not a substitute for checking My Account before you make a large contribution.
Why tracking this is harder than it should be
If you hold registered accounts at more than one institution, no single institution can tell you your position. Each one knows what it received. The room is a property of you, not of any account.
That is the same structural problem as adjusted cost base: the authoritative view exists only when someone aggregates across every account, and by default nobody does.
The practical approach is to record contributions as you make them, with the date and the account, and reconcile against My Account once a year after your notice of assessment arrives. It takes a few minutes annually and it removes the entire category of error.
Verify your own room with the CRA before acting on any estimate.
Common questions
Does a TFSA withdrawal give me the room back straight away?
No. The amount you withdraw is added back to your contribution room on the first of January of the following year, not immediately. Recontributing in the same calendar year is the most common way people overcontribute by accident.
Where do I find my official contribution room?
In CRA My Account. Any figure a tracker shows you, including Luum's, is a projection built from the transactions it can see, and the CRA's own record is the one that governs. Their figure can also lag recent contributions your institution has not yet reported.
When is the RRSP deadline, and what happens if I miss it?
The deadline is 60 days after the tax year ends, which for the 2026 tax year is Monday, March 1, 2027. Missing it does not cost you the contribution or the room. It only means the amount is deducted against the following tax year instead, because the deadline governs which year you may deduct against rather than whether you may contribute.
Do I have to deduct an RRSP contribution in the year I make it?
No. The contribution has to be made by the deadline to count for that tax year, but the deduction can be carried forward and claimed in a later year, which some people do deliberately when they expect to be in a higher bracket.
This article is educational and general in nature. It is not investment, tax, or legal advice, and it does not take your own circumstances into account. Verify tax treatment with the CRA or a qualified tax professional.