What does a TFSA over-contribution cost?
CRA charges 1% a month on the highest excess in each month it stays in your TFSA. Someone resident since 2021 with $39,500 of room who put in $45,000 is $5,500 over: $55 a month.
You have $0 of TFSA room.
You
TFSA
$0 room this year
Your room started in 2021, the year you became a tax resident: $39,500 in all through 2026.
Not $109,000: that counts every year since 2009, and years before you were a resident add nothing.
You’ve put in about $45,000, so $0 is left.
That’s $5,500 over. CRA charges 1% a month on an excess while it stays in: $55 a month.
FHSA
An FHSA has no room until you open one, even with nothing in it. Opening one starts $8,000 a year.
RRSP
Your RRSP limit is on your latest Notice of Assessment, under “RRSP deduction limit”. Type it, or what you earned each year since you arrived, to see what’s left.
CRA’s account shows TFSA room as of 1 January and adds last year’s transactions only in the spring, so from January to about April it can show more room than you have.
Contribution Room estimates your contribution room from the rules the Canada Revenue Agency publishes and what you enter. It is not tax, legal or financial advice. Your CRA account and Notice of Assessment are the official record: check them before you contribute, and ask a tax professional about residency or anything unusual. Contribution Room is not affiliated with the CRA.
US citizens and green-card holders: a TFSA is generally not tax-free in the US; ask a cross-border tax professional first.
Withdraw the excess as soon as you find it; the tax stops the month after it’s gone. On 1 January the new year’s limit absorbs what is left. You report the tax on form RC243.
There is no $2,000 allowance as there is for an RRSP. CRA can waive the tax only for a reasonable error, removed without delay, and not knowing your room is usually not one.
Sources
Checked against the CRA’s pages on 2026-10-18. The CRA’s records are the official ones.