What's the TFSA limit? Here's the max you can contribute for 2018

The max you can contribute to your TFSA for 2018

By MoneySense Staff on January 2, 2018
Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Find out your cumulative room

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[bc_video video_id=”6023948558001″ account_id=”6015698167001″ player_id=”lYro6suIR”] The TFSA limit determines how much you can deposit in your Tax-Free Savings Account each year.

The TFSA limit for 2018:

Year	TFSA Annual Limit	TFSA Cumulative Limit
2009	$5,000	$5,000
2010	$5,000	$10,000
2011	$5,000	$15,000
2012	$5,000	$20,000
2013	$5,500	$25,500
2014	$5,500	$31,000
2015	$10,000	$41,000
2016	$5,500	$46,500
2017	$5,500	$52,000
2018	$5,500	$57,500
2019	$6,000	$63,500

More about the annual TFSA limit:

Tax-Free Savings Accounts (TFSAs) were first introduced in Canada in 2009. Most Canadian financial institutions now offer them. A TFSA allows any Canadian over the age of 18 to save or invest money in a tax-free account. “Tax free” means that you don’t pay taxes on the money you make inside your TFSA. That means things like interest payments, stock dividends or capital gains.

Calculate your TFSA contribution room with this tool »

However, there’s a maximum amount of money you can deposit into your TFSA each year. Currently, this annual maximum is $5,500. Luckily, your total contribution is cumulative, so you can roll over this contribution room year to year. So the amount you can save will go up each year, whether you deposit money or not. It doesn’t matter how much the savings or investments in your TFSA are worth; the only thing the government limits is how much you can put in.

Your TFSA limit if you’ve never contributed before

If you don’t have a TFSA, then you could open one and contribute a maximum of $57,500.

Your TFSA limit if you already have a tax-free savings account

Have you already opened a TFSA and started saving? That’s great. If you’ve never withdrawn money from your account, you can keep adding until you hit the current TFSA limit.

Penalty for holding dividend stocks in a TFSA? »

If you have withdrawn money from your TFSA in the past, that’s fine! You will get that room back, but not until the following year. Your financial provider will likely alert you if you hit your TFSA limit for a single account. But keep in mind that you can open more than one TFSA, with more than one financial institution. Say you deposited $40,000 in a TFSA at one bank, and $40,000 in a second TFSA at another. Neither bank would flag your account, but you would still be over the limit. Ultimately it is up to you to confirm that you stay within your TFSA limit. This story was originally published on CanadianBusiness.com

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