Lookup your TFSA Contribution Room Online Using CRA’s Quick Access

You can’t check your TFSA contribution history using the Canada Revenue Agency’s Quick Access online program. You can, however, check how much contribution room is left in your TFSA using the CRA’s Quick Access system.

Information You May Need to Check your TFSA Contributions Online

You will probably need the following info to use Quick Access

  • your Social Insurance Number (SIN)
  • your full date of birth
  • the amount you reported on line 150 (Total Income) of your last tax return that has been filed and processed by the CRA. You may need this for the last year or for the year before that. The number you need is what you reported, not what the CRA reported on your Notice of Assessment. Sometimes the CRA came up with a different value than you did.

You can check whether the Quick Access system is working and ready to handle your request by checking its hours of service at: http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc-srvce/tx/ndvdls/qckccss/hrs-eng.html.

To Check your TFSA Contributions and Contribution Room Using CRA’s Quick Access

  1. Go to http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/esrvc-srvce/tx/ndvdls/qckccss/menu-eng.html
  2. Review what you will need by clicking on the Before You Start link.
  3. Click the Sign in button.
  4. Type in your Social Insurance Number, SIN.
  5. Click on the Continue button.
  6. Enter your date of birth by typing in your year of birth and selecting your month of birth and day of birth from the drop-down lists.
  7. Type the amount from line 150, Total income, from your previous year’s completed and accepted tax return. Do not just use the amount from your Notice of Assessment, use the value from your actual return.
  8. Click on the Continue button.
  9. Read the Terms and Conditions of Use.
  10. If you agree, click on the I agree link. (If not, click on the I do not agree link.)
  11. The next screen will tell you:
  • when your last tax return was assessed
  • when a refund was deposited in your account, if applicable
  • and provide links to check
    • your RRSP deduction limit
    • your TFSA contribution room
    • your benefit payment status for
    • the Canada Child Tax Benefit (CCTB)
    • the GST/HST credit
    • the Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB)
  • You can also click the link to Request a remittance form.

If you check your RRSP deduction limit, remember it still includes any RRSP contributions you have made since you last submitted your income tax forms. So if you bought $750 of RRSP investments since your last tax return, and the reported deduction limit is $1000, you actually only have $250 of room left to contribute to your RRSP.

The TFSA contribution room is reported based on information from banks and other financial institutions received before January 1. It is not always up to date. For example, if you made a TFSA contribution on Dec 31, it is not likely in the number reported for January 1. You can check the details of what they are using by phoning the CRA at 1 800 959 8281 or by going online using the My Account service.

Based on what happened to some Questrade customers it might be worth checking your TFSA contribution room once in a while in case any mistakes have been made.

When you are finished click on the red Logout button at the top right side of the screen.

Related Reading

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Did you ever check your TFSA contribution room online? Was it useful or was it hopelessly out of date? Please share your experiences with a comment.

Rounding Up Info on 2012 Income Taxes

This week I spent some time reviewing the two software products you can use to calculate and NETFILE your 2012 Canadian income taxes for FREE even if you make over $35,000 per year. You can read the results and, if interested, follow the instructions to download and install the programs yourselves at:

With great relief, I burst free from under the pile of T3s and CCAs to see what other writers have put out there about 2012 taxes. Here are some interesting bits I found:

Boomer and Echo wrote about why even stay-at-home-working-but-not-earning-an-income parents need to file a tax return in Tax Considerations for Single Income Households.

Evelyn Jacks provides some guidance on whether to check that box beside “Did you own or hold foreign property at any time in 2012 with a total cost of more than CAN$100,000?” in her article Report Your Foreign Holdings.

And to answer that pesky question nagging some of us, NO, if you hold US and other foreign stocks, ETFs and mutual funds in an RRSP, you do not have to report that as part of your $100,000 Cdn limit. See the info on the CRA website at http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/tg/5000-g/5000-g-02-12e.html  which says:
“Foreign property does not include: property in your registered retirement savings plan (RRSP), registered retirement income fund (RRIF), or registered pension plan (RPP).”

Big Cajun Man wrestled TurboTax to the ground in order to claim the new Family Caregiver Amount.

The Money Puzzle lists some odd ways people use their tax returns in Tax Return Madness. One of them even appears to have a crush on Donald Duck.

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I’m sure there are even more Tax Facts out there. If you’ve found an interesting one, please share a link with us in a comment.