Find out your TFSA Contribution Room Using the CRA Telephone Information Phone System, TIPS

You can not double-check when you contributed to your TFSA using the Canada Revenue Agency’s Telephone Information System, TIPS. What you can check is how much contribution room was left at the start of the current year.

How Up to Date is the TFSA Contribution Room Information from the CRA?

Unfortunately, financial institutions are only required to report your TFSA contributions to the tax department at the end of December each year. That means the info the government has can get out of date quickly. If you make a contribution on or after January 1, they won’t necessarily know about it so they don’t report it whether they know or not.

The TIPs option to review your Individual Tax Free Savings Account can only tell you the amount of unused TFSA room you had on January 1 of the current year.

So if you’ve made several small contributions this year, the TIPs system will not be of much use to you.

Information You Need to Check your TFSA Contributions Using TIPs

You will probably need the following info to use TIPS

  • 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. 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.

When Is TIPS for TFSAs Available?

For TFSA information, TIPs is available from mid-February to the end of December. (In January and the first half of February, this option is unavailable as the previous year’s contribution information from the banks and other institutions is being input.)

In months when TIPs is available for TFSAs, the service is available 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

To Check your TFSA Contributions and Contribution Room Using CRA’s Telephone Information Phone System

  1. Call 1-800-267-6999. (for free)
  2. Select the option for Tax Free Savings Accounts.
  3. Select the option for your Individual Tax Free Savings Account.
    Do not select the General Information option. The General Info option just tells you about how TFSAs work, what the penalties are for mis-use etc.
    The Individual Tax Free Savings Account service lets you know the amount of unused TFSA contributions as of January 1st of the current year.
  4. When prompted, enter and confirm your Social Insurance Number, SIN.
  5. When prompted, enter and confirm your month and year of birth.
  6. When prompted, enter and confirm 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.

The telephone system will respond with your TFSA contribution room as of January 1 of the current year.

If you have any concerns, like some Questrade customers did, it might be worth checking your TFSA contribution room for mistakes.

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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.

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

Join In
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.