# current-year TFSA status in the eyes of CRA



## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Is there any way to see what the gov't believes I currently have invested in my TFSA? I am wondering if there is a report or a website someplace that tells me how much I've invested, in their eyes. I know that I can wait for my annual notice of assessement to come in the mail, but that tells me last year's contributions. I am interested in knowing how much they think I invested THIS year.

On the same vein, if you overcontribute, when will the the gov't realize you did this? Will it be immediate or will they only figure it out when they send out the notice of assessement in as much as a year?


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## OhGreatGuru (May 24, 2009)

If they made it available on line, how secure do you think it would be against hackers? Anyway, at the rate CRA processes returns, it still wouldn't be "up to date"

What is so complicated about keeping track of your withdrawals and contributions since the last annual NoA? 

Seems to me people who have gotten into trouble over this are people who haven't read the rules, and consequently haven't bothered to keep track.


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

Whatever CRA "sees" is available to you on the MyAccount section of the CRA website.
You can login and see exactly what they are seeing.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

HaroldCrump said:


> Whatever CRA "sees" is available to you on the MyAccount section of the CRA website.
> You can login and see exactly what they are seeing.


+1

Royal - the TFSA reporting for any given tax year is done in the first quarter of the following year. The government doesn't care about the TFSA balance until tax time.

It's up to you to keep track of your contributions during the year, not the government.


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## Trust (Feb 24, 2011)

*TFSA room*

On a recent CRA reassessment of my 2009 taxes (received February 2011) it stated that I had $10,000 TFSA room left. This statement is incorrect as I had and have zero room to contribute. When I questioned CRA on this they admitted it was incorrect. So be careful of what CRA says on the phone and in reassessment documents. As another has stated register for "MY Account" which is very useful as it is current, usually correct and a handy tax and planning tool.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Thanks for the replies, guys. Seems clear enough.


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## slacker (Mar 8, 2010)

@Trust: Same here, CRA website told me that I have $10,000 TFSA room, but that's incorrect. I should have $5000 because I have contributed fully in 2009 and 2010, but not 2011.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Yeah they seem really late with their reporting. Even in Feb 2010 when they sent my last notice of assessement, they said I had $10K in room left.

This sort of has me puzzled as to how they could notice if a person withdraws and recontributes. Maybe their software only reports exceptions or something?

Is there the same problem for RRSP contribution room? Say in a case where someone has maxed out their RRSPs but would like to contribute in the present year. Wouldn't it be important for them to know exactly how much room they have available? Or is the conventional wisdom simply to use 18% and guesstimate how much you could make, say in a case of doing monthly contributions?


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## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

the-royal-mail said:


> Yeah they seem really late with their reporting. Even in Feb 2010 when they sent my last notice of assessement, they said I had $10K in room left.
> 
> This sort of has me puzzled as to how they could notice if a person withdraws and recontributes. Maybe their software only reports exceptions or something?


It is probably not the CRA's "software", but the banking institutions reporting to CRA that is the source of the discrepancy.
Maybe the banks are reporting it only once a year.
I have noted that CRA updates My Account site after your tax assessment, but there are no subsequent updates in real-time.
i.e. CRA doesn't update its website as and when banks report your contributions/withdrawals.
There is another update around July for GST credit, CCTB, etc. but it doesn't update registered plan rooms.



> Is there the same problem for RRSP contribution room? Say in a case where someone has maxed out their RRSPs but would like to contribute in the present year. Wouldn't it be important for them to know exactly how much room they have available? Or is the conventional wisdom simply to use 18% and guesstimate how much you could make, say in a case of doing monthly contributions?


If you file electronically, your assessment and calculation of new room takes only a few weeks.
The CRA website is updated immediately (even before your notice comes in the mail).
If you can wait 2 - 3 weeks, it should work out fine.
If you are more impatient then yes, you can calculate it on your own.
Like TFSA, CRA's website doesn't get updated as and when you contribute to RRSP.
It will be updated next year when you file again.

Bottom line: best to keep track of your contributions on your own to avoid over/under contributing.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

Four Pillars said:


> +1
> 
> Royal - the TFSA reporting for any given tax year is done in the first quarter of the following year. The government doesn't care about the TFSA balance until tax time.
> 
> It's up to you to keep track of your contributions during the year, not the government.


From subsequent posts, I don't think I explained this clearly enough.

The financial institutions do not report any TFSA activity (account opening, contributions, withdrawals) to the government until the first quarter AFTER each tax year.

For example - If you made some contributions in 2009 - that has been reported (hopefully) in March 2010 (or thereabouts) and you will see those contributions in your MyAccount page. 

Any activity in 2010 has not been reported yet. This is why if you have used up all your contribution room - the CRA will show you as having $10,000 of room left. They don't know about your 2010 or 2011 contributions yet.

The reporting only happens once for each tax year. So every March, your financial institution will report on any TFSA activity you did in the previous year.

This is exactly how it works with RRSP contributions as well.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

I just checked my account and it says I had $10K of room left. The strange thing is that my 2009 room was contributed in 12-09 and my 2010 room was contributed around 1-4-10. My 2011 room was contributed around 1-5-11. So according to the quarterly reporting mentioned by 4P, shouldn't the current view of my account only show $5K of available room left? If they post their reports in the 1st quarter (or anytime in '10 really) shouldn't a present-day view of my account, have accounted for the '09 and '10 contributions?

It almost seems as though the first round of reports happened by 1-1-10 (which would have captured by '09 contrib) but the 2nd round of reports didn't happen yet in 2011. So the reports are run at different times every year, it seems.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

the-royal-mail said:


> I just checked my account and it says I had $10K of room left. The strange thing is that my 2009 room was contributed in 12-09 and my 2010 room was contributed around 1-4-10. My 2011 room was contributed around 1-5-11. So according to the quarterly reporting mentioned by 4P, shouldn't the current view of my account only show $5K of available room left? If they post their reports in the 1st quarter (or anytime in '10 really) shouldn't a present-day view of my account, have accounted for the '09 and '10 contributions?
> 
> It almost seems as though the first round of reports happened by 1-1-10 (which would have captured by '09 contrib) but the 2nd round of reports didn't happen yet in 2011. So the reports are run at different times every year, it seems.


I'll update my original post.

The reporting only happens once for each tax year. So every March, your financial institution will report on any TFSA activity you did in the previous year.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

OK, but if they had of done so in March 2010 as you suggest, the current view of cra's my account should show me $0 of available room since I had done by '09 and '10 contribs by then and the '11 room was not yet available to me.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

the-royal-mail said:


> OK, but if they had of done so in March 2010 as you suggest, the current view of cra's my account should show me $0 of available room since I had done by '09 and '10 contribs by then and the '11 room was not yet available to me.


The annual reporting is only for TFSA activity in the previous tax year. So last March, your financial institution would have told the gov't about your 2009 contributions ONLY. Any 2010 activity would not be reported at that point in time.

The 2010 contributions only get reported to the gov't in March of 2011 which hasn't happened yet. 

The total contribution room available is real time, so when you look at your MyAccount page today - it will reflect the $5,000 of new contribution room that became available on Jan 1, 2011 which is why you see $10k of unused room

Simple ain't it? 

Bottom line is that the MyAccount page is fairly useless for short-term data.


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## the-royal-mail (Dec 11, 2009)

Got it - thanks for explaining this! Makes perfect sense now.

So if I look in April 2011 it will show $5K of room, a year from now it will show $10K again.


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

the-royal-mail said:


> Got it - thanks for explaining this! Makes perfect sense now.
> 
> So if I look in April 2011 it will show $5K of room, a year from now it will show $10K again.


That's correct. It will depend of course on when your financial institution does their reporting. I'm pretty sure it's in March, but you never know.


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## Rob79 (Feb 16, 2011)

OhGreatGuru said:


> If they made it available on line, how secure do you think it would be against hackers? Anyway, at the rate CRA processes returns, it still wouldn't be "up to date"
> 
> What is so complicated about keeping track of your withdrawals and contributions since the last annual NoA?
> 
> Seems to me people who have gotten into trouble over this are people who haven't read the rules, and consequently haven't bothered to keep track.


This info is avilable online, it is available through the Epass login, works great, and gives you access to all kinds of good info and you are able to even change some things like the automatic deposit accounts, etc. Hope this helps >


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