The CRA says it has resolved “most points” that made Tax-Free Financial savings Account data, particularly contribution limits, unavailable in My Account.
That’s the company’s safe on-line portal the place particular person taxpayers can entry their private tax data.
In an electronic mail to Nationwide Submit on Friday, the CRA wrote: “Because of this, most people can now view their TFSA data in My Account.”
Nevertheless, not all TFSA holders shall be glad but. The knowledge is just obtainable for about 90 per cent of TFSA holders.
“For the remaining 10%,” writes Charles Drouin with CRA media relations, “the data stays quickly unavailable whereas we work to make sure their contribution room is up to date. This precaution is in place to assist forestall errors, and efforts proceed towards a immediate decision.”
Because the company did beforehand, it expressed remorse over “any inconvenience this example might have brought on and admire the persistence and understanding of Canadians as we proceed working to completely restore this service.”
Particular person contribution room is
often available
by signing into your CRA account. Alternatively, you possibly can often name the Tax Data Telephone Service.
Nevertheless, that
hadn’t been the case since mid-April
the CRA confirmed with the CBC.
Not like RRSP contribution room, “TFSA room will not be proven in your discover of evaluation,” Jason Heath, managing director of Goal Monetary Planners in Toronto, tells Nationwide Submit.
“Even while you attempt to view your TFSA particulars just like the contribution historical past, it too is unavailable.”
As a substitute, a warning was posted on the CRA website, Robert Kepes, a tax lawyer with Toronto agency Morris Kepes Winter LLP, informed Nationwide Submit. It’s nonetheless there.
The
warning states
: “TFSA data, together with contribution room, is up to date as soon as your monetary establishment’s annual TFSA return is processed. We’re experiencing delays in processing these returns on account of a brand new information validation course of. TFSA data is quickly unavailable in your CRA account to stop errors.”
The CRA continues to recommend that
taxpayers calculate contribution room themselves utilizing the next:
Kind RC343, Worksheet – TFSA contribution room
.
And there’s an added CRA reminder to maintain data of your TFSA transactions “to ensure that your contributions don’t go over your TFSA contribution room,” which is what taxpayers are involved about within the first place.
You would attempt to decide your TFSA room by all of your previous contributions and withdrawals since 2009 when TFSA accounts had been launched, Heath says. (When you had been 18 or older in 2009 and have at all times lived in Canada, your cumulative TFSA room can be $102,000.)
However there’s an enormous caveat. “The issue is a mistake may result in a TFSA overcontribution, and monetary establishment data might not return 16 years.”
An overcontribution is not any small matter. “The chance of creating an overcontribution is important,” says Heath.
“There’s a penalty of 1 per cent per thirty days for any overcontribution to a TFSA. And if a contributor messes up and forgets, it might be years from now (earlier than the) CRA notices. Years of penalties and curiosity can add up quick, and CRA doesn’t at all times present leniency with inadvertent errors.”
So,
for the remaining 10 per cent TFSA holders, it
could also be higher to be secure than sorry.
“As such, TFSA holders might wish to wait if they’re unsure about their TFSA room till CRA’s data are up to date,” Heath suggests.
In the meantime, the
CRA has been
conscious of this concern.
In
a earlier
electronic mail to Nationwide Submit, Sylvie Department with CRA media relations wrote that
this 12 months’s delay stemmed
from the company striving to enhance information accuracy.
Echoing the warning on the CRA website, she
wrote that the company launched
a brand new information validation course of in January 2025. The establishments submitting the data “needed to get accustomed to the brand new system, adapt to new processes, and … deal with stricter validation of the info they undergo the CRA.”
“Because of this, there have been important delays in processing TFSA annual data returns this 12 months. Resolving our system points, is our precedence, in order that we will replace TFSA data in My Account as quickly as potential.
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