Unclear on withdrawal rules | Page 3 | Tax Free Savings Accounts | Discussion forum

its all over the news, [vancouver sun, globe and mail] lots of people are being penalized by CRA for overcontributing to their TFSA. maybe that means, lots of people have money after all. anyway, most of them forgot to read about the rules. why, whY, and WHY????

[okay, maybe the taxman will re-think its penalty so hopefully
he might give the people some break and wont charge them fees this year but all these penalties will surely add up to make millions for the taxman so its gonna be a pesky one. coz in fact, maybe that's one PLAN really of the govt to raise some money. hmnn... genius]

I must say that Peter is right - the withdrawls in a year (regardless of the amount or type (gains accumulated of any kind) can be added back to TFSA the following year(s) contributions.

guest said:

well, i hate to play devil's advocate here, but the rules have always been pretty clear (at least to me). you can contribute up to $5000 per year, indexed to inflation (not much inflation these days), and you have to wait until january 1 of the following year to re-contribute any withdrawals. i think the reason this is so is because if everyone were allowed to contribute and withdraw at will, it would be a nightmare for the gov't to administer as some people can generate thousands of transactions per year.

this guy is right

Hi.
Great discussion and information.
Question.
Can you claim stock trade commisions as a withdrawal?
i.e. You spend $200 in commisions 2011 so in 2012 you can insert $200 + $5000 = $5200
This would be benenficial, allowing you to reapply them as contributions next year.