TFSA over contribution...have you done it?

[Nutella]

I have. Didnt realize the LAME rules. Put in $5K and you cannot take it out and put it back in the same year because its considered an over contrib of $5K! WTF Can only put back in the next year... DAMN the FEDS.

[sp3GT]

I have. Didnt realize the LAME rules. Put in $5K and you cannot take it out and put it back in the same year because its considered an over contrib of $5K! WTF Can only put back in the next year... DAMN the FEDS.

I did the same thing when they first introduced the account. The government sent me a letter asking me to pay whatever I over contributed. I called the government to ask why was I being charged.

They told me you can't use it as a savings account in the sense of taking and putting money back in. The agent then told me to write a letter to them to explain the situation.

I ended up not having to pay.

[MajesticBlueNTO]

reminds me of this article (http://www.thestar.com/business/article/822383) from last year

[Nutella]

The feds notice of assessment doesn't even have the correct amount of my TFSA contribs for 2010 so I never got a letter. And didnt know about this stupid rule until now. So my banks has prolly messed up sending the correct TFSA amounts to the CRA and/or the CRA messed it up.

So I am way past that June 2010 grace period. And I had over contribs sitting in the account for 9 months and it's coming to over $250 or $300 in penalties.. :(

[RedRaptor]

Its happened to many Canadians already. Withdrawals can be put back into the account the follow calendar year plus your calendar year's contribution ($5000).

The feds have an exemption policy for a bit and hopefully its still effective.

[rukus]

this should have been clearly explained when you opened the account. you can call and explain the situation and they should be able to reverse it.
the rules are to prevent people from using it like a checking acct.

[Nutella]

certainly was NOT clearly explained.