TFSA in USD Questions

[trdjce10]

Say for example, I never put money in my TFSA which means I have $20K CAD contribution room. I have $10K USD in my bank account, and decided to put all that in my TFSA today.

Here is my question, as of right now $10K USD equals to $10,166 CAD. Does that mean I now have $9,834 CAD left in my contribtion room?

Or do I have to exchange the $10K USD to CAD first, put it in the TFSA then exchange back to USD? I will lose like 5% in exchange if I do that.

[Zewind]

You can contribute foreign funds to a TFSA. However, your issuer will convert the funds to Canadian dollars, using the date of the transaction, when reporting this information to the CRA. The total amount of your contribution, in Canadian dollars, cannot exceed your TFSA contribution room.

If dividend income from a foreign country is paid to a TFSA, the dividend income could be subject to foreign withholding tax.


http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/tx/ndvdls/t...tmnts-eng.html



So you do not have to do the exchange, the issuer (Bank) will report the contribution in CAD.