[humble_pie]

i'm not at all sure he can do that. Think a problem could arise when taxpayer tries to "deposit [his] 2009 contribution room of $5000" to the new tfsa account at the 2nd institution, as well as depositing his 2010 contribution. Perhaps it will be impossible for the 2009 documentation to travel from lst institution to 2nd institution since they will have no link if a taxpayer carries out the transfer himself, by liquidating & closing the 1st account.

if i were planning to move my tfsa i'd ask the cra for their rules. Many taxpayers are planning to switch their tfsas to a low-fee or no-fee institution, so the cra must have developed a detailed protocol by now.

one can assume that a tfsa transfer directly from institution to institution will successfully transfer the replacement room, although there could be a transfer fee. So a worst case scenario would be that the taxpayer will have to pay the transfer fee if the 2nd institution will not reimburse this charge; or alternately he could liquidate on his own and forego replacing the 2009 contribution completely.

 

[humble_pie]

don't believe the cra would ever have any "rule that contribution room due to withdrawals can only be re-deposited in the same account" etc etc. What i do believe is that cra relies on the institutions to do the bookkeeping for all registered accounts. Cra does not do this bookkeeping. That's why a number of institutions charge a fee.

in the theoretical case we are discussing, taxpayer opts out of the bookkeeping system by liquidating on his own, then walks his cash over to another institution. So far, looking good. But who's going to maintain the the continuity of bookkeeping that will satisfy the cra. What incentive would 1st institution have to forward 2009 records to any other institution when customer collapsed his account & disappeared without paying a transfer fee.

one could check this out with the cra. Also the 2nd or intaking institution.