You may find that managing your Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA) has become routine. That’s good news, to be comfortably saving for your financial goals. But you might be able to make even more of your TFSA.

Here’s a variety of TFSA tips and strategies, and perhaps one or more can benefit you or a family member, now or in the future.

Contributions and withdrawals

Avoiding penalties. Overcontributing to a TFSA triggers a penalty of 1% of the overcontribution amount for every month you exceed the limit. To avoid the penalty, keep a record of your contributions and withdrawals. “My Account,” the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) online portal, isn’t always up to date on recent transactions.

An RRSP strategy. An effective way to help build your TFSA mutual fund investments is to contribute your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) tax refund each year.

Timing a withdrawal. If the end of the year is approaching, and you plan on making a TFSA withdrawal in the initial months of the new year, consider making the withdrawal before the end of December. This way, you can replenish your account in the upcoming year, instead of waiting until the year after.

Retirement planning

Providing for long-term care. In the years before retirement, you can build savings in your TFSA to cover the costs of potential long-term care. If you don’t require long-term care, you can leave the mutual fund assets to your loved ones.

Strategically using withdrawals. During retirement, if you wish to delay your Canada Pension Plan (CPP) or Old Age Security (OAS) benefits to increase future benefit amounts, TFSA savings can help fund your lifestyle until you start your benefits.

Retirees who would otherwise have a level of taxable income that results in an OAS clawback can use TFSA withdrawals to receive non-taxable income, avoiding or minimizing the clawback amount.

If other income sources would put you in a higher tax bracket, you can tap your TFSA for additional retirement income.

Continue investing. If you earn income during retirement, you can contribute some of that income to your TFSA for tax-free growth of your mutual fund investments.

Estate planning

You might automatically think you’ll name a loved one as the beneficiary of your TFSA, and that may be ideal – but not always.

Designating your spouse. If you plan to leave TFSA assets to your spouse, naming them as successor holder can be the better choice. With this designation, your spouse simply takes over your TFSA. If you name your spouse as a beneficiary, they must follow administrative procedures, file a form and potentially face tax consequences.

Tax benefits for your estate. Some individuals may wish to leave their TFSA assets to the estate to help cover the estate’s tax liability. If you want to leave money to a charity, naming a charity as the beneficiary enables your estate to claim the charitable donation tax credit for the full value of the mutual fund assets.

Note that in Quebec, you can only designate a successor annuitant or beneficiary on a TFSA form when the account is funded by an insurance product, such as segregated funds. You can name TFSA beneficiaries in your will.