A method and apparatus for encoding or decoding transform coefficients in a video coding system are disclosed. According to this method, a region after zero-outis determined. A remaining number of context-coded bins is determined for the current TB based on a size of the region after zero-out. The current TB is encoded or decoded using context-based coding with a constraint based on the remaining number of context-coded bins. According to another method, a remaining number of context-coded bins is determined for the current TB based on the last significant CG index.