FHSA calculator

$8,000 a year, up to a $40,000 lifetime limit, according to the Canada Revenue Agency. Your first year of room starts when you open your first FHSA, and the limit covers all your FHSAs combined.

$16,000. You can carry forward up to $8,000 of unused room, so if you open an FHSA and contribute nothing that year, CRA’s own example shows $16,000 of room the next year. Room never goes above what’s left of your $40,000 lifetime limit.

Yes, but only up to $8,000 into the next year, unlike a TFSA where all unused room carries forward. Anything you skip beyond that stays within your $40,000 lifetime limit, so you can still use it in later years. Room only starts building once you open your first FHSA, so opening early starts the clock even if you contribute later.

December 31 of each year. FHSA contributions follow the calendar year, and there’s no 60-day window into the next year like there is with an RRSP.

Roughly your contribution times your marginal tax rate. An $8,000 contribution at a 30% marginal rate cuts your tax by about $2,400. You can also carry the deduction forward to a year when your income, and your rate, is higher.

If you open it in 2026 and contribute $8,000 at the start of each year for 5 years at a 5% return, you’d have about $46,415 when you buy in 2031: $40,000 of contributions and about $6,415 of tax-free growth. At a 30% marginal rate, the deductions would also be worth about $12,000 in refunds. Returns aren’t guaranteed.

Yes. CRA says you can withdraw from your RRSPs under the Home Buyers’ Plan and make a qualifying FHSA withdrawal for the same qualifying home, as long as you meet all the conditions at the time of each withdrawal. The Home Buyers’ Plan limit is $60,000, and that money has to be repaid to your RRSP; a qualifying FHSA withdrawal doesn’t.

The account must be closed by December 31 of the year of the 15th anniversary of opening it, the year you turn 71, or the year after your first qualifying withdrawal, whichever comes first. You can transfer the money directly to your RRSP or RRIF without tax at that time; anything left after the deadline is added to your income.

A resident of Canada who is 18 or older (19 where that’s the age to sign a contract), 71 or younger on December 31 of the year they open it, and a first-time home buyer. For opening, that means you didn’t live in a home you or your spouse owned as your principal residence this year or in the previous four calendar years.

It depends on what you hold. An FHSA can hold cash, GICs, mutual funds, ETFs and stocks, so it can earn a savings rate, a GIC rate or market returns. Compare providers before you open one, since issuers can limit what they offer.