FHSA contribution room calculator
On this page
An FHSA is a first home savings account. Money you contribute can be deducted on your tax return. A qualifying withdrawal to buy or build a first home is tax-free.
The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) sets the FHSA rules this page uses. How much you can put in for 2026 depends on the year you opened your first FHSA and what you have already contributed or transferred in. In the year you open it, your room is $8,000. After that, unused room carries forward. The carry-forward is the lesser of $8,000 and that unused room. In the usual case, the most you can add in one year is $16,000 (CRA: Participating in your FHSAs). Over your lifetime, contributions and direct transfers from a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP) share a $40,000 limit (CRA: Definitions for FHSAs).
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
Enter the year you opened the account. You’ll get an estimate of this year’s room, what’s left of the lifetime limit, a projected balance, and a rough tax reduction from the deduction.
The return field is an assumed annual return you choose. It is not a promise that the account will grow by that rate. It doesn’t change your room.
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you type is sent anywhere, and there’s no signup.
| Year | Carry-forward | Room | Contribution | RRSP transfer | Deductible | Balance |
|---|
FHSA participation room for 2026
Your FHSA participation room is the most you can contribute, or transfer directly from your RRSP, this year without going over.
In the year you open your first FHSA, that room is $8,000. Carry-forward that year is $0 (CRA: Participating in your FHSAs). The $8,000 covers contributions and RRSP transfers combined, across every FHSA you hold. It isn’t $8,000 per account.
In later years, the room is $8,000 plus unused room carried forward, then cut by whatever is left of the $40,000 lifetime limit.
Income earned inside the account doesn’t use room. A gain doesn’t shrink it, and a loss doesn’t give any back.
Example: opened in 2026. Room is $8,000. Nothing carries in from a year before the account existed.
Example: opened in 2025 and contributed nothing. Carry-forward into 2026 is $8,000. Room for 2026 is $16,000.
Example: opened in 2025 and contributed $6,000. Carry-forward into 2026 is $2,000. Room for 2026 is $10,000.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
How unused room carries forward
Carry-forward starts the year after you open your first FHSA. It does not build in the opening year.
The carry-forward is the lesser of $8,000 and your unused room (CRA: Participating in your FHSAs). A second unused year does not raise that cap. You can’t stack several skipped years into one larger carry-forward.
Example: opened in 2024 and contributed nothing in 2024 or 2025.
- 2025 room is $16,000 ($8,000 plus the $8,000 carried from 2024).
- You don’t use it.
- Carry-forward into 2026 is still $8,000, not $16,000.
- 2026 room is $16,000, not $24,000.
The unused room above the cap doesn’t come back.
If you contribute the full room every year, nothing is left to carry, so the next year’s room is $8,000 again, until the lifetime limit runs out.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
Lifetime limit
The lifetime FHSA limit is $40,000 (CRA: Definitions for FHSAs). Contributions and direct transfers from your RRSPs both count toward it.
Once that $40,000 is used, new room is $0, even in a year that would otherwise add $8,000.
Example: $8,000 a year for five years. That’s $40,000. The next year’s room is $0.
Putting in $8,000 every year from the year you open reaches the lifetime limit in the fifth year. Skipping a year doesn’t raise the lifetime limit. It only shifts when you use it, and only up to the $8,000 carry-forward cap.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
The tax deduction
Contributions to your FHSA are deductible. You can claim the deduction for the year you contribute, or a later year. This calculator assumes you deduct each contribution in the year you make it.
A direct transfer from your RRSP is not deductible. Over your lifetime, the most you can deduct is $40,000, and those RRSP transfers reduce what’s left of that $40,000 (CRA: Tax deductions for FHSA contributions).
The tax line multiplies this year’s deductible contribution by the marginal rate you enter. It is an estimate of the tax reduction from that deduction. It is not your refund. Other income, credits, and your province all change the result. If you leave the rate blank, the tax line stays at $0 and the room estimate still runs.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
Transfers from an RRSP
A direct transfer from your RRSP to your FHSA uses your FHSA participation room. It shares the $8,000 annual maximum with contributions, counts toward the $40,000 lifetime limit, and is not deductible (CRA: Transfers into your FHSAs). It does not give you back RRSP deduction room.
Without carry-forward, you can’t contribute $8,000 and also transfer $8,000 in the same year. With a full $8,000 of carry-forward, the combined maximum is $16,000.
Example: opened in 2026, transferred $7,500 from an RRSP, and contributed $500. The room is used up. The deductible amount is $500. The transfer is not.
A transfer the other way, from your FHSA to an RRSP or a registered retirement income fund (RRIF), is a different transaction. Generally, a direct transfer out doesn’t use RRSP deduction room. This calculator doesn’t model transfers out.
If you withdraw RRSP money yourself and then deposit it in your FHSA, that is not a direct transfer. The RRSP withdrawal is taxable income, and the deposit counts as a contribution, not a transfer. Moving money from an FHSA to an RRSP by hand works the same way: the withdrawal is taxable, and the deposit is a new RRSP contribution that uses RRSP deduction room.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
Qualifying withdrawals
If you meet the conditions for a qualifying withdrawal, you can take the money out tax-free. You can take it in one withdrawal or in a series.
The CRA lists these conditions for a qualifying withdrawal. You need to meet all of them:
- You are a first-time home buyer for the purpose of the withdrawal. That means you did not live in a qualifying home that you owned or jointly owned as your principal residence at any time in the current calendar year before the withdrawal (except the 30 days immediately before it) or in the previous 4 calendar years. This is a different test from the one for opening an FHSA.
- You have a written agreement to buy or build a qualifying home. The agreement’s acquisition or construction completion date is before October 1 of the year after the withdrawal (CRA: Withdrawals and transfers out of your FHSAs).
- You didn’t acquire the home more than 30 days before the withdrawal.
- You are a resident of Canada from the first qualifying withdrawal until you acquire the home, or until death if that’s earlier.
- You occupy the home, or intend to, as your principal residence within one year of buying or building it.
- You fill out Form RC725 and give it to your FHSA issuer.
A withdrawal that doesn’t meet those conditions is taxable. This calculator doesn’t decide whether a withdrawal qualifies, and it assumes you haven’t made one yet.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
When the account has to close
The maximum participation period starts when you open your first FHSA. It ends on December 31 of the year in which the earliest of these happens (CRA: Closing your FHSA):
- the 15th anniversary of opening your first FHSA
- you turn 71
- the year following your first qualifying withdrawal
Example: opened in 2023, and you never make a qualifying withdrawal. The 15th anniversary is in 2038. The account has to be closed by December 31, 2038.
Example: you turn 71 in 2036. If that’s earlier than the other dates, the period ends on December 31, 2036. You can still contribute in the year you turn 71. The last day is December 31.
The projection stops at that year. Enter your birth year if you want the age-71 stop included. The 15-year stop is included whether or not you enter a birth year.
The projection does not know about a qualifying withdrawal. If you have made one, the closing year is the year after that withdrawal.
Generally, property still in the account at the end can be transferred directly to an RRSP or RRIF. If it stays in, the account stops being an FHSA and its market value on December 31 is added to your income for that year. This calculator doesn’t model the transfer.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
Who can open an FHSA
You have to be a resident of Canada and a first-time home buyer for the purpose of opening the account. That means that, in the current calendar year before you open the account and in the previous 4 calendar years, you did not live in a qualifying home as your principal residence that you owned or jointly owned, or that your spouse or common-law partner owned or jointly owned when you open the account. You also have to be old enough to open it. That’s 18, or 19 in provinces and territories where that’s the age for entering a contract. Finally, you have to be 71 or younger on December 31 of the year you open it (CRA: Opening your FHSAs).
Opening one doesn’t require a contribution that year. You still file Schedule 15 for the year you opened it, even if you contributed nothing, so the CRA knows the account exists.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
If you go over
If your contributions and RRSP transfers in a year are more than your room, you have an excess FHSA amount. The CRA charges 1% a month on the highest excess in each month it stays there (CRA: What happens if you contribute or transfer too much).
An excess also changes the next year’s room. This calculator stops once a year is over its room and does not invent that next-year adjustment. Use your FHSA participation room statement for the official number, and see the CRA’s page on contributing too much if you need to fix an excess.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
Where to find your official number
After you file a return with Schedule 15 for the year you opened your first FHSA, the CRA puts your FHSA participation room on your notice of assessment and in your CRA account, under savings and pension plans. Your FHSA participation room statement can also show up on Form T1028.
If your returns since the opening year haven’t all been assessed, that statement can be behind. If this page and the statement disagree, go with the statement.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
Frequently asked questions
How much FHSA room do I get in 2026?
$8,000 (CRA: Participating in your FHSAs), plus unused room carried forward, up to what’s left of the $40,000 lifetime limit (CRA: Definitions for FHSAs). In the year you open the account there is no carry-forward, so the room is $8,000. With a full $8,000 of carry-forward, and with lifetime room left, the most you can put in is $16,000. That maximum covers contributions and direct RRSP transfers together.
Does unused FHSA room carry forward?
It carries forward starting the year after you open the account. The carry-forward is the lesser of $8,000 and your unused room (CRA: Participating in your FHSAs). Skipping another year doesn’t raise that above $8,000. Room you never use above that cap doesn’t come back.
Are FHSA contributions deductible?
Yes. Contributions are deductible, in the year you contribute or a later year (CRA: Tax deductions for FHSA contributions). Direct transfers from your RRSP are not deductible. The most you can deduct over your lifetime is $40,000, and RRSP transfers reduce that amount. The tax line on this page assumes you deduct the contribution in the year you make it.
Is a first-home withdrawal tax-free?
A qualifying withdrawal is tax-free (CRA: Withdrawals and transfers out of your FHSAs). You have to meet the CRA’s conditions, including an acquisition or construction completion date on the agreement before October 1 of the year after the withdrawal, and give your issuer Form RC725. A withdrawal that doesn’t qualify is taxable. This calculator doesn’t check which kind a withdrawal is.
Does a transfer from my RRSP use FHSA room?
Yes. A direct transfer from your RRSP to your FHSA uses your FHSA participation room. It shares the $8,000 annual maximum with contributions, counts toward the $40,000 lifetime limit, and is not deductible (CRA: Transfers into your FHSAs). It doesn’t restore RRSP deduction room. Generally, a direct transfer from your FHSA out to an RRSP or RRIF is different: it doesn’t use RRSP deduction room.
When do I have to close an FHSA?
By December 31 of the earliest of these years: the 15th anniversary of opening your first FHSA, the year you turn 71, or the year following your first qualifying withdrawal (CRA: Closing your FHSA). You can still contribute in that final year, but contributions made after a first qualifying withdrawal are not deductible. Close the account or transfer it out by December 31, or it stops being an FHSA.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency. This page updated October 2, 2026.
Related
- TFSA contribution room calculator — estimate your TFSA room with a year-by-year table since 2009.
- RRSP contribution limit calculator — estimate your RRSP deduction limit and the room you have left.
- Compound interest calculator — see how a balance and monthly contributions grow over time.
- Savings goal calculator — find the monthly amount you need to hit a goal by a date.
- APY calculator — compare interest rates by their true yearly yield.
- Emergency fund calculator — work out how big your safety net should be.
- Personal finance hub — all our free money calculators and guides.