The First Home Savings Account (FHSA) is a registered account for saving toward a first home. This guide covers the contribution limits, how a contribution can produce a tax refund, how withdrawals are treated and when the deadline falls. It uses 2026 figures and is general information, not tax or investment advice.
Who can open one
The CRA lists these conditions at the time you open an FHSA:
- You are 18 or older. Where the legal age to enter a contract is 19, the CRA notes a separate rule.
- You are 71 or younger on December 31 of that year.
- You are a resident of Canada.
- You are a first-time home buyer, which broadly means you did not live in a qualifying home that you, or your spouse or common-law partner, owned as your principal place of residence in the current calendar year or the previous 4 calendar years.
Room starts when you open your first FHSA, which is $8,000 in that year. There is no room for years before that.
How much can go in
- Annual limit: $8,000
- Lifetime limit: $40,000
- Carry-forward: unused room can be carried forward, up to a maximum of $8,000
That comes to at most $16,000 in one year, when the full carry-forward is available. The calculator shows a notice above $8,000 and above $16,000, but it cannot see your own record. Your actual room is shown in CRA My Account.
How a contribution produces a refund
An FHSA contribution is deducted from taxable income, so tax is worked out on a lower amount. The refund estimate on this site is the tax before the contribution minus the tax after it. Federal and provincial tax are calculated separately and then added, because their brackets are different.
The same contribution therefore gives a different result depending on province and income. Here are some estimates using 2026 tax rates:
- British Columbia, $85,000 of income, $8,000 contribution: about $2,256.00, or 28.20% of the contribution
- Alberta, $70,000 of income, $8,000 contribution: about $2,440.00, or 30.50%
- Nova Scotia, $60,000 of income, $8,000 contribution: about $2,412.00, or 30.15%
- British Columbia, $20,000 of income, $8,000 contribution: about $876.62, or 10.96%
The last example is much lower. At that income the basic personal amount already removes part of the tax, and tax cannot go below zero, so part of the deduction has nothing left to reduce.
These estimates leave out the Ontario Health Premium, CPP and EI, and other credits. The methodology page explains this in full.
Withdrawals
A withdrawal used for a qualifying first home purchase is not taxed. This is the main difference from an RRSP, where a withdrawal is taxed as income. For the same income and the same contribution, the two accounts give the same refund. The FHSA vs RRSP page shows them side by side.
The deadline
The FHSA follows the calendar year. For the 2026 tax year the deadline is December 31, 2026. The RRSP deadline for the same tax year is later, on March 1, 2027, so the two dates are easy to mix up. Unlike an RRSP contribution, an FHSA contribution made in the first 60 days of a year cannot be deducted on the previous year’s return. A contribution can be deducted for the year it is made or for a future year.
If you do not buy a home
The account can stay open until December 31 of the year in which the earliest of these happens: the 15th anniversary of opening your first FHSA, you turn 71, or the year after your first qualifying withdrawal. A direct transfer to your RRSP or RRIF has no immediate tax consequence, as long as you have no excess amount, and generally does not use your RRSP room. A withdrawal that is neither qualifying nor a direct transfer is generally taxable and included in your income.
Contributing more than your room generally means a tax of 1% per month on the highest excess amount in that month. The CRA FHSA pages have the full conditions.