FHSA Calculator

Work out your First Home Savings Account room, how much you’ll have for a down payment, and the tax you save by deducting your contributions.

✓ 2026 rates · verified Oct 21 – Nov 9, 2026

The FHSA in one minute

A First Home Savings Account combines the best of the two other accounts for one purpose. Contributions are deductible like an RRSP, so they lower your income tax. A qualifying withdrawal for your first home is tax-free like a TFSA, and so is all the growth. You get $8,000 of room a year, up to $40,000 in your lifetime, and you never pay it back.

Put $8,000 in at the start of each year for five years at 5% and you’ll have $46,415.30 after five years: $40,000 of contributions, which is the lifetime limit, and $6,415.30 of growth. In Alberta at a $70,000 income, each $8,000 deduction also cuts your tax by $2,440.00 (30.5%).

How room and carry-forward work

You get $8,000 of room in the year you open your first FHSA, and $8,000 more each year after. Room you don’t use carries forward, but only up to $8,000, so the most you can put in one year is $16,000. Room only starts once you open an account: waiting doesn’t build any.

Someone who opened an FHSA in 2024 and contributed nothing until 2026:

In 2025 they had $16,000 of room and used none, but only $8,000 carried into 2026, so 2026’s room was $16,000, not $24,000. After putting in $16,000 in 2026, nothing carries forward to 2027 ($8,000), and an unused 2027 gives $16,000 in 2028.

FHSA, Home Buyers’ Plan or TFSA?

• FHSA: deductible going in, tax-free coming out for a first home, nothing to repay. Limited to $8,000 a year and $40,000 in total.
• RRSP Home Buyers’ Plan: you can withdraw up to $60,000 from your RRSPs for a first home, but it’s a loan to yourself: it has to be paid back into the RRSP over the years that follow, or the unpaid part is added to your income (CRA’s HBP page). For withdrawals made from 2026 to 2028, Bill C-30 extended the grace period before repayments start from 2 to 5 years (Finance Canada).
• TFSA: no deduction, but tax-free growth and withdrawals for anything, with $7,000 of new room in 2026. Withdrawals are added back to your room the next year.

You don’t have to choose: CRA allows a qualifying FHSA withdrawal and an HBP withdrawal for the same home. Many first-time buyers use the FHSA first because none of it has to be repaid.

Deduct now or later?

You don’t have to deduct a contribution in the year you make it. Undeducted contributions carry forward, even after the FHSA is closed, so you can claim them in a year when your income, and your tax rate, is higher. At $70,000 in Alberta, deducting $8,000 saves $2,440.00; at $110,000 the same deduction saves $2,440.00. Deducting a large amount at once can also cross into a lower bracket: $16,000 at $70,000 saves $4,385.47, less than twice $2,440.00, because part of it falls in Alberta’s lower bracket. Untick “Deduct each year” above to compare. This is an explanation, not advice: the right choice depends on your future income, which no one knows for sure.

If you never buy a home

The money isn’t trapped. You can move it directly to an RRSP or RRIF, tax-deferred, and that transfer doesn’t use any of your RRSP room (as long as you have no excess FHSA amount). Withdrawn as cash instead, it’s added to your taxable income for the year (CRA – Withdrawals and transfers out of your FHSAs).

How this is calculated

1. Room: $8,000 in the year you open your first FHSA. Each later year, the lesser of $8,000 plus the carry-forward and $40,000 minus everything contributed so far. The carry-forward is last year’s unused room, up to $8,000. An excess from last year uses up new room first.
2. Each year’s planned contribution is capped at that year’s room, and made at the start of the year.
3. Growth: the balance and each contribution grow at your expected return, compounded yearly (the same formula as the compound interest calculator).
4. Tax saved: the 2026 tax engine works out your federal and provincial income tax with and without the deduction, so a deduction that crosses a bracket is counted exactly.

Rules from CRA – Participating in your FHSAs, CRA – Tax deductions for FHSA contributions and CRA – Closing your FHSA.

What this calculator assumes

• You qualify to open an FHSA: a Canadian resident, of age (18, or 19 where that’s the age of majority) and no older than 71 on December 31, and a first-time home buyer (CRA – Opening your FHSA).
• The same return every year, and your income and 2026 tax rates stay the same each year.
• No transfers from an RRSP into the FHSA (those aren’t deductible) and no earlier withdrawals.
• Without amounts by year, earlier contributions are assumed to have been made as early as your room allowed.
• The tax saved treats your income as employment income, with no other deductions.

Rates for tax year 2026, verified October 21 to November 9, 2026 · Page updated November 9, 2026