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FHSA Guide Canada 2026: How the First Home Savings Account (CELIAPP) Works

Updated

A First Home Savings Account (FHSA) is a registered account that lets a first-time home buyer save, tax-free up to certain limits, to buy or build a first home. Contributions are generally deductible from your income, and a qualifying withdrawal for the home comes out tax-free.

You get $8,000 of room a year starting with the year you open your first FHSA, up to $40,000 over your lifetime. If you don’t buy, the money can generally be transferred directly to your RRSP or RRIF without immediate tax. In French the account is the CELIAPP (compte d’épargne libre d’impôt pour l’achat d’une première propriété). How it compares with a TFSA and an RRSP is on FHSA vs TFSA vs RRSP.

How the FHSA works

FeatureRuleFull rules
Room each year$8,000, from the year you open your first FHSAContribution limit
Unused roomCarries forward, up to $8,000 a yearCarry-forward
Lifetime limit$40,000 of contributions and transfers from your RRSPsContribution limit
The deductionGenerally deductible for the year you contribute or a later year, but not the year beforeDeduction timing
Withdrawal for a first homeTax-free when every condition is met, and never repaidWithdrawal rules
Other withdrawals (except removing an excess)Generally included in your income, with tax withheldTaxable withdrawals
With the Home Buyers’ PlanBoth can go toward the same home; the HBP lets you take up to $60,000 from your RRSPsFHSA and the HBP
If you don’t buyDirect transfer to your RRSP or RRIF without immediate tax, or withdraw it as taxable incomeIf you don’t buy
How long it lastsUntil December 31 of the year of the earliest of: the 15th anniversary of opening your first FHSA, the year you turn 71, or the year after the year of your first qualifying withdrawalIf you don’t buy

Who can open an FHSA

You have to meet every one of the CRA’s conditions on the day you open the account:

  • You are at least 18, or 19 where that is the legal age to enter a contract (British Columbia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Yukon, Nunavut, Northwest Territories).
  • You are 71 or younger on December 31 of the year you open it.
  • You are a resident of Canada.
  • You didn't live, this calendar year or in the previous 4 calendar years, in a home you owned or jointly owned as your principal residence.
  • Nor, in that period, in a home your spouse or common-law partner owned or jointly owned (this doesn't apply if you have no spouse or partner when you open the account).
  • You can't open an FHSA after your maximum participation period has ended.

This first-time buyer test applies when you open the account; taking money out for a home has its own, different test, explained on the withdrawal page. Living in a home your spouse or common-law partner owns can rule you out: in a CRA example, Carlos can’t open an FHSA because his common-law partner owns the home they live in. Couples’ situations are on opening an FHSA when your partner owns a home.

Give your issuer accurate information. If it later turns out that information was incorrect, the account’s registration can be revoked as far back as the day it was opened, and then your contributions aren’t deductible and the income earned in it isn’t tax-free.

Is an FHSA worth opening?

If you qualify, the FHSA gives you a deduction on the way in and, for a first home, a tax-free withdrawal on the way out. The fallback if you don’t buy is a direct transfer to your RRSP or RRIF, which generally doesn’t touch your unused RRSP deduction room.

It adds less in two situations. A withdrawal that isn’t for a qualifying home is generally taxable income. The account also has a time limit, set out in the last row of the table above. Which account to fill first is on FHSA vs TFSA vs RRSP, and the FHSA calculator projects the growth and the tax saved.

How to open an FHSA

You open an FHSA with an FHSA issuer, such as a bank, credit union, trust company or insurance company, and you can have more than one. All of them share the same yearly room. The issuer will ask for your social insurance number, your date of birth and any documents it needs to confirm you qualify, and you may want to name a beneficiary when you open it. An FHSA can be a deposit account (cash, term deposits, GICs), a trusteed account that can also hold bonds, mutual funds and listed securities, or an annuity contract. Providers are compared on best FHSA accounts, and what to hold on what to hold in an FHSA. The year you open your first FHSA, you file Schedule 15 with your return even if you put nothing in (see reporting).

When to open an FHSA

FHSAs have been available since April 1, 2023, but your own room doesn’t start until the year you open your first one: no room carries in from the years before. The opening year still gives the full $8,000, however late in the year you open: in one CRA example, an account opened in December had $8,000 of room for that year. Room you leave unused carries forward, up to $8,000 into a year, so opening before you can contribute keeps at most one year’s room waiting (how the carry-forward works).

Opening also starts the 15-year clock, whether or not you contribute: in the CRA’s example, Amr opened his first FHSA in 2025 and didn’t contribute until 2028, and his account still has to close by December 31, 2040.

If you open late, the age limit matters: you can open an FHSA up to the year you turn 71, but the account ends on December 31 of the year you turn 71: in another CRA example, Sophia opened at 60 and her account ends in the year she turns 71. Reaching the $40,000 limit takes 5 years of room, so opening in the year you turn 67 or earlier leaves enough years to get there; a later start leaves less room.

Contributions, room and the deduction

Only the holder of an FHSA can contribute to it directly and claim the deduction for those contributions, so there is no spousal FHSA: each partner opens and funds their own. Money you give your spouse or common-law partner for their FHSA isn't attributed back to you while it stays in their account, to the extent they have no excess FHSA amount. Contributions and transfers from your RRSPs count against the same room, and going over it costs a tax of 1% a month on the excess until it is gone. The limits, the carry-forward and how to check your room are on FHSA contribution limit and carry-forward. You don’t have to claim the deduction in the year you contribute; a later year can make sense if your income will be higher (deduction timing).

Moving RRSP savings into an FHSA

You can move money from your RRSP into your FHSA, within your FHSA room:

  • It is a direct transfer between the institutions, made with Form RC720 or the institution's own document; withdrawing from the RRSP and contributing yourself is a taxable RRSP withdrawal and a new FHSA contribution.
  • It uses your FHSA participation room and can't be more than your unused room at the time.
  • It can't be claimed as an FHSA deduction.
  • It doesn't restore your unused RRSP deduction room.
  • From a spousal RRSP, the transfer is a taxable RRSP withdrawal and a new FHSA contribution if your spouse or common-law partner contributed to any spousal RRSP in the year of the transfer or the two calendar years before.

The transfer has to go directly between the institutions. In a CRA example, Kelly took $6,000 out of his RRSP and put it into his FHSA the same day himself: the $6,000 counted as RRSP income for the year and as an FHSA contribution that used his room.

Taking money out

A tax-free withdrawal for a home has conditions you must meet when you withdraw (among them, being a first-time buyer then, a written agreement to buy or build a home in Canada, residence in Canada, intending to live in it), and you ask for it by giving Form RC725 to your FHSA issuer. If a condition isn’t met, the withdrawal is taxed as income, and checking the conditions is your responsibility. The conditions, the form and the timing are on FHSA withdrawal rules.

If you won’t be buying, a direct transfer to your RRSP or RRIF avoids the tax a cash withdrawal triggers; withdrawing the money and contributing it to the RRSP yourself makes it a taxable FHSA withdrawal and a new RRSP contribution that uses RRSP room. The options and the deadline are on what happens to your FHSA if you don’t buy.

Reporting the FHSA on your tax return

Your FHSA issuer sends you a T4FHSA slip with the year’s totals for each FHSA, and you report those amounts on your return. You’re also responsible for keeping track of everything in your FHSAs yourself.

WhenWhat you report
The year you open your first FHSASchedule 15, even if you didn’t contribute that year
You contributed, transferred from an RRSP or made a qualifying withdrawalSchedule 15
You claim the FHSA deductionSchedule 15 and line 20805
You made a taxable withdrawalLine 12905
Tax was withheldLine 43700
You went over your roomForm RC728, filed by June 30 of the calendar year following the year the tax applies

Contributions you make after your first qualifying withdrawal can’t be deducted for any year. What each box on the slip means is on the T4FHSA slip explained.

Newcomers and non-residents

You can open an FHSA once you are a resident of Canada and meet the other conditions. For tax purposes you become a resident when you have enough residential ties here, such as a home, a spouse or common-law partner, or dependants in Canada, and for most newcomers that starts the first day they live in Canada. If you aren’t sure, you can ask the CRA to help determine your status with Form NR74.

The first-time buyer test counts homes outside Canada: a home you owned and lived in as your principal residence abroad counts the same as one here, during the current year and the previous 4 calendar years. And unlike the TFSA, whose room builds up from age 18 for a Canadian resident, FHSA room doesn’t start until you open the account, so waiting costs you room.

If you leave Canada after opening an FHSA, you can keep using it normally with one exception: no qualifying withdrawal for a home while you are a non-resident. A taxable withdrawal as a non-resident has 25% tax withheld unless a tax treaty reduces it, shown on an NR4 slip.

The FHSA in Quebec (CELIAPP)

The CELIAPP is the same account under its French name. Quebec residents claim it on their provincial return too: Revenu Québec says the deduction at line 215 corresponds to the amount deducted on line 20805 of the federal return. Revenu Québec’s slip for the account is the RL-32. On a taxable withdrawal, Quebec withholds its own tax: 14% on $5,000 or less and 19% above.

Common FHSA mistakes

  • Not filing Schedule 15 the year you open. It is required even with no contributions; without it, the CRA’s notice of your room for the next year may be wrong.
  • Contributing more than your room. The excess is taxed at 1% a month until it is removed (over-contributions).
  • Moving money between an RRSP and an FHSA yourself. Only a direct transfer avoids tax; money you withdraw and contribute to the other account yourself is a taxable withdrawal and counts as a new contribution there.
  • Withdrawing for a home before every condition is met. The withdrawal becomes taxable (the conditions).
  • Expecting a deduction after you buy. Contributions after your first qualifying withdrawal can’t be deducted.
  • Leaving money in past the deadline. Whatever is still in the account when the period ends loses FHSA status and its value is added to your income for that year.
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Sources

The figures and rules on this page come from these sources, last checked against them between August 29, 2026 and September 29, 2026. How we check facts.