Yearly contribution limits cheat sheet

Three official numbers sit at the top of every January conversation: the TFSA dollar limit, the RRSP dollar limit, and FHSA participation room. For 2026 they are $7,000, $33,810, and $8,000. Your personal room is almost never those headlines alone.

This is the 2026 lookup page: official limits, how each room is built, over-contribution, what a withdrawal does, and the calendars. Mechanics live in the linked notes. For which account gets the next dollar, use the 2026 which-to-fund-first guide.

Not in this sheet: RESP and RDSP. Those are different registered plans with their own official pages.

2026 limits at a glance

CRA’s published 2026 headlines, then the same figures in one place:

• TFSA: a $7,000 dollar limit, added 1 January 2026. No CRA lifetime cap.
• RRSP: a $33,810 dollar limit. Personal new room is the lesser of 18% of 2025 earned income and $33,810, plus unused room, ± PA/PAR/PSPA. No CRA lifetime contribution cap.
• FHSA: $8,000 participation room in the year you open your first FHSA; later years $8,000 plus carry-forward capped at $8,000. Lifetime contributions and deductions: $40,000.

Confirm your own TFSA room from your records — CRA’s TFSA figures can lag. Take RRSP room from your latest Notice of Assessment or Form T1028, and FHSA room from your participation-room statement. Do not treat $33,810 as the amount you can put in. Do not treat an $8,000 FHSA or RRSP deposit as a guaranteed refund of a set dollar amount — the value of a deduction is your own marginal rate, which CRA does not publish as one national figure.

TFSA annual limits since 2009

The dollar limit is what CRA adds each 1 January for people who were eligible that year. It is indexed to inflation and rounded to the nearest $500. CRA’s published table on Before you contribute:

The 2026 figure is the same $7,000 on CRA’s registered-plan limits table. You only receive a year’s dollar limit if you were 18 or older and a resident of Canada for that year. New residents start in the year they become resident — not from the year they turned 18 if that was before they lived in Canada.

CRA does not publish a lifetime TFSA contribution cap. Illustrative (not a CRA quote): if you were 18 and a resident every year from 2009 through 2026, those official annual limits add up to $109,000. That total is a sum of CRA’s yearly figures, not a CRA “lifetime limit.” Anyone who arrived later, turned 18 later, or was a non-resident in some of those years has a smaller starting total. If you have already contributed, subtract those deposits. If you withdrew in 2025, add that withdrawal on 1 January 2026.

The running room math — unused room, last year’s withdrawals, this year’s deposits — lives in TFSA contribution room for 2026.

How each room is actually calculated

TFSA. CRA’s formula is this year’s $7,000 dollar limit, plus unused room from previous years, plus withdrawals made the previous year, minus contributions already made this year. Last year’s withdrawals are added on 1 January, not the day you take them out. Gains and losses do not change room. One pool covers every TFSA. CRA My Account lags — use your own issuer records. CRA’s Joe example on Before you contribute: $5,000 unused from 2025 plus the $7,000 2026 limit = $12,000 in 2026 before any 2026 deposits. Full formula: TFSA contribution room for 2026.

RRSP. Personal deduction limit is unused room from the end of last year, plus the lesser of 18% of previous-year earned income and the annual dollar limit, after pension adjustment, plus PAR, minus PSPA. The official 2026 dollar limit is $33,810. The formula page still quotes the 2025 cap of $32,490 in that sentence — use the table for the 2026 ceiling. There is no CRA lifetime contribution cap. Unused deduction room is the first line of next year’s formula; no expiry or dollar cap is stated on the pages used here. No earned income and no unused room means nothing new. Confirm the number on your Notice of Assessment, Form T1028, or CRA. Illustrative (not a CRA quote, and not your personal limit): $80,000 of 2025 earned income, no PA, no unused room → 18% × $80,000 = $14,400. Contribute and deduct are different steps: RRSP deduction and refund planning.

FHSA. Room starts only when you open your first FHSA — not when you become eligible, and not for years you waited. There is no retroactive 2023–2025 room. First-open-year participation room is $8,000, covering contributions and RRSP → FHSA transfers combined. Later years are $8,000 plus carry-forward, and the carry-forward itself is capped at $8,000. In the year you open, carry-forward is $0. Opening with $0 still starts the clock; file Schedule 15 even with no activity. CRA’s Wendy example: opened in 2025, contributed $0, filed Schedule 15 → 2026 participation room $16,000. Lifetime contributions and deductions are $40,000. A direct RRSP → FHSA transfer uses room, is not deductible, and reduces remaining lifetime deduction room. Income earned inside the FHSA does not use room. Calendar year only — no 60-day lookback. The open-to-start-the-clock mechanic: FHSA rules for a first home.

Over-contribution, in one place

TFSA and FHSA tax excess at 1% per month from the first extra dollar. There is no $2,000 cushion. CRA calculates TFSA tax on the highest excess in the month for each month it remains. File Form RC243 and Schedule A; due June 30 of the calendar year after the year the tax applies — so 2026 excess tax is due 30 June 2027. A deliberate TFSA over-contribution may be taxed at the 100% advantage rate.

FHSA tax is 1% per month on the highest excess FHSA amount until you eliminate it. File RC728 and RC728-SCH-A. FHSA excess is contributions plus RRSP → FHSA transfers above participation room. New 1 January room can absorb leftover excess; you still owe 1% for the months it existed.

RRSP is the exception. Generally you pay 1% per month on unused contributions that exceed your deduction limit by more than $2,000. The $2,000 cushion is not deductible. On CRA’s current excess page (labelled for 2025), you only qualify for that extra $2,000 if you were 18 or older at any time in 2024. File T1-OVP no later than 90 days after the end of the year. Do not apply that cushion to a TFSA or an FHSA.

What a withdrawal does to room

TFSA. Withdrawals are generally tax-free. The amount comes back as room the next calendar year on January 1, not the same day. Re-contribute in the same year without leftover unused room and you have excess. Do a direct TFSA-to-TFSA transfer through the issuer — a withdraw-and-recontribute can create that excess. More: TFSA withdrawal rules.

RRSP. Regular withdrawals are income (line 12900). Room is not restored. Room comes from prior-year earned income and unused room, not from taking money out. Home Buyers’ Plan and Lifelong Learning Plan withdrawals are different programs — they must be repaid, and those repayments are not new deductible contributions. Timing of the deduction itself: RRSP deduction and refund planning.

FHSA. A qualifying withdrawal for a first home is tax-free and not repaid. It does not restore participation room. Any other withdrawal is taxable. After the first qualifying withdrawal, further contributions are not deductible. Putting a qualifying withdrawal back in is a new contribution — it may create excess, and it is not deductible.

How those three accounts sit on a net-worth picture: registered accounts and net worth.

Deadlines and age cutoffs

Calendars. TFSA and FHSA are calendar-year accounts. Contribute to a TFSA any time in 2026 if you have room. There is no RRSP-style 60-day rule. A January 2026 TFSA deposit is a 2026 contribution.

An FHSA contribution from 1 January to 31 December of the same year can be deducted for that year or a later year — there is no 60-day lookback. A January 2026 FHSA deposit is a 2026 deduction, not a 2025 one. If you opened in 2025, CRA’s important-dates page is explicit: you can claim up to $8,000 of contributions made by 31 December 2025 on the 2025 return.

RRSP. 2 March 2026 is the deadline to contribute for the 2025 tax year — confirmed on that dates page and on Line 20800. Contributions from 4 March 2025 to 2 March 2026 qualify for 2025. The rule: contributions in the first 60 days of the following year may be deducted for the prior tax year. The exact calendar date in 2027 for 2026-tax-year RRSP contributions has not been posted on the CRA dates pages used for this article. Do not guess it. Confirm the posted date on the official dates page when CRA publishes it.

Age. To open a TFSA you must be 18 or older (or 19 to enter a contract in some provinces or territories), a resident of Canada, and have a valid SIN. After you turn 19 in a majority-at-19 province, you may open the account and carry over the room from the year you turned 18. CRA’s opening page does not state an upper age limit.

An RRSP can take contributions to your own plan until 31 December of the year you turn 71. You can contribute to a spouse or common-law partner’s RRSP until 31 December of the year they turn 71. You may still deduct unused contributions later, up to your deduction limit.

An FHSA can be opened if you are 18 or older (or the provincial age of majority if that is 19) and 71 or younger as of 31 December of the year you open, plus the residency and first-time tests. The maximum participation period also ends 31 December of the year of the earliest of: the 15th anniversary of opening, the year you turn 71, or the year after the first qualifying withdrawal. Details stay in FHSA rules for a first home.

Room tools for TFSA, RRSP, and FHSA live on the Finnomia tools hub. Start a 30-day free trial to keep the limits next to the accounts.

This is a 2026 lookup page, not tax advice and not a CRA publication. The headlines ($7,000 / $33,810 / $8,000) are not your personal room. Confirm TFSA from your issuer records, RRSP from your Notice of Assessment or Form T1028, and FHSA from your participation-room statement. RESP and RDSP are out of scope here.