Guides
Longer reads on how the accounts and the tax rules actually work, each with worked 2026 numbers from our calculators and links to the official source for every figure.
Getting your RRSP refund in every paycheque: payroll contributions and Form T1213
Why a big spring refund is an interest-free loan to the CRA, how contributing to an RRSP through payroll reduces tax at source automatically, and how to use Form T1213 to get your employer to withhold less when you contribute on your own.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideHome Buyers' Plan repayments: the schedule, the temporary deferral and what happens if you miss one
How the RRSP Home Buyers' Plan repayment period works after a withdrawal of up to $60,000, when repayments start (including the five-year deferral for 2022 to 2025 withdrawals), how to designate a repayment, and the tax on a missed payment.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideHow an RRSP or FHSA deduction increases your Canada Child Benefit
The Canada Child Benefit is reduced as family net income rises, so an RRSP or FHSA deduction raises the benefit as well as cutting tax. How the phase-out rates work, worked 2026 examples for families with two children, and the timing of the increase.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideLeaving Canada: what happens to your TFSA, RRSP and FHSA
What becoming a non-resident means for each registered account: why TFSA room stops and new contributions are penalized, how RRSP withdrawals are taxed at 25% withholding, the 60-day deadline for Home Buyers' Plan balances, and the FHSA's residency requirement.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideMarginal versus average tax rate: what your 2026 bracket really means
The difference between the rate on your next dollar and the share of your income you pay in tax, why a raise never lowers take-home pay through brackets alone, how benefit clawbacks create higher effective rates, and which rate to use for RRSP, TFSA and FHSA decisions.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideOver-contributed to a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA? How each penalty works and how to fix it
The 1% monthly tax on excess contributions works differently in each registered account. What counts as an excess, the RRSP's $2,000 cushion, the forms to file, how to remove the excess and when the CRA will waive the tax.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideRESP basics: the 20% grant, the $50,000 limit and what happens if your child does not go to school
How a Registered Education Savings Plan works: the Canada Education Savings Grant of 20% on the first $2,500 a year, catch-up rules, the Canada Learning Bond, how withdrawals are taxed in the student's hands, and your options if the money is never used for school.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideSelf-employed? How net business income, CPP and instalments shape your RRSP and TFSA
For sole proprietors and freelancers: why net self-employment income is what creates RRSP room, how paying both halves of CPP affects cash flow and deductions, when tax instalments are required, how to use deduction timing in uneven years, and why dividends from your own corporation create no RRSP room.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideThe Lifelong Learning Plan: using your RRSP to pay for school
How the Lifelong Learning Plan lets you or your spouse withdraw up to $10,000 a year and $20,000 in total from an RRSP tax-free for full-time education, which programs qualify, the 10-year repayment schedule and what happens if you miss a payment.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideWhat you can hold in a TFSA, RRSP or FHSA: qualified investments, U.S. withholding tax and the day-trading risk
Which investments registered accounts can hold, the penalties for non-qualified and prohibited investments, why U.S. dividends lose 15% in a TFSA but not in an RRSP, and when frequent trading turns TFSA gains into taxable business income.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideWhen someone dies: successor holders, beneficiaries and the tax on a TFSA, RRSP and FHSA
How each registered account is taxed at death, the difference between a successor holder and a beneficiary, the spousal rollover that defers RRSP tax, why the estate usually pays the tax on an RRSP left to a child, and the Quebec rule on beneficiary designations.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideWorkplace pensions and your RRSP room: pension adjustments, PARs and group plans
How a defined benefit or defined contribution pension reduces your RRSP deduction limit through the pension adjustment, how to read box 52 of your T4, when a pension adjustment reversal gives room back, and why a group RRSP works differently.
Reviewed 2026-09-25
Read guideBuying a first home with the FHSA and the Home Buyers' Plan together
How to stack the FHSA's tax-free withdrawal with the RRSP Home Buyers' Plan for the same purchase, the 90-day and repayment rules, and the order that gets the most out of both.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
Read guideHow an RRSP deduction actually lowers your 2026 tax
What an RRSP deduction does to your tax return, why the refund is not simply contribution times marginal rate, and how the 2026 deduction limit, deadline and carry-forward rules work.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
Read guideNewcomers to Canada: TFSA, RRSP and FHSA in your first years
What a new resident can open immediately, why TFSA room starts on arrival but RRSP room waits a year, how a home owned abroad affects the FHSA, and the part-year rules that change your first return.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
Read guideOAS clawback: how the recovery tax works and the moves that reduce it
Old Age Security is reduced by 15% of net income above an indexed threshold. What counts as income, how the reduction is collected, and the planning tools that keep more of the pension: TFSA, pension splitting, deferral and early RRSP drawdown.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
Read guideQuebec residents and registered accounts, with the abatement explained
Why Quebec RRSP savings look different from Ontario's, how the 16.5% federal abatement and Revenu Québec's own brackets combine, and which TFSA and FHSA rules are identical across Canada.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
Read guideRRIF minimum withdrawals: the schedule, the tax and the age-71 deadline
What happens to an RRSP at 71, the minimum withdrawal percentage for every age, how to base the minimum on a younger spouse, and how RRIF income interacts with OAS, GIS and pension splitting.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
Read guideRRSP or TFSA? A decision framework with real 2026 numbers
The one comparison that decides between an RRSP and a TFSA, how income-tested benefits like GIS and OAS change the answer, and the cases where the textbook rule breaks.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
Read guideRRSP withdrawals: withholding tax versus the tax you actually owe
The 10%, 20% and 30% withholding rates on RRSP withdrawals are a prepayment, not the bill. How the real tax is settled on your return, the Quebec rates, and the withdrawals that escape withholding.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
Read guideSpousal RRSPs: how income splitting works and the three-year attribution trap
A spousal RRSP lets the higher earner deduct today and the lower earner pay the tax on withdrawal. The rules on whose room is used, the three-calendar-year attribution rule, and where it still beats pension splitting.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
Read guideTFSA contribution room in 2026, explained from the first dollar
How TFSA room accrues from age 18, why withdrawals come back the next January, what the 1% monthly penalty really costs, and how to check your true number with CRA.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
Read guideTFSA withdrawals: the January rule, the recontribution trap and using it as an emergency fund
Why a TFSA withdrawal only comes back as room on January 1, how a same-year recontribution triggers the 1% monthly tax, why December beats January for withdrawals, and how to run an emergency fund inside a TFSA safely.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
Read guideThe FHSA in 2026, from opening the account to closing it
Who can open a First Home Savings Account, how the $8,000 annual and $40,000 lifetime limits and carryforward work, what makes a withdrawal tax-free, and what happens to leftover money.
Reviewed 2026-09-14
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