Start with the question December actually asks
If you could fund both accounts fully, the FHSA-versus-Home-Buyers'-Plan debate would be mostly academic: the two programs can be used for the same home, and each buyer works with their own limits. December rarely offers that luxury. The real question is narrower and more practical — with a limited amount of cash available before December 31, 2026, which contribution has to happen now, and which one can safely wait until the new year?
The answer turns on three clocks that run at different speeds. The First Home Savings Account (FHSA) runs on the calendar year, with no carry-back for late contributions. The RRSP deduction behind a Home Buyers' Plan (HBP) withdrawal gets the familiar first-60-days window, ending March 1, 2027 for the 2026 tax year. And the HBP itself runs on a third clock: money has to sit inside the RRSP for roughly 90 days before it can come out under the plan. Work those three clocks in the wrong order and a contribution that felt urgent in December turns out to have been the one that could have waited.
The side-by-side that decides December
| Feature | FHSA | RRSP Home Buyers' Plan |
|---|---|---|
| What December 31 controls | The contribution period itself: contributions count for the year they are made in, January 1 to December 31 | Very little directly: the RRSP deduction can still be claimed using first-60-days contributions, but HBP money must already be seasoned in the RRSP |
| Room and limits | $8,000 of participation room in the year the first FHSA is opened, unused room carries forward up to $8,000, $40,000 lifetime limit | Withdraw up to $60,000 per person from an existing RRSP; a qualifying partner can withdraw up to $60,000 from their own RRSP |
| Deduction timing | Deductible for the year of contribution or a future year; a January contribution can never be deducted for the year that just ended | Normal RRSP deduction rules; the contribution must also survive the 90-day rule to stay fully deductible when withdrawn under the HBP |
| Money out for the home | A qualifying withdrawal is tax-free and is never repaid | Tax-free at withdrawal, then repaid to the RRSP over 15 years — $60,000 withdrawn means a $4,000 minimum repayment each year |
| Minimum holding period | None: there is no minimum number of days an FHSA contribution must stay in the account before it can be deducted | Funds must have been in the RRSP at least 89 days before the HBP withdrawal; contributions inside that window are not eligible and may lose their deduction |
| If the home never happens | Contributions already made but not yet claimed can still be carried forward and claimed in a future year, even after the account closes | The money simply stays in the RRSP under the normal retirement rules; nothing was withdrawn, so nothing is repaid |
Read the first row twice, because it is the whole argument. A missed FHSA contribution is not delayed — the 2026 contribution period ends, and a contribution made on January 15, 2027 belongs to 2027. The CRA states the point bluntly: first-60-days FHSA contributions cannot be deducted on the previous year's return, unlike RRSP contributions. The RRSP side of the table has no equivalent December cliff for the deduction itself. What it has instead is a seasoning rule, and that rule rewards money that was contributed months ago, not money rushed in during the last week of the year.
The December order of operations
Run the decision as a sequence, not a coin flip:
- Open the FHSA first, if none exists. Participation room only starts in the year the first FHSA is opened, and it starts at $8,000. Opening before December 31 starts the 2026 room even if the first contribution lands later; opening in January means 2026 room never exists.
- Confirm your actual FHSA room before contributing. Room is a single limit across all your FHSAs, and it covers contributions and transfers from an RRSP combined. Your participation room statement appears on your notice of assessment or reassessment, on Form T1028, or in your CRA account. Two accounts do not mean two limits.
- Put the limited December cash into the FHSA up to the room you intend to use. This is the contribution with the hard deadline. If 2026 was a low-income year, contribute anyway and carry the deduction forward — the contribution decision and the deduction decision are separate, and unclaimed contributions can be claimed in a future year, even beyond the closure of the account.
- Leave the RRSP top-up for January or February, unless the 90-day clock says otherwise. An RRSP contribution made in the first 60 days of 2027 can still be deducted for 2026, when your actual 2026 income is known. The exception is timing a purchase: if a home purchase is close enough that an HBP withdrawal could happen in the spring, remember that a December RRSP contribution only clears the 89-day holding period around the end of March. A contribution made purely to be withdrawn under the HBP a few weeks later does not work — the withdrawal has to wait for the seasoning, and withdrawing first and claiming the HBP afterward is not an option; Form T1036 goes to the RRSP issuer before the money comes out.
- File Schedule 15 for the opening year. If 2026 is the year you opened your first FHSA, Schedule 15 goes in with the 2026 return even if you contributed nothing, so the CRA records the account and your room.
The transfer question: RRSP money into the FHSA
One move looks clever in December and usually is not: transferring existing RRSP savings into the FHSA to fill it quickly. A direct transfer counts against the same participation room as a cash contribution, and it is not deductible — worse, every dollar transferred reduces the $40,000 lifetime amount you can ever deduct as an FHSA deduction. The transfer does convert money that would have faced a 15-year HBP repayment into money that can leave as a tax-free qualifying FHSA withdrawal with no repayment, and that can be the right trade close to a purchase. But when cash is available, a fresh contribution uses the same room and keeps the full deduction alive. In a cash-limited December, spend the room on deductible contributions first and leave transfers for a year when there is no cash to contribute.
The decision framework: ask the questions in this order. (1) Is an FHSA open? If not, opening it is the December move — it is the only step whose value disappears entirely on January 1. (2) How much FHSA room do I have, and how much of it can I fund? Fund that next, by December 31. (3) Is a purchase near enough that RRSP seasoning matters? If yes, work backward from the earliest realistic withdrawal date and get RRSP money in at least 90 days ahead of it. (4) Everything else — sizing the RRSP deduction, choosing the deduction year — belongs to January and February, when 2026 income is a fact instead of an estimate. A kill criterion for the whole plan: if funding either account would leave no cash buffer outside registered accounts, stop at the FHSA opening. Room started is valuable; an empty emergency fund is expensive.
What December cannot fix
Neither account pays out on December paperwork alone. A qualifying FHSA withdrawal needs a written agreement to buy or build a qualifying home, with the purchase or completion before October 1 of the year after the withdrawal, an intention to occupy the home as a principal residence within one year, and Form RC725 given to the FHSA issuer; the home must not have been acquired more than 30 days before the withdrawal. The HBP carries parallel conditions, including the written agreement and the same occupy-within-one-year intention, and a previous HBP balance must be zero before participating again. December's job is narrower: have the right money in the right account, seasoned and deductible, so that when an agreement exists the withdrawal rules are the only rules left to meet.
The repayment row of the table deserves a last look before any HBP withdrawal is planned. Repayments are designated on Schedule 7, they cannot also be claimed as a deduction, and they do not change your RRSP deduction limit. Repay less than the annual minimum and the shortfall is included as RRSP income on line 12900 for that year. For withdrawals made before 2022, repayment began in the second year after the withdrawal year; temporary relief pushed the start to the fifth year for first withdrawals made between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2025. Either way, the HBP is a loan from the retirement account with a 15-year schedule attached, while a qualifying FHSA withdrawal is simply done. That asymmetry — not the headline limits — is what a December contribution is really buying.
The decision, stated plainly
In a cash-limited December, the FHSA move matters more, because it is the one with an expiry date: open the account, confirm the room, contribute what you can by December 31, and let the deduction year be a tax-season choice. The Home Buyers' Plan matters on a different schedule — it rewards an RRSP balance that has been sitting in place for at least 90 days and a purchase agreement that does not exist yet in December. Fund the expiring room now, season the RRSP money with the purchase date in mind, and stack both programs on the same home when the time comes.
— Sterling Cole, Money Writer — Earning Desk