Top 15 Hacks for Your First Home Savings Account (FHSA) aka The “Renter’s RRSP”
There is a brand new type of account in Canada coming out in April 2023.
It’s called Your First Home Savings Account (FHSA) aka The “Renter’s RRSP”.
You may know about RRSPs & TFSAs, well this is the third one, and it’s worth knowing because for many people, this is going to be the best place to put your money.
It’s also the # 1 way to save for a home.
In my latest video, I give you the top 15 hacks to get the maximum benefit from this new account, so that you can save money not just for a home, but for other purposes as well.
Watch this video & you will be an FHSA expert. Find out:
- What is an FHSA?
- Why were FHSAs created?
- The #1 way to save your down payment.
- Why are FHSAs called the “Renters’ RRSP”?
- Why you should open one this year even if you are not yet saving for a home.
- What’s the difference between an FHSA and the RRSP Home Buyer’s Plan?
- Should you contribute to your FHSA, RRSP or TFSA?
- Should you claim or defer the deduction for your FHSA contribution?
- What’s the difference between an FHSA and a virgin? (1st FHSA joke) 😊
- Why FHSAs make a great gift for your spouse or kids.
- FHSA uses for self-employed business owners with a corporation.
- The FHSA hack for the GIS Strategy for retirees.
- FHSA uses for non-residents.
- How to contribute $2,500 more to your FHSA with “FHSA Top-up Strategy”.
- What to do if you have no extra cash flow to invest.
I hope you enjoy it!
Ed
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Hello Ed,
Thanks all the great articles. I’ve tried to model filling the FHSA and never using the money to buy a house and then transfer it to an RRSP after 15 years. Seems like the best strategy if marginal tax rate is under 30%, isn’t it? I think we’re allowed not to use the FHSA when buying a house. How does it work if we’re not a first time home buyer anymore while filling the FHSA? Can we buy a house, then sell it, then become a first time home buyer at the end of those 15 years to take the money out tax free? Even then, creating new RRSP room might be the best strategy.
Thanks!
Hi Ed, I’m planning on permanently leaving Canada before the 15 years are up. Can I transfer the total accumulated FHSA amount to my RRSP BEFORE the 15 years are up? Ideally I’d like to maximize the 5 years (40k), transfer them to my RRSP after those 5 years.
Hi PTsigane,
If you are a homeowner, you can’t open an FHSA. If you don’t own a home, it is the most beneficial place to invest for almost everyone.
You get a free $40,000 contribution room that is tax deductible. If you don’t buy a home, you can merge it tax-free into your RRSP.
Ed
Hi Ovidiu,
Tax on Split Income (TOSI) rules are complex with a bunch of exemptions. You need to have your corporate accountant that knows all the details about your situation advise on it.
In general, I agree that the parents may be in a lower tax bracket than their child, if the TOSI rules apply.
If the parents gift the money to the child to contribute to an FHSA, the child probably can’t use the tax deduction, but can carry it forward indefinitely until he/she earns enough income to make the deduction worthwhile. In general, it’s best to carry the tax deduction forward until your taxable income is over $50,000.
Ed
Hi Ed,
Did I understand this well? Even as a homeowner who’s maximized his RRSP, you recommend opening a FHSA to get an extra 40K$ of tax sheltered investments, even if I don’t plan on buying a house at the moment? That would give me 15 years of tax deferred growth that I would have to take out and pay tax on after this delay, hopefully at a lower tax rate.
Thanks for the tip,
PTsigane
Hi Ed,
I should have slept on my “sparkling” idea :D. Have finally realized myself the flaws of the post I had written in the spur of the moment:
1. Dividend gross up is actually 15% for non-eligible dividends
2. TOSI is maximally applied on the gross-up dividend (53.31%), whereas any calculated tax refund would be way lower since we’re talking about the lowest possible tax bracket for our student.
The parents themselves could get a higher tax return by using appropriate techniques and simply gift the amount to child. Bottom line, what I was suggesting in my previous post doesn’t make sense at all.
Thank you for any additional comments you might have!
Hi Ed,
It’s been years I am following your very interesting and unconventional wisdom! I’ve just had the chance to watch your latest (today) Youtube video about the new FHSA. Great work as usual, plenty of useful info and ideas!
Your video triggered immediately the following “spark” in my head and I would need your take on its pertinence and feasibility as I am not a CPA or FP.
My idea is regarding an 8 000 $ dividend distribution to the child from the parent’s SB corporation, in order to contribute to the new FHSA. Provided that the child is still a student and has close to none additional income as well as considering the horrific TOSI tax of 53.31 % (QC+FED), would the math described by you still apply in essence?
Does the new FHSA legislation have any provisions that would negatively impact us from this scenario? If not, the punitive TOSI pertaining income split would be an advantage as it triggers in theory a higher tax return: taxable dividend 11 040 $ (8000 $ x 1.38 gross-up) would generate a 5 855 $ tax return.
Another advantage would be that the dividend payed in 2023 is declared in the 2024 personal tax statement so we could think about laddering the dividend payouts in a more efficient manner.
Thank you in advance for either validating or “obliterating” 😀 the above considerations! It’s well worth the question!