RRSP Contribution Room Calculator

How RRSP Contribution Room Works

Every year the CRA grants you new RRSP room worth 18% of your prior-year earned income, capped at an annual dollar maximum. For the 2026 tax year that cap is $33,810 (up from $32,490 in 2025). If you're in a workplace pension, your pension adjustment reduces the new room. Finally, any room you never used in past years carries forward and stacks on top.

The single most reliable place to confirm your exact room is your CRA Notice of Assessment or CRA My Account — it already includes every prior year's carry-forward. This calculator is ideal for planning a contribution before your NOA updates, or projecting next year's room.

A word of caution: over-contributing by more than the $2,000 lifetime buffer triggers a penalty of 1% per month on the excess. When in doubt, contribute a little under your calculated room.

Frequently Asked Questions

How room is built, and why yours may be lower than the formula

Each year you gain 18% of the previous year's earned income, capped at the annual maximum of $33,810 for 2026. Unused room carries forward indefinitely — it never expires, which is why someone who has never contributed can have decades of accumulated room.

Earned income is narrower than total income. It includes employment income, self-employment profit, net rental income, and taxable support received. It does not include investment income, capital gains, most pension income, or CPP and OAS. A retiree living on investments and pensions generates no new RRSP room at all.

If you have a workplace pension or group RRSP, your room is reduced by a pension adjustment — reported on your T4 — which reflects the value of what your employer contributed. This is why members of a defined-benefit plan often find their available room is small despite a good salary. Your Notice of Assessment is the authoritative figure; any calculator, including this one, works from assumptions.

⚠️ Over-contributing costs 1% per month

You may exceed your limit by a lifetime buffer of $2,000 without penalty. Beyond that the CRA charges 1% per month on the excess — 12% a year, on money that is already locked in a registered account. The penalty runs until the over-contribution is withdrawn, and withdrawing it usually means the amount becomes taxable too.

It happens most often to people with group plans, where employer and employee contributions together quietly exceed room, and to anyone who contributed in January using a limit that had not yet been updated. Check your Notice of Assessment before contributing — the number on it already accounts for pension adjustments and prior contributions.

Contributing and deducting are two separate decisions

This is the most under-used feature of the RRSP. You can contribute now and defer claiming the deduction to a later tax year — the money starts growing tax-sheltered immediately, but you take the tax break when it is worth more.

If you expect a much higher income next year — a promotion, a return from parental leave, a first full year of self-employment — contributing now and deducting later can be worth thousands. A $10,000 deduction claimed at a 43% marginal rate is worth $4,300; the same deduction at 25% is worth $2,500. The contribution deadline for a given tax year is 60 days into the following year, normally March 1.

Withdrawals, and the two that aren't taxed

Ordinary RRSP withdrawals are fully taxable as income and, critically, the room is gone forever — unlike a TFSA, withdrawing does not restore contribution space. Tax is withheld at source on withdrawal, but that withholding is rarely the full amount owed; the balance appears at filing.

Two exceptions let you withdraw tax-free if repaid on schedule: the Home Buyers' Plan (up to $60,000, repaid over 15 years) and the Lifelong Learning Plan for full-time education. Miss a repayment and the missed portion is added to your income for that year. See our TFSA vs RRSP guide for which account should receive the next dollar.