Registered accounts
A registered account is one the government recognizes and attaches tax rules to: what goes in, what comes out and what tax does with it differ from an ordinary account. This section describes those rules account by account — TFSA, RRSP, FHSA, RESP, RRIF — and the common mechanism that governs them, contribution room, which accumulates from one year to the next.
It starts with an overview of what each account is for, then contribution room, before the accounts one by one, in the order they show up in a life: saving, a first home, education, retirement. It ends with the RRSP-or-TFSA comparison, which lays out the logic of the choice without making it for you, and with the margin account, which is not registered but sits in the same place.
The figures — limits, rates — change every year: each article points to the official source that holds them.
- TFSA, RRSP, LIRA…: what each account is forAn investment account is not an investment: it is a container.
- Contribution room: how it accumulatesRegistered accounts such as the TFSA and the RRSP are capped: you cannot put unlimited amounts into them.
- The FHSA explainedThe FHSA — First Home Savings Account — is the newest of Canada's major registered accounts.
- The RESP explainedThe RESP — Registered Education Savings Plan — is the account designed to fund a child's post-secondary education.
- RRIF: when the RRSP turns aroundThe RRSP is an accumulation account: deductible money goes in, and it grows there shielded from tax. But it is not designed to last forever.
- RRSP or TFSA: the logic of the choice"RRSP or TFSA?" is probably the most asked question in Canadian saving. This article does not answer it — no one can answer it without knowing your situation.
The margin account, demystified
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