If You Used the Home Buyers' Plan in 2022, Your First Repayment Is Coming

How the Home Buyers' Plan repayment clock actually runs

The Home Buyers' Plan lets an eligible first-time buyer withdraw from their RRSP, tax-free, to put toward a home — currently up to $60,000, according to the Canada Revenue Agency. The trade-off is that every dollar has to go back into your RRSP over a 15-year repayment period, or it gets taxed as income.

The part that catches people off guard is when that 15-year clock actually starts. Under the CRA's standard rule, repayment begins in the second year after the year of your first withdrawal — someone who withdrew in 2020, for example, would have started repaying in 2022.

Why some withdrawals get five years instead of two

For anyone whose first HBP withdrawal fell between January 1, 2022 and December 31, 2025, the CRA has applied temporary relief that pushes the start of the 15-year repayment period back an extra three years. As the CRA puts it, for that window "the 15-year repayment period would start the fifth year following the year in which a first withdrawal was made."

• First withdrawal in 2022 → first required repayment year is 2027
• First withdrawal in 2023 → first required repayment year is 2028
• First withdrawal in 2024 → first required repayment year is 2029
• First withdrawal in 2025 → first required repayment year is 2030

The total repayment period is still 15 years either way — this rule only moves when the clock starts, not how long you have once it does. A withdrawal made before 2022 stays on the standard two-year grace period.

What the minimum payment actually looks like

Once your repayment period starts, the CRA sets your minimum required repayment at one-fifteenth of your total withdrawal, spread evenly across the 15 years. On a full $60,000 withdrawal, that's about $4,000 a year; on a smaller $30,000 withdrawal, the minimum is closer to $2,000 a year. Repayments are made as ordinary RRSP contributions, then designated as HBP repayments on Schedule 7 of your tax return — and, like a regular RRSP contribution, they can be made either during the tax year itself or in the first 60 days of the following year.

There's a paperwork trap inside that rule worth naming on its own. Making the RRSP contribution is only half of it — you also have to designate it as an HBP repayment on Schedule 7 when you file. A contribution made and then not designated is treated as an ordinary RRSP contribution, which means your repayment still counts as missed and the minimum still lands in your income for that year. The money went in; the designation is what tells the CRA why.

Checking your own numbers instead of the general rule

Everything above is the general rule the CRA has published. Your own HBP balance, the exact year your repayment period starts, and your annual minimum are specific to you and already tracked on the CRA's side. The fastest way to see them is your Home Buyers' Plan Statement of Account, available through CRA My Account or printed on your notice of assessment each year — it shows your remaining balance and that year's required repayment without you having to calculate anything.

It's worth pulling that statement now if your first withdrawal fell in the 2022–2025 window, even though the requirement hasn't started yet. Knowing your actual first repayment year — and the dollar figure attached to it — turns a future tax-season surprise into something you can plan a year or more ahead of.

Why 2026 is the year to plan for it

If your first HBP withdrawal was in 2022, 2027 is your first required repayment year — which means the RRSP contribution room and the cash to fund it need to be lined up well before then, not discovered when the notice of assessment arrives. Because the contribution can be made in the first 60 days after year-end, the practical deadline for a 2027 repayment is early March 2028, but budgeting for it starts now, particularly if that year also happens to line up with a mortgage renewal or another large planned expense.

For anyone who withdrew across 2022 through 2025, it's worth checking your own notice of assessment for your specific HBP balance and repayment schedule rather than assuming — the CRA tracks each participant's numbers individually, and the examples above are the general rule, not a substitute for your own statement.

How this fits with an FHSA and a mortgage

An HBP repayment competes with other things you're likely doing at the same time — building First Home Savings Account room, saving for a renovation, or managing a mortgage that's coming up for renewal of its own. None of that makes the HBP schedule optional; it just means it's worth mapping alongside the rest of your plan rather than on its own. See our First Home Hub for how the HBP fits with the other down payment tools available to Ontario buyers, and our mortgage calculators if you're weighing how a repayment obligation affects what else you can carry.