RRSP Contribution Room
New RRSP room for 2026 is 18% of earned income from the prior year, up to $33,810. Unused room from earlier years still counts. A pension adjustment can reduce it.
Current for the 2026 tax year · Updated 21 Oct 2026 · Source linked below
Where Does the New Room Come From?
Earned income includes employment income and some other amounts, and it excludes things like TFSA withdrawals and most investment income. The 18% rate applies to that earned income from the previous year. The dollar cap for 2026 is $33,810.
If you do not contribute the full amount, the unused room carries forward. The notice of assessment is the record of what is actually available. A calculator can estimate room from income. It cannot see a pension adjustment you do not enter.
What Lowers the Room You Can Use?
A pension adjustment reports the value of benefits earned in an employer pension for the prior year. It reduces new RRSP room. A past over-contribution can also reduce what you can add now.
Contributing more than the available room has its own penalty rules once you are past the allowed cushion. The estimate on this site does not replace the room on your assessment.
How Does Room Differ From the Refund?
Room is how much you are allowed to deduct. The refund is the tax that deduction saves at your current rates. A contribution that crosses into a lower bracket saves less tax on the dollars past that point.
Room you do not use this year is not lost. Using it in a higher-income year can save more tax than using it in a lower-income year, as long as the delay still fits the rest of the plan.
Source: Canada Revenue Agency, MP, RRSP, DPSP, and TFSA limits, and the YMPE.
Put the Contribution in a Plan
Explorer can show what an RRSP contribution does to a retirement timeline, not only the refund in the year you make it. The RRSP calculator estimates room, the refund, and growth for one contribution.
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