How much you can put in
Your RRSP deduction limit is 18% of last year's earned income, up to a yearly maximum, plus any room you didn't use in past years. For 2026 the maximum is $33,810. If you're in a workplace pension plan, your limit is lower by your pension adjustment.
Your exact limit is on your notice of assessment and in CRA My Account.
The deadline
Contributions made in the first 60 days of a year can count for the year before. For the 2026 tax year, that runs to March 1, 2027. The CRA confirms the date on its important dates page each year.
Where the refund comes from
An RRSP contribution lowers your taxable income. The tax you would have paid on that income is what comes back as a refund, or what lowers the tax you owe.
So the refund depends on your marginal tax rate: the rate on your last dollars of income. In Ontario in 2026:
$80,000
Combined marginal rate: 29.65%
About what a $5,000 contribution saves: $1,480
$60,000
Combined marginal rate: 29.65% on the top dollars, 23.15% below $58,523
About what a $5,000 contribution saves: $1,250
At $60,000, part of the $5,000 drops into a lower bracket, so it saves less than $5,000 times 29.65%. These are estimates from the 2026 federal and Ontario brackets, before other credits.
You don't have to claim the deduction in the year you contribute. You can carry it forward to a year when your income, and your rate, is higher.
Taking money out
Withdrawals are added to your income and taxed in the year you take them, and your bank holds back some tax when it pays you. The room you used doesn't come back.
Two programs let you take money out without paying tax right away, as long as you pay it back: the Home Buyers' Plan and the Lifelong Learning Plan.
An RRSP must close or become a RRIF by the end of the year you turn 71.
RRSP or TFSA?
The RRSP tends to suit people whose tax rate today is higher than it will be when they take the money out. The TFSA tends to suit the opposite.
Compare the FHSA, RRSP and TFSA