Can I repay my Home Buyers' Plan withdrawal faster than the minimum schedule?
Yes. You're free to repay your Home Buyers' Plan withdrawal faster than the required minimum schedule, and doing so simply reduces your remaining balance and lowers the minimum you're required to repay in future years. There's no penalty or downside to paying ahead of schedule, and no rule that limits you to exactly the minimum amount each year.
This can be a genuinely useful strategy if you have extra cash available in a particular year and want to clear the obligation sooner, since it reduces the ongoing risk of accidentally missing a future minimum repayment and having that shortfall added to your income, which is covered in a related question. Extra repayments are generally made as regular RRSP contributions designated specifically as HBP repayments when you file your return, so it's important to correctly identify the payment as a Home Buyers' Plan repayment rather than a regular RRSP contribution, since the two are tracked differently by CRA. If you're thinking about accelerating your repayments, confirming your current remaining balance first, rather than guessing at what's left, makes sure you don't overpay past what's actually still owed.
Key takeaways
- Extra HBP repayments beyond the required minimum are allowed and reduce future minimums.
- There's no penalty for repaying faster than the schedule requires.
- Repayments must be properly designated as HBP repayments, not as ordinary RRSP contributions.
- Confirming your current remaining balance first avoids overpaying past what's owed.