Mr. Speaker, with respect to the above-noted question, what follows is the response from the Canada Revenue Agency, CRA, as of December 13, 2023, the date of the question.
With regard to part (a), the first home savings account, FHSA, legislation does not require the CRA to license or approve financial institutions that wish to become FHSA issuers. They must meet the eligibility requirements found in the definition of qualifying arrangement under subsection 146.6(1) of the Income Tax Act. Part of those requirements involves submitting a specimen plan containing required documentation that conforms to the requirement of the act for review and approval by the CRA. To date, 29 unique FHSA issuers submitted one or more specimen plans that have been approved by the CRA.
With regard to part (b), the CRA will be unable to provide information about the number of FHSAs that have been opened to date until all FHSA annual information returns have been processed. Financial institutions will only start filing these returns after December 31, 2023. The returns are due by the end of February 2024.
With regard to part (c), for the purposes of opening an FHSA, a first-time homebuyer is an individual who did not, at any time in the current calendar year before the account is opened or at any time in the preceding four calendar years, live in a qualifying home or what would be a qualifying home if located in Canada as their principal place of residence that either they owned or jointly owned, or that their spouse or common-law partner at the time the account is opened owned or jointly owned.
An individual who owns residential property or properties that are not their principal residence at any time in the current calendar year before the account is opened or at any time in the preceding four calendar years would be considered a first-time homebuyer for the purposes of opening an FHSA.
With regard to part (d), to open an FHSA, an individual must meet all of the eligibility criteria as outlined on the CRA website entitled “Opening your FHSAs”: https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/first-home-savings-account/opening-your-fhsas.html#h-1. An individual needs to meet all of the above conditions to open an FHSA. If individuals do not meet all of the conditions above, they are not a qualifying individual and cannot open an FHSA.
In the context of the administration of the FHSA program specifically, information about individuals who own residential property or properties that are not their principal residence will not be collected by the CRA.