RRIF Minimum Withdrawal Calculator

You must convert your RRSP to a RRIF by December 31 of the year you turn 71. The conversion itself triggers no tax. The first mandatory withdrawal is due in the following calendar year — the year you turn 72 — and is calculated on the balance as it stood on December 31 of the conversion year. If you convert early, before 71, the same rule applies: minimums begin the year after conversion, using the formula 1 ÷ (90 − age) for ages below 71 rather than the prescribed table. In the conversion year itself there is no required withdrawal at all — which is why the years leading up to 71 are the last stretch in which every registered withdrawal you make is still your own choice.

From 71 onward the CRA publishes a prescribed factor for each age: roughly 5.28% at 71, 5.40% at 72, 5.82% at 75, 6.82% at 80, 8.51% at 85, 11.92% at 90, and 20% at 95 and above. Below 71 there is no table — the factor is 1 ÷ (90 − your age at the start of the year). The percentage is applied to the account balance at the end of the previous year, so a strong market year raises next year's forced withdrawal.

Yes. The minimum is a floor, not a ceiling or a target. You can take any amount above it at any time. Amounts above the minimum are subject to withholding tax at source — 10%, 20%, or 30% outside Quebec depending on the size of the withdrawal — while the minimum itself has no withholding. That withholding is a prepayment, not an extra tax; it is reconciled on your return.

You may elect to calculate your RRIF minimums using your spouse's or common-law partner's age rather than your own. With a younger spouse this lowers the required withdrawal every year, leaving more inside the shelter and less on your tax return. The election has to be made before the first payment comes out of the RRIF and cannot be revoked afterward, so it is worth raising with your institution at conversion rather than discovering it later.

They can, and it is the most common way households cross the threshold without meaning to. The OAS recovery tax begins at $95,323 of net income for the 2026 income year and takes back 15 cents of OAS for every dollar above it. RRIF minimums are fully taxable and stack on top of CPP, OAS, and any pension — so a large balance arriving at 71 can push income over the line every year from 72 onward. Because the factor rises with age while the balance is still compounding, the problem usually gets worse rather than better.

No, but you can change how large they are. The factor is fixed by regulation; the balance it applies to is not. Drawing registered money down deliberately in the years before conversion — the meltdown strategy — means a smaller balance arrives at 71, which means smaller mandatory withdrawals for the following twenty-five years. That decision has to be made before conversion, which is why the window between retiring and turning 71 matters so much. The meltdown calculator models it.

No. You can satisfy the minimum with an in-kind transfer of securities to a non-registered or TFSA account instead of selling. The full value still counts as taxable income in the year of transfer — the tax consequence is identical — but you avoid being forced to sell an investment at a bad moment. The transferred securities acquire a new cost base equal to their value on the transfer date.

If your spouse is named as successor annuitant or beneficiary, the account rolls over to them and no tax is triggered at that point. If there is no surviving spouse, the entire remaining balance is added to your income on the final return and taxed in that single year, frequently at or near the top marginal rate. That second-death bill is the subject of The $150,000 Terminal Tax Bomb.