RRIF Minimum Withdrawal Calculator (2026)

Once a RRSP becomes a RRIF, withdrawals stop being optional. The government sets a minimum you must take out every year, worked out from your age on 1 January and the balance on that date. This calculator gives you that number, shows the factor behind it, and projects the schedule forward.

How the minimum is calculated

There are two rules, and which one applies depends on your age at the start of the year.

Under 71: the factor is 1 ÷ (90 − your age). At 65 that is 1 ÷ 25, or 4.00%. The formula is the whole rule — there is no table to look up.

71 and over: the factor comes from a prescribed table set out in the Income Tax Regulations. It starts at 5.28% at age 71 and rises every year until it fixes at 20.00% from age 95 onward.

Either way the sum is the same: balance on 1 January × factor = the minimum for that year. Growth during the year does not change it. Neither does taking the money out in January rather than December.

The full CRA prescribed factor table

Below 71 the factor is simply 1 ÷ (90 − age). From 71 the CRA’s prescribed factors take over, and from 95 the factor stops rising and stays at 20.00%. Both are set out below so you can read your age straight off rather than doing the arithmetic. Every figure below is taken from the CRA’s published chart of prescribed factors.

Ages 55 to 70 — from the formula

There is no prescribed table below 71, but the formula gives a fixed percentage for every age, so it can be written out as one. These are the ages at which people who convert an RRSP early will be looking.

RRIF minimum withdrawal factors, ages 55 to 70 (1 ÷ (90 − age))

Age on 1 Jan	Factor	Minimum on $500,000
55	2.86%	$14,286
56	2.94%	$14,706
57	3.03%	$15,152
58	3.13%	$15,625
59	3.23%	$16,129
60	3.33%	$16,667
61	3.45%	$17,241
62	3.57%	$17,857
63	3.70%	$18,519
64	3.85%	$19,231
65	4.00%	$20,000
66	4.17%	$20,833
67	4.35%	$21,739
68	4.55%	$22,727
69	4.76%	$23,810
70	5.00%	$25,000

Ages 71 and over — the CRA prescribed table

Prescribed RRIF minimum withdrawal factors, age 71 and over

Age on 1 Jan	Factor	Minimum on $500,000
71	5.28%	$26,400
72	5.40%	$27,000
73	5.53%	$27,650
74	5.67%	$28,350
75	5.82%	$29,100
76	5.98%	$29,900
77	6.17%	$30,850
78	6.36%	$31,800
79	6.58%	$32,900
80	6.82%	$34,100
81	7.08%	$35,400
82	7.38%	$36,900
83	7.71%	$38,550
84	8.08%	$40,400
85	8.51%	$42,550
86	8.99%	$44,950
87	9.55%	$47,750
88	10.21%	$51,050
89	10.99%	$54,950
90	11.92%	$59,600
91	13.06%	$65,300
92	14.49%	$72,450
93	16.34%	$81,700
94	18.79%	$93,950
95 and over	20.00%	$100,000

One exception, for very old plans. The CRA publishes a second column for a “qualifying RRIF” — broadly one established before 1993 that has only ever received property from another qualifying RRIF. It differs from the table above at a single age: 5.26% at 71 rather than 5.28%. Every other age is identical, so on a $500,000 balance the whole difference is $100, in one year, once. This calculator uses the standard column. If your RRIF dates from before 1993 and you are exactly 71, take 5.26%.

The right-hand column is there to make the shape of the schedule obvious. The factor roughly doubles between 71 and 90, and by the mid-nineties a fifth of the account has to come out every year. That is the design: a RRIF is meant to be drawn down over a lifetime, not preserved.

You must convert your RRSP by the end of the year you turn 71

An RRSP has to be wound up by 31 December of the year you turn 71. You have three choices: convert it to a RRIF, buy an annuity, or withdraw the lot as cash — and that last one adds the entire balance to your income in a single year, which is almost always the worst outcome. Most people convert to a RRIF.

Your first minimum withdrawal is not due in the year you convert. It starts the following calendar year. So if you turn 71 in 2026 and convert in December, your first mandatory withdrawal is in 2027, based on your age of 72 and the balance on 1 January 2027.

Set “Did you open this RRIF this year?” to Yes and the calculator applies that exemption: this year’s minimum becomes nil and the schedule begins withdrawing the year after. One consequence is easy to miss — with no required minimum, there is no withholding-free portion either, so anything you choose to take in that first year has tax held back at source on the whole amount.

The younger-spouse election

When the RRIF is set up you can elect to base every future minimum on your spouse’s or common-law partner’s age instead of your own. If they are younger, the factor is lower and so is the mandatory withdrawal — which leaves more inside the account, sheltered from tax.

Two things to know. The election is made once, when the RRIF is established, and cannot be changed later. And it does not stop you withdrawing more than the minimum whenever you want; it only lowers the floor.

Withholding tax: the part that surprises people

There is no withholding tax on the minimum amount. Take exactly the minimum and nothing is held back at source.

Anything above the minimum is a different matter. The excess is subject to withholding at the same rates as an RRSP withdrawal — 10%, 20% or 30% outside Quebec depending on the size of the excess, and different rates in Quebec.

Withholding is not the tax. It is a prepayment. The full withdrawal, minimum included, is added to your taxable income for the year and taxed at your marginal rate. If too little was withheld you owe the difference at filing. To see what a given withdrawal does to your total tax bill, use the Canada income tax calculator.

Withholding rates on amounts above the minimum

Nothing is withheld on the minimum itself. On the excess, the rate depends on the size of that excess — not on your income — and Quebec is handled differently, with a lower federal rate plus a separate provincial deduction.

Withholding on the portion of a RRIF withdrawal above the minimum

Amount above the minimum	Outside Quebec	Quebec (federal + provincial)
Up to $5,000	10%	5% + Quebec rate
$5,000.01 to $15,000	20%	10% + Quebec rate
Over $15,000	30%	15% + Quebec rate

Two traps are worth naming. First, the brackets apply per withdrawal, so several small withdrawals can be withheld at 10% each while the same total taken at once would be withheld at 30%. That does not change the tax you owe — only how much is collected up front, and therefore how large your bill or refund is in April.

Second, the withholding rate is not your tax rate. Someone in a 43% marginal bracket who has 30% withheld still owes the remaining 13% at filing. Treating the withheld amount as “tax paid, done” is the single most common reason retirees are caught out by an unexpected balance owing.

Worked example

Marie turns 72 on 3 March 2026. Her RRIF held $400,000 on 1 January 2026.

1. Her age on 1 January was 71 — her birthday had not happened yet.
2. The prescribed factor at 71 is 5.28%.
3. $400,000 × 5.28% = $21,120.
4. She must withdraw at least $21,120 during 2026. No tax is withheld on it.
5. It is added to her taxable income for 2026 along with CPP, OAS and anything else.

Had she withdrawn $30,000 instead, the first $21,120 would come out with no withholding and the extra $8,880 would have 20% held back — but her actual tax owing is settled at filing either way.

Should you take only the minimum?

Taking the minimum keeps the most money sheltered, so it is the default choice for most people. But it is not automatically the right one, and there are three situations where deliberately withdrawing more than you have to costs less over a lifetime.

Smoothing your brackets. If you retire at 62 and your income is low until CPP, OAS and the mandatory RRIF minimums all arrive together at 72, you may spend a decade in a low bracket and the next two in a higher one. Drawing extra during the low years, at a lower marginal rate, can cost less tax overall than leaving it to be forced out later.

The OAS clawback. Old Age Security is reduced once net income passes a threshold, and clawed back entirely well above it. Because RRIF withdrawals count as net income, a large forced minimum at 80 can push you over a line that smaller voluntary withdrawals at 68 would have kept you under.

The estate. Whatever remains in a RRIF at the second death is generally added to the final tax return as income in one year, usually at the top marginal rate. A balance left to compound untouched can hand a large bill to the estate that steady withdrawals over twenty years would have avoided.

To test any of this, switch Type of payment to Fixed and enter the income you actually want. The schedule then shows what that costs: how fast the balance falls, and whether it lasts as long as you do. If the amount you pick is below the legal minimum for a given year, the calculator pays the minimum instead and marks the row — you can always take more than the minimum, never less.

Set against all three is the plain arithmetic that money outside the RRIF is taxed on its growth every year, and money inside is not. There is no rule of thumb that settles this — it turns on your other income, your province, your health and what you want to leave behind. It is a good question to take to an accountant, with numbers from this calculator and the income tax calculator in hand.

Locked-in accounts have a ceiling as well as a floor

If your retirement savings came from an employer pension, they are probably not in an ordinary RRSP but in a locked-in plan — a LIRA or locked-in RRSP. At conversion these become a LIF (Life Income Fund), or in some jurisdictions a LRIF or RLIF, rather than a RRIF.

The minimum works exactly the same way: same formula under 71, same prescribed factors after. The difference is that a LIF also has a maximum you may not exceed in a year. The ceiling exists to stop pension money being spent too quickly, and it is set by whichever pension regulator governs the plan — the province you worked in, or the federal regulator for banks, airlines, telecoms and interprovincial transport.

That means two people the same age with the same balance can face different maximums depending only on which jurisdiction their pension was registered in. Several provinces also allow a one-time unlocking of part of the balance at conversion, and the rules for that differ again.

This calculator gives you the minimum only. If your account is locked in, the minimum shown here is correct, but you must check the maximum with your plan administrator before withdrawing more than it.

What happens to a RRIF when the annuitant dies

This is where the largest and most avoidable tax bills occur, and it turns entirely on who is named on the account.

Spouse or common-law partner as successor annuitant. The RRIF continues, with the survivor stepping into the deceased’s place. Nothing is deregistered, nothing is taxed on death, and the minimum simply carries on being calculated — now against the survivor’s age. This is the cleanest outcome available.

Spouse or partner as beneficiary. The money can generally be transferred to the survivor’s own RRIF or RRSP on a tax-deferred basis. The result is similar, but it runs through the estate paperwork rather than continuing automatically, so it takes longer and can go wrong if the transfer is not made properly.

A financially dependent child or grandchild. Special rules may allow the amount to be rolled into their RRSP, or into an annuity, or into an RDSP where the dependency arises from a disability.

Anyone else, or no beneficiary at all. The full value of the RRIF is treated as income of the deceased in the year of death. On a large account that is very likely to be taxed at the top marginal rate, and the estate pays it before anything is distributed. A $500,000 RRIF can lose close to half its value this way.

Naming a successor annuitant rather than a beneficiary, where a spouse or partner exists, is a small piece of paperwork with a disproportionate effect. It is worth confirming what is actually recorded on your account rather than what you believe you signed years ago.

What the government pays you, and how the RRIF minimum interacts with it

A RRIF is only part of a Canadian retirement income. The other two parts arrive from the government, and one of them is directly affected by the minimum this calculator works out.

Old Age Security (OAS)

OAS is a residency-based pension. You do not contribute to it and it does not depend on your work history — it depends on how long you have lived in Canada after 18. Full OAS needs 40 years of residency; less than that is prorated.

It is paid monthly from 65 and adjusted every quarter for inflation.

Maximum Old Age Security, July to September 2026

Age	Maximum per month	Per year
65 to 74	$751.97	about $9,024
75 and over	$827.17	about $9,926

The 10% step up at 75 is permanent, not a one-off. Deferring OAS past 65 raises it by 0.6% for each month you wait, to a maximum of 36% at 70.

The Canada Pension Plan (CPP)

CPP is the opposite: entirely contribution-based. What you receive depends on how much you paid in and for how long, which is why the maximum and the average are so far apart.

CPP retirement pension starting at 65, 2026

	Per month	Per year
Maximum	$1,507.65	about $18,092
Average actually received	$877.01	about $10,524

Most people receive far less than the maximum, because it requires close to forty years of contributions at the yearly maximum. Taking CPP before 65 reduces it permanently; deferring to 70 increases it.

Why this matters for your RRIF

Here is the connection, and it is the reason these figures sit on this page rather than somewhere else.

RRIF withdrawals count toward the net income that claws back OAS. Once your net income passes $95,323 (2026), you repay 15 cents of OAS for every dollar above it, through the Old Age Security recovery tax. OAS disappears entirely at about $155,109 for someone 65 to 74, or $161,088 at 75 and over.

Because the RRIF minimum is compulsory, a large enough account triggers this whether you want the money or not. Taking CPP and full OAS, and nothing else:

RRIF balance at which the minimum withdrawal alone reaches the OAS clawback threshold

Age	Factor	With average CPP	With maximum CPP
71	5.28%	about $1,435,000	about $1,292,000
75	5.82%	about $1,302,000	about $1,172,000
80	6.82%	about $1,111,000	about $1,000,000
85	8.51%	about $890,000	about $801,000

Read the last row carefully. At 85, on maximum CPP, a RRIF of about $800,000 produces a compulsory withdrawal that puts you into clawback territory on its own — and the factor keeps rising after that. The threshold does not move with your account; the account moves toward the threshold.

This is the strongest argument for drawing an RRSP down before conversion, in the years between retiring and 71, when your income is lower and nothing is forced. The RRSP withdrawal tax calculator prices those years up.

OAS and CPP amounts are set by Employment and Social Development Canada and change quarterly for OAS and annually for CPP. The figures above are current for the periods stated; check the source links below before relying on them.

What this calculator does not model

Being explicit about the edges is more useful than pretending there are none:

• Tax on the withdrawal. The minimum is a gross amount. What you keep depends on your total income, your province and your credits.
• The OAS clawback. RRIF income counts toward the net income the recovery tax is based on, but the calculator does not compute the clawback itself — see the section above for the thresholds.
• Quebec withholding. The figures here assume the rates that apply outside Quebec.
• The LIF maximum. Locked-in accounts have a ceiling as well as a floor, and it is set by the pension regulator, not the CRA. Only the minimum is calculated here.
• Pre-1993 “qualifying” RRIFs. These use 5.26% at age 71 instead of 5.28%, and are identical at every other age. The calculator uses the standard column.
• Investment returns. The schedule assumes one flat growth rate. Markets do not deliver one, and the order of good and bad years changes the outcome.
• In-kind withdrawals. You can satisfy the minimum by transferring securities out rather than selling. The dollar amount is the same; the mechanics are not.

Frequently asked questions

Can I withdraw more than the minimum?

Yes. The minimum is a floor, not a ceiling. Anything above it has tax withheld at source at 10%, 20% or 30% outside Quebec.

What happens if I do not take the minimum?

Your financial institution is obliged to make the payment, so in practice this rarely arises. Where it does, the shortfall is treated as income to you regardless.

Does the minimum change if my investments do well?

Not for the current year. The minimum is fixed by the 1 January balance. Strong growth raises next year’s opening balance, so next year’s minimum rises with it.

Can I convert my RRSP to a RRIF before 71?

Yes, at any age. You then have to take a minimum every year from the following year onward, calculated with the 1 ÷ (90 − age) formula.

Is RRIF income eligible for pension income splitting?

From age 65, RRIF withdrawals generally qualify for the pension income amount and for splitting with a spouse, which can meaningfully reduce a couple’s combined tax.

Can I set my RRIF to pay me a fixed amount instead?

Yes, and most financial institutions will set up whatever schedule you ask for. The one constraint is the minimum: your fixed payment can be higher than it, but never lower, so in any year the minimum exceeds your chosen figure the minimum is what comes out. Switch the calculator to Fixed to see how long a given income lasts.

What is the difference between a RRIF and a LIF?

A RRIF comes from an ordinary RRSP and has a minimum only. A LIF comes from locked-in pension money and has both a minimum and a maximum, with the ceiling set by the pension regulator for the jurisdiction the plan was registered in.

Sources. The prescribed factors and the RRSP conversion deadline are set by the Canada Revenue Agency; withholding rates on amounts above the minimum are also CRA-set. Quebec administers its own provincial withholding through Revenu Québec.
CRA — chart of prescribed factors · CRA — Registered Retirement Income Fund (RRIF) · CRA — making withdrawals from registered plans · CRA — death of a RRIF annuitant · Revenu Québec — retirees · OAS payment amounts · CPP payment amounts · OAS recovery tax

This page is general information, not financial or tax advice. See our disclaimer.