RRIF minimum withdrawal calculator
Your RRIF minimum withdrawal is the fair market value of the fund on 1 January multiplied by a prescribed factor set by your age on that same 1 January. At 71 the factor is 5.28 percent, so a RRIF worth 500,000 dollars on 1 January has a minimum of 26,400 dollars. Below 71 the factor is 1 divided by 90 minus your age. There is no minimum at all in the year you open the RRIF. No tax is withheld on the minimum, but every dollar of it is taxable income.
Calculate your RRIF minimum withdrawal
Enter the one number that actually drives the answer: your RRIF balance on 1 January. Everything else is a modifier.
How the RRIF minimum is calculated
The rule is short. CRA describes the minimum amount as the result of multiplying the fair market value of the property held in the RRIF at the start of the year by a prescribed factor. That is the whole calculation. There is no income test, no account for what the fund earned, and no adjustment for what you actually need. The factor is a pure function of one age.
Three details do most of the damage when people get this wrong.
The value is the 1 January value. Not the value on the day you take the money, not the year end value, not an average. If your RRIF held XEQT and the market fell fifteen percent in February, your minimum is still calculated on the January number. That is why a forced withdrawal in a down year hurts: the base is frozen at a higher level than the portfolio you are selling from.
The age is your age on 1 January. Someone who turns 72 in October is 71 on 1 January and uses the age 71 factor for that entire year. A calculator that asks for "your age" without specifying the date is quietly wrong for most users for most of the year.
Below 71 the factor is a formula, not a lookup. CRA states that if the age is 70 years or younger, the prescribed factor is calculated as 1 divided by 90 minus the age. At 65 that is 1 divided by 25, which is exactly 4 percent. At 55 it is 1 divided by 35, which is 2.8571 percent and change. Rounding that to 2.86 percent overstates the minimum on a one million dollar RRIF by roughly 29 dollars. This calculator does not round the factor before multiplying.
| RRIF value on 1 January | $500,000 |
|---|---|
| Age on 1 January | 71 |
| Prescribed factor | .0528 (5.28%) |
| Minimum for the year | $26,400 |
| Monthly equivalent | $2,200 |
You may always take more than the minimum. You may never take less. If your RRIF is paid monthly and the payments through the year add up to less than the minimum, the carrier is generally required to top you up before 31 December, and the shortfall is not something you can carry to next year.
RRIF prescribed factor table by age
The table below is the "All other RRIFs" column, which applies to every RRIF opened from 1993 onward. Two legacy columns exist for pre March 1986 RRIFs and for qualifying RRIFs entered into before 1993 where the carrier accepted no new property after 1992. Both are effectively extinct, and the qualifying column differs from the live one at exactly one age: 5.26 percent versus 5.28 percent at 71.
Read the two halves of this table differently. Ages 71 to 95 and over are the statutory values under Income Tax Regulations section 7308. Those are published numbers, unchanged since the 2015 federal budget reduced them, and they are not indexed. Ages 55 to 70 are not in any published CRA table. They are shown here because the formula 1 divided by 90 minus age produces them, and the values below are given to six decimal places precisely so that nobody uses a rounded percentage in a real calculation.
| Age on 1 Jan | Basis | Factor | Percent of 1 Jan value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.028571 | 2.8571% |
| 56 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.029412 | 2.9412% |
| 57 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.030303 | 3.0303% |
| 58 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.031250 | 3.1250% |
| 59 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.032258 | 3.2258% |
| 60 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.033333 | 3.3333% |
| 61 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.034483 | 3.4483% |
| 62 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.035714 | 3.5714% |
| 63 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.037037 | 3.7037% |
| 64 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.038462 | 3.8462% |
| 65 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.040000 | 4.0000% |
| 66 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.041667 | 4.1667% |
| 67 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.043478 | 4.3478% |
| 68 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.045455 | 4.5455% |
| 69 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.047619 | 4.7619% |
| 70 | 1 / (90 less age) | 0.050000 | 5.0000% |
| 71 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.052800 | 5.28% |
| 72 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.054000 | 5.40% |
| 73 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.055300 | 5.53% |
| 74 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.056700 | 5.67% |
| 75 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.058200 | 5.82% |
| 76 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.059800 | 5.98% |
| 77 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.061700 | 6.17% |
| 78 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.063600 | 6.36% |
| 79 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.065800 | 6.58% |
| 80 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.068200 | 6.82% |
| 81 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.070800 | 7.08% |
| 82 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.073800 | 7.38% |
| 83 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.077100 | 7.71% |
| 84 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.080800 | 8.08% |
| 85 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.085100 | 8.51% |
| 86 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.089900 | 8.99% |
| 87 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.095500 | 9.55% |
| 88 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.102100 | 10.21% |
| 89 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.109900 | 10.99% |
| 90 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.119200 | 11.92% |
| 91 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.130600 | 13.06% |
| 92 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.144900 | 14.49% |
| 93 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.163400 | 16.34% |
| 94 | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.187900 | 18.79% |
| 95 and over | Reg. 7308 chart | 0.200000 | 20.00% |
The factor stops rising at 95. From age 95 onward the minimum is a flat 20 percent of the 1 January balance every year, which means a RRIF cannot be fully drained by the minimum alone. It asymptotes toward zero rather than hitting it.
The year you open the RRIF, the minimum is zero
This is the single most commonly mishandled rule, and three CRA sources agree on it. The minimum amount payable is required every year after the year in which the RRIF is set up. Information Circular IC78-18R7 puts it flatly: the minimum amount is zero for the year the annuitant enters into the fund.
So if you convert an RRSP to a RRIF in June 2026, your minimum for 2026 is zero dollars. Your first required minimum is for 2027, calculated on the 1 January 2027 value at your age on 1 January 2027.
The consequence people miss is the tax one. Because the minimum for the opening year is zero, any withdrawal you take in that first year is entirely above the minimum, and therefore entirely subject to withholding tax at the lump sum rates. People who convert early and immediately draw an income are often surprised when the first payment arrives with 30 percent held back.
There is a timing point worth planning around. Someone who turns 71 in November 2026 is 70 on 1 January 2026. If they convert during 2026, their first minimum year is 2027, and on 1 January 2027 they are 71, so the first minimum uses the 5.28 percent factor. Converting early does not buy you a cheap 70 year old factor year, because the opening year has no minimum at all.
The younger spouse election, and what it locks in
You may elect to have the prescribed factor based on the age of your spouse or common law partner rather than your own. Used with a younger spouse, this lowers the factor, which lowers the forced taxable withdrawal for as long as the RRIF exists.
| Age used | Factor | Minimum for the year |
|---|---|---|
| Own age | 5.28% | $26,400 |
| Spouse age | 1 / (90 less 65) = 4.00% | $20,000 |
| Reduction in forced taxable income, year one | $6,400 |
That is 6,400 dollars of income you are not forced to realize, repeating and compounding as a deferral for as long as the age gap persists. For a DIY investor trying to keep taxable income under an OAS clawback threshold, that is a meaningful lever.
It is not a free toggle, and this is where most calculators go quiet. IC78-18R7 states the election must be made before receiving any payments under the fund, and it cannot be changed once made. In practice:
- It happens once, at RRIF setup. If you have already taken a payment from that RRIF, the window has closed for that RRIF.
- It is irrevocable for the life of that fund. The circular does note a workaround: the annuitant can establish another RRIF by transferring funds and then make a new election for the other RRIF. That is a new account, not an amendment.
- It survives the spouse. If your spouse dies, the factor keeps tracking that person's age. It also survives relationship breakdown. You do not get to unwind it because circumstances changed.
- It changes nothing about ownership or tax. You still own the RRIF, you still report 100 percent of the income, and your beneficiary designation is unaffected.
- It does not move your RRSP deadline. You still must convert by the end of the year you turn 71, regardless of how young your spouse is.
- An older spouse raises your minimum. Electing an older person's age is almost never what anyone wants.
Withholding tax, and the per payment trap
Start from the thing people get backwards. No tax is withheld at source on the minimum amount, but the minimum is fully taxable. The absence of withholding is a cash flow feature, not an exemption. The full minimum lands on your T4RIF and goes into your income at your marginal rate. If the minimum is the only thing you take and nothing else is withheld anywhere, you will owe the entire tax on it at filing.
Withholding applies only to the portion of a payment that exceeds the minimum for the year. On that excess, the general lump sum rates apply.
| Excess over the minimum | Residents outside Quebec | Quebec residents, federal portion |
|---|---|---|
| Up to and including $5,000 | 10% | 5% |
| Over $5,000 up to and including $15,000 | 20% | 10% |
| Over $15,000 | 30% | 15% |
Quebec residents: the rates in the third column are the federal portion only. A separate provincial withholding applies on top, and that rate is set by Revenu Quebec rather than by CRA. No canada.ca page states it, and secondary sources disagree on the figure, so this page deliberately does not publish a Quebec provincial percentage. Confirm the current provincial rate directly with Revenu Quebec or your RRIF carrier before relying on a combined number.
Non residents of Canada are withheld at 25 percent on the full RRIF payment, including the minimum, unless a tax treaty reduces it. Under the Canada United States treaty, periodic RRIF payments can qualify for 15 percent.
The trap that produces a balance owing
Withholding rates apply per payment, not per year, unless your plan administrator aggregates them.
Withholding rates apply per payment, not per year, unless your plan administrator aggregates them. Twelve monthly excess payments of 1,000 dollars each are withheld at 10 percent each, not at the 20 percent rate that the 12,000 dollar annual excess would suggest. Every payment is measured on its own against the brackets.
The result is systematic underwithholding for anyone drawing monthly above the minimum. CRA says as much on its own page: the tax that was withheld may not always be enough to account for the tax you owe at your tax bracket. If you draw significantly above your minimum in monthly instalments, either ask your carrier to withhold at a higher voluntary rate or set aside the difference. The bill does not disappear, it just arrives in April.
RRIF income, the pension credit, and splitting
Every dollar out of a RRIF is ordinary income. There is no capital gains treatment, no dividend tax credit, and no distinction between growth and principal. If your RRIF holds XEQT and half the balance is unrealized gain, none of that matters: the withdrawal is taxed as income, not as a capital gain.
Two provisions soften it, and both key on age 65.
The pension income amount, line 31400. The maximum federal claim is the lesser of 2,000 dollars and your eligible pension income. RRIF income qualifies without conditions once you are 65 or older. Under 65 it qualifies only if it is received as a result of the death of a spouse or common law partner. Provincial and territorial equivalents range from roughly 1,000 to 2,000 dollars. Any portion you transfer to an RRSP or RRIF, or use to buy an annuity, does not qualify.
Pension income splitting, Form T1032. Up to 50 percent of eligible pension income can be allocated to your spouse or common law partner. RRIF payments count as eligible pension income at 65 or older, with the same death of a spouse exception below 65. Both partners must not have been living separate and apart because of relationship breakdown for 90 or more continuous days including 31 December.
The age 65 move most retirement calculators miss. You do not have to wait until 71 to open a RRIF, and you do not have to convert the whole RRSP. Converting a small slice at 65 creates eligible pension income, which unlocks both the 2,000 dollar pension credit and income splitting. For a couple with unequal incomes, that combination can be worth more than the tax cost of the withdrawal itself.
The RRSP conversion deadline at 71, and your three options
31 December of the year you turn 71 is the last day you can contribute to your own RRSP, and it is also the deadline by which the RRSP must be collapsed. There is no 60 day grace period on this one, unlike the ordinary RRSP contribution deadline. A 71 year old who waits for RRSP season has missed it.
| Option | Tax at conversion | Ongoing tax |
|---|---|---|
| Transfer to a RRIF | None. A direct transfer is not a taxable event and nothing is withheld. | The annual minimum must be paid starting the year after the RRIF is established. All payments are taxable income, reported on a T4RIF. |
| Buy a qualifying annuity | None on the purchase. | Annuity payments are taxable income as received. |
| Take the funds in cash | Fully taxable in the year received. The issuer withholds at the lump sum rates. | Not applicable. |
You can mix all three. The cash option is usually the worst available choice, because the entire RRSP value lands in one year of income, which for most people means top bracket tax plus a full OAS clawback. The true worst case, though, is doing nothing: the full RRSP becomes taxable income by deemed deregistration, with no planning at all.
If your RRIF holds XEQT, the minimum is a selling schedule
This is the part that matters for a portfolio that is 100 percent equity. A RRIF holding a single all equity ETF has no cash bucket to pay from. To meet the minimum, units get sold. The government sets the percentage, the market sets the price, and you control neither.
Run it through. A RRIF worth 500,000 dollars on 1 January at age 71 owes 26,400 dollars. If the fund is down 20 percent by the time the payment is due, you are still paying 26,400 dollars, but now out of roughly 400,000 dollars of assets, which is 6.6 percent of the real balance rather than 5.28 percent. Next January the factor resets against the lower value, so the dollar amount falls, but you have already sold units at the bottom and those units do not come back. That is sequence of returns risk in its most mechanical form: the withdrawal schedule is fixed in percentage terms and indifferent to price.
Three things follow, none of which are advice about what to hold.
- The minimum must leave the RRIF, not the portfolio. Nothing obliges you to spend it. If you do not need the cash, the withdrawal can be moved into a TFSA if you have room, or into a non registered account. You pay the tax either way, but the money stays invested rather than being consumed at a bad price.
- The 1 January value is the number that binds you. Knowing your minimum in the first week of January, rather than in December, gives you eleven months to choose when to sell within the year instead of being forced into a single December transaction.
- Holding some cash or short bonds inside the RRIF specifically for the next year or two of minimums is the standard structural answer to this problem. Whether that trade off is worth the drag on a long horizon is a genuine portfolio decision, and it is yours.
The proposed 25 percent reduction is not law
RRIF minimums have been temporarily reduced twice: by 25 percent for the 2008 tax year during the financial crisis, and by 25 percent for 2020 only, enacted in March 2020 as COVID relief. Regular factors resumed in 2021. Separately, the 2015 federal budget made a permanent reduction to the factors for age 71 and over, and that reduction is already reflected in the table on this page.
On 7 April 2025 a further one year 25 percent reduction was announced as a campaign commitment. It was not included in Budget 2025 and it has not been enacted. There is no reduction in effect. Anyone who arrived here expecting a smaller minimum because they read about the announcement should use the full factors. This page will be updated if a future budget revives the measure.
What this calculator does not do
Being clear about the boundaries is more useful than pretending there are none.
- It does not calculate your tax. It gives you the minimum dollar amount and the factor. What you owe on it depends on your marginal rate, your province, your other income and your credits.
- It does not model OAS clawback. RRIF income counts toward net income and can trigger the recovery tax. That interaction is often the largest cost of a forced withdrawal and it is not modelled here.
- It does not project future years. It answers for one year, using the balance you enter. It does not forecast returns or roll the balance forward.
- It does not publish a Quebec provincial withholding rate. That rate is set by Revenu Quebec, is not stated on any CRA page, and sources disagree. Confirm it at source.
- It does not handle legacy RRIFs. The factors used are the All other RRIFs column. A pre 1993 qualifying RRIF differs at age 71, and a pre March 1986 RRIF follows a different column entirely.
- It does not know your carrier's payment schedule or whether they aggregate withholding across payments. Ask them.
- It is not advice. It is arithmetic applied to a published table.
Frequently asked questions
Your minimum is the fair market value of the RRIF on 1 January multiplied by a prescribed factor set by your age on that same 1 January. At age 71 the factor is 5.28 percent, so a RRIF worth 500,000 dollars on 1 January has a minimum of 26,400 dollars for that year. Below age 71 the factor is 1 divided by (90 minus your age).
The prescribed factor at age 71 for all RRIFs opened from 1993 onward is .0528, which is 5.28 percent of the 1 January balance. This factor has been unchanged since the 2015 federal budget reduced it, and it is not indexed.
No. The minimum amount is zero for the year the RRIF is established. Your first required minimum is for the following calendar year. Anything you do take out in the opening year is entirely above the minimum, so withholding tax applies to all of it.
No tax is withheld at source on the minimum amount, but the minimum is still fully taxable. It appears on your T4RIF and is included in your income. Withholding applies only to the part of a payment that exceeds the minimum for the year.
Yes. You may elect to have the prescribed factor based on the age of your spouse or common law partner. The election must be made before any payment is made from that RRIF and it cannot be changed afterward. It does not change who owns the RRIF, who is taxed, or who inherits it, and it does not move your RRSP conversion deadline.
Not for 2026. Minimums were reduced by 25 percent for the 2008 tax year and again for 2020 only. A further 25 percent reduction was announced as a campaign commitment on 7 April 2025, but it was not included in Budget 2025 and has not been enacted. Use the full factors.
By 31 December of the year you turn 71 your RRSP must be collapsed. You can transfer it to a RRIF, buy a qualifying annuity, take the cash, or combine those. A direct transfer to a RRIF or an annuity is not a taxable event. Taking the cash makes the entire amount taxable in one year.
Sources
- CRA, Chart of prescribed factors. Page last modified 2025-10-01.
- CRA, Minimum amount from a RRIF. Page last modified 2026-01-07.
- CRA, Tax rates on withdrawals. Page last modified 2026-01-29.
- CRA, Receiving income from an RRSP. Page last modified 2026-01-29.
- CRA, Important dates for RRSP, RRIF and RDSP. Page last modified 2026-01-29.
- CRA, Line 31400 pension income amount. Page last modified 2026-01-20.
- CRA, Pension income splitting. Page last modified 2026-01-20.
- CRA, Information Circular IC78-18R7, Registered Retirement Income Funds.