RRIF Minimum Withdrawals in Canada (2026): Factors, Tax, and Worked Math

Short answer: Your RRIF minimum for a year is the fair market value of the RRIF on January 1 multiplied by a prescribed factor based on your age at the start of that year. At 71 the factor is 5.28 percent, so a $500,000 RRIF must pay out $26,400 that year. At 80 the factor is 6.82 percent. At 95 and older it is 20 percent. There is no minimum in the year the RRIF is set up, and there is no maximum in any year. Run your own balance and age on the RRIF Minimum Withdrawal Calculator as you read. Rules below come from the Canada Revenue Agency pages named in the sources section. Dollar examples are labeled hypothetical because your balance, tax rate, and other income will differ.

By Finance Editorial Desk | October 14, 2026

Educational only, not financial or tax advice. RRIF factors and tax rules change by legislation, and locked-in accounts (LIFs and LRIFs) follow related but different rules with maximums as well as minimums. Confirm your own minimum with your RRIF carrier, which calculates it for you each year, and check current rules on Canada.ca before you act.

1. The conversion deadline, and what actually changes

An RRSP cannot run past the end of the year you turn 71. By December 31 of that year you must move the money into a RRIF, use it to buy an annuity, or take it as cash. Cash is fully taxable in one year, which is why most people convert to a RRIF or an annuity. You can convert earlier than 71, in whole or in part, at any age. Many people convert part of an RRSP in their early 60s and leave the rest in the RRSP.

Four things change on conversion:

• Contributions stop. You cannot contribute to a RRIF. If you are under 71 you can still open or use an RRSP for new contributions, and contributions to a younger spouse's spousal RRSP can continue while that spouse's RRSP is still open and you have contribution room.
• Withdrawals become mandatory. Starting the year after the RRIF is set up, a minimum amount must come out every year. There is no minimum in the setup year itself.
• The investments do not have to change. Property can move from an RRSP to a RRIF in kind. A RRIF can hold the same kinds of qualified investments as an RRSP. Conversion is an account change, not a sale.
• Each RRIF has its own minimum. If you hold two RRIFs, the minimum is calculated and must be paid from each one. You cannot take the combined total from a single account and count it for both.

The deadline is the end of the calendar year you turn 71, not your 71st birthday. Someone who turns 71 in March has until December 31 of that year. That gap matters for planning, because a conversion late in the year still produces no required payment until the following year.

2. The minimum formula

The Canada Revenue Agency sets the calculation in one line:

Minimum for the year = fair market value of the RRIF on January 1 x prescribed factor

Two details in that line do real work.

First, the balance is the value at the start of the year, not the value on the day you withdraw and not an average. If markets fall 15 percent in February, your minimum for the year does not fall with them. It was fixed on January 1. The reverse also holds: a strong January does not raise the current year's minimum, it raises next year's, because next January 1 starts from a higher balance.

Second, the factor uses your age at the beginning of the year, which is your age on December 31 of the previous year. If you turn 72 in June 2026, your 2026 factor is still the age-71 factor, because you were 71 when the year began. The age-72 factor applies in 2027.

For ages under 71 there is no table lookup. The factor is a formula:

Factor before 71 = 1 / (90 - age at the start of the year)

At 65 that is 1 / 25, or 4.00 percent. At 60 it is 1 / 30, or about 3.33 percent. At 70 it is 1 / 20, or 5.00 percent. From 71 on, the factors are set in regulation and listed in section 3.

The minimum is a floor, not a target and not a spending plan. You can withdraw more in any year, for any reason, with no upper limit. You cannot withdraw less than the minimum, carry a shortfall forward, or skip a year because you do not need the income. Section 8 covers what to do with a payment you do not need to spend.

3. Prescribed factors at key ages

These are the current prescribed factors for a RRIF set up after 1992. A small number of much older qualifying RRIFs use a different column on the CRA chart, so if a RRIF dates from before 1993, check the chart in the sources section rather than this table.

Read the shape of the table, not just single rows. The factor roughly doubles between 71 and 87, and it more than triples by 92. That steep late rise is the policy working as designed: deferral was granted for decades, and the schedule is built to bring most of the account into taxable income over a normal retirement. It also means the minimum in your late 80s can be larger, in dollars, than the minimum in your early 70s even though the account is smaller by then. Section 4 shows that effect in dollars.

One more point on the factor source. Your carrier calculates the official minimum for your account and will state it, usually in January. Use the RRIF calculator on this site to plan and to test ages and balances. Use the carrier figure as the legal number for the account, because the carrier works from the actual January 1 value and the age election on file.

4. Five years of minimums on one RRIF, with no growth assumed

Tables of factors hide how the balance and the payment interact. This worked example puts them together. Every figure is labeled hypothetical. The assumptions are printed so you can change them: a $500,000 RRIF on January 1 of the year the owner is 71 at the start of the year, minimum payments only, taken at year end, and a 0 percent return every year. Zero growth is not a forecast. It is the assumption that makes the factor effect visible on its own.

Two lessons come out of the arithmetic.

First, in the early years the payment falls even though the factor rises, because the balance falls faster than the factor climbs. The year-5 payment of $23,236.44 is lower than the year-1 payment of $26,400. A retiree who budgets the first minimum as a permanent income level will overstate later income under flat returns.

Second, that pattern reverses if returns are positive or in later life. With growth, the January 1 balance can hold up while the factor keeps rising, and the two effects multiply instead of offsetting. By the late 80s the factor is two to three times the age-71 factor, so even a much smaller balance can produce a larger forced payment, and a larger block of taxable income, than the first RRIF year did. This is the mechanical reason some people draw more than the minimum in their 60s and early 70s, in low-income years, rather than letting the full account ride into the high-factor years. Section 9 covers that choice and its limits.

5. The younger-spouse age election

When a RRIF is set up, the owner can elect to base the minimum on the age of a spouse or common-law partner instead of their own. If the spouse is younger, every factor is lower, so the forced payment is lower and more money stays tax-deferred inside the RRIF.

Here is the size of the lever, labeled hypothetical. A 75-year-old with a $600,000 RRIF on January 1 uses the age-75 factor of 5.82 percent and must withdraw $34,920. If that RRIF was set up with an election to use a spouse who was 65 at the start of the year, the factor is 4.00 percent and the minimum is $24,000. The difference is $10,920 of forced taxable income in that one year. Repeated over a decade of early retirement, at similar balances, the election changes both the tax paid each year and the balance left compounding inside the plan.

The election has three hard edges:

• Timing. The choice is made when the RRIF is set up, before payments from that RRIF begin. It is not a year-by-year choice of whichever age gives a smaller number.
• It cannot be changed on that RRIF. The CRA rule is that the election generally cannot be changed later for the same RRIF, even if the spouse dies. A new election can be made on a new RRIF if assets are transferred, and the current year's minimum must still be paid out of the old RRIF first.
• It does not move the conversion deadline. The RRSP must still be converted by the end of the year the owner turns 71, even if the spouse is much younger. Only the payment factor uses the spouse's age.

Because the election is effectively permanent for that account, it is the single most consequential box ticked on the RRIF application form. If you set up a RRIF years ago and do not know which age is on file, ask the carrier. Do not enter a spouse's age into any calculator, including the one on this site, until you know the election actually applies to your account. The calculator supports the spousal age option for exactly this test, and it is only correct to use it if the election is on file.

There is also a case against electing the younger age. A lower minimum means a larger balance later, when factors are higher and when the surviving spouse may be filing as a single person at higher marginal rates. Couples who expect to spend the money early anyway, or who are deliberately drawing the RRIF down in low-income years, may prefer their own age. The election lowers the floor. It does not require you to withdraw only the floor.

6. How RRIF payments are taxed

Every dollar that leaves a RRIF is taxable income in the year you receive it. There is no tax-free portion and no capital gains treatment inside the withdrawal. The tax history of the account explains why: contributions were deducted, growth was never taxed inside the plan, and the withdrawal is where the tax is collected. You receive a T4RIF slip for the year. RRIF income is reported on line 11500 if you are 65 or older, and on line 13000 in most other cases.

Withholding at source works in two parts:

• The minimum itself has no required withholding. Your carrier does not have to deduct tax from the required minimum amount. The income is still fully taxable. No withholding is not no tax. It means the tax shows up when you file, or through instalments, instead of at payment time. You can ask the carrier to withhold tax voluntarily, and many retirees do, to avoid a large balance owing in April.
• Amounts above the minimum are subject to withholding on the excess. Outside Quebec, the lump-sum rates the CRA sets are 10 percent on an excess up to $5,000, 20 percent on an excess from $5,001 to $15,000, and 30 percent on an excess above $15,000. Quebec residents are withheld under a combined federal and provincial schedule, so the percentages differ. Withholding is a prepayment. Your final tax is calculated on the return, at your marginal rate, with the amount withheld credited against it.

A labeled hypothetical shows the mechanics. Your minimum for the year is $26,400 and you withdraw an extra $10,000 in one payment, outside Quebec. The extra amount falls in the $5,001 to $15,000 band, so the carrier withholds 20 percent of the excess, which is $2,000, and pays you $8,000 of the extra amount. On your return, the full $36,400 is income. If your marginal rate is above 20 percent you will owe more on that extra $10,000 at filing. If it is below, part of the $2,000 comes back as a refund. Splitting one large extra withdrawal into several small requests to stay in the 10 percent band does not change the tax on the return, and the CRA treats a series of requests made to reduce withholding as one larger withdrawal for withholding purposes.

One interaction deserves its own paragraph. RRIF income counts in net income, and net income is the figure the Old Age Security recovery tax tests. A large RRIF balance converted at 71 can push minimums high enough in later years to reduce OAS. That is not a reason to avoid a RRIF. It is a reason to model the 70s and 80s, not just the first year. The companion guide, OAS Clawback in Canada, works the recovery tax math on its own page, and the CPP timing guide covers how CPP start age changes the income mix the test sees.

7. Age 65: pension splitting and the pension income amount

Sixty-five is a turning point for a RRIF, separate from the age-71 deadline. From the year you turn 65, RRIF payments become eligible pension income for two federal provisions. RRSP withdrawals never qualify for either one, which is why converting at least part of an RRSP to a RRIF at 65 is a common planning move even though no rule forces conversion then.

Pension income splitting. If you are 65 or older at the end of the year, you and your spouse or common-law partner can jointly elect, on form T1032 filed with both returns, to allocate up to 50 percent of your eligible pension income, including RRIF payments, to your partner's return. The money does not have to move accounts for the tax result to apply. Splitting helps when one spouse has much more pension income than the other, because the allocated income is taxed at the partner's lower marginal rate, and it can also lower the higher-income spouse's net income for the OAS recovery tax. The withholding tax on the payments is allocated in the same proportion as the income.

The pension income amount. Up to $2,000 of eligible pension income counts toward the federal pension income amount. This is a non-refundable credit, not a deduction and not $2,000 of tax-free income. It reduces federal tax by 15 percent of the amount claimed, up to $300 at the maximum, and most provinces and territories have a parallel amount at their own rate. If both spouses have eligible pension income, each can claim their own amount, and splitting can be used to give a spouse enough eligible income to use theirs.

Before 65, RRIF payments generally qualify for these provisions only in narrower cases, such as payments received because a spouse or common-law partner died. If you convert at 60 for income, do not assume splitting or the pension income amount is available in that year. Check the eligibility wording for your situation before you count on either.

8. If you do not need the money

The minimum must leave the RRIF. It does not have to be spent, and it does not have to leave your investment holdings. Three routes cover most cases:

• Move it to a TFSA. If you have TFSA contribution room, the after-tax amount can be contributed to a TFSA, where later growth and withdrawals are tax-free under TFSA rules. The RRIF withdrawal is still taxed in the year it comes out. The TFSA step shelters what happens after that. Your TFSA room, not the RRIF, sets the limit.
• Move it to a non-registered account. The withdrawal is taxed once, as RRIF income, in the year it leaves. After that, the money is ordinary taxable investments: interest, dividends, and capital gains taxed under their own rules, with the amount that left the RRIF as your starting cost.
• Take it in kind. Where the carrier allows it, an investment can be transferred out of the RRIF without being sold first. The fair market value on the transfer date counts as the withdrawal, is taxed as RRIF income, and becomes your cost in the non-registered account. In-kind payment solves a real problem: being forced to sell an investment you want to keep, at a date chosen by the calendar rather than by you.

Timing inside the year is also yours to choose. Payments can be monthly, quarterly, or in a single amount. Someone who does not need the cash often takes the minimum late in the year, which keeps the money invested inside the plan for longer. Someone budgeting on the income often takes it monthly so it behaves like a paycheque. The annual tax is the same either way, because the full amount is income for that calendar year regardless of the month it is paid.

What you cannot do is put the minimum back into the RRIF, or carry an unpaid minimum into the next year at the next year's factor. An unpaid amount stays owing as that year's minimum. Plan the payment date rather than discovering in January that a December instruction missed the carrier cutoff.

9. Withdrawing more than the minimum, on purpose

Because factors climb steeply after 85, some retirees withdraw more than the minimum in their 60s and early 70s, in years when other income is low. The idea, sometimes called a RRIF meltdown, is to bring income forward into years where it is taxed at a lower marginal rate, instead of leaving it to be forced out later at a higher rate, stacked on top of CPP, OAS, and the high late-life factors. The drawn money typically lands in a TFSA first and then in a non-registered account.

The mechanism is real, but the payoff depends entirely on tax brackets in both periods, and on benefit tests in both periods. Drawing extra at 63 can reduce Guaranteed Income Supplement in the following year for lower-income retirees, which can cost far more than the future income tax saved. Drawing extra at 68, after GIS is no longer in the picture and before OAS recovery tax becomes likely, is a different calculation. Drawing extra also gives up tax-deferred compounding on the amount drawn, and the extra withholding described in section 6 applies at payment time even though the return settles the true rate.

Treat any meltdown proposal as a two-period comparison that has to be run with your own numbers: the marginal rate and benefit effects of an extra dollar out this year, against the marginal rate and benefit effects of that dollar being forced out at 82 or 88. If a proposal quotes you a saving without showing both periods and both benefit tests, it has not done the calculation. The RRSP vs TFSA guide is useful background here, because the value of drawing early rises when the alternative destination, the TFSA, has room to receive it.

10. Three worked examples

Every number in this section is labeled hypothetical. Balances, ages, and tax treatment follow the rules above and nothing else.

Example 1: a first full RRIF year. Nadia was 72 at the start of the year and her RRIF held $400,000 on January 1, with no spousal age election on file. Her factor is 5.40 percent. Her minimum is $400,000 x 0.054, which is $21,600 for the year. She takes it monthly, so each payment is $1,800 before any voluntary withholding she asks for. No tax is required to be withheld from this minimum. On her return, the full $21,600 is income for the year, reported on line 11500 because she is over 65, and it is eligible for pension income splitting and the pension income amount. If she instead needs a car and withdraws $31,600 in total, the extra $10,000 is subject to withholding at 20 percent outside Quebec, as section 6 worked through.

Example 2: the spousal election, ten years in. Marc set up his RRIF at 71 and elected his spouse's age. He is now 75 at the start of the year, his spouse is 65 at the start of the year, and the RRIF holds $600,000 on January 1. His minimum uses the age-65 factor of 4.00 percent, so it is $24,000. Without the election it would have used the age-75 factor of 5.82 percent and been $34,920. The $10,920 difference stays inside the RRIF that year. Marc can still withdraw $34,920, or any other amount, if the household needs it. The election lowered what he must take, not what he can take. What it changed is the tax bill in a year when the household already has two CPP pensions and one OAS pension landing, and it changed how much remains deferred for their 80s.

Example 3: a partial conversion at 65 for splitting. Priya is 65, retired, and has a $300,000 RRSP. Her spouse has a workplace pension. She converts $100,000 of the RRSP to a RRIF and leaves $200,000 in the RRSP. There is no minimum in the setup year. The next year, when she is 65 at the start of the year, the factor is 1 / (90 - 65), which is 4.00 percent. If the RRIF still holds $100,000 on January 1, the minimum is $4,000. That $4,000 is eligible pension income: up to $2,000 of it supports her pension income amount, and up to half of it can be allocated to her spouse under a splitting election if that lowers their combined tax. The $200,000 left in the RRSP keeps its own deadline at the end of the year she turns 71. Converting in parts let her create eligible pension income at 65 without converting the whole account six years before she had to.

11. Mistakes checklist

• Using your birthday age instead of your age at the start of the year. The factor is set by your age on December 31 of the previous year. Being 72 in June does not make this year's factor the age-72 factor.
• Using today's balance instead of the January 1 balance. Market moves after January 1 change next year's minimum, not this year's.
• Assuming no withholding means no tax. The minimum is fully taxable. Without voluntary withholding or instalments, the bill arrives at filing time.
• Guessing the spousal election. Using a younger spouse's age in a calculator when no election is on file understates your legal minimum. Confirm the election with the carrier.
• Missing that the election is permanent for that RRIF. It cannot be switched later on the same account, even after a spouse dies. Decide before the first payment, not after.
• Taking the combined minimum from one of several RRIFs. Each RRIF must pay its own minimum.
• Budgeting the first minimum as level income. Section 4 shows the payment can fall in the early years under flat returns and rise sharply in the late years as factors climb. Budget from a projection, not from year one.
• Ignoring benefit tests. RRIF income feeds the OAS recovery tax calculation and, at lower incomes, affects GIS. The minimum is not optional, but conversion timing, partial conversions, and extra withdrawals all change these tests.
• Waiting until late December to arrange the payment. Carrier cutoffs and holidays are real. An instruction that misses the cutoff does not move the legal deadline.

12. Frequently asked questions

When do I have to convert my RRSP to a RRIF? By December 31 of the year you turn 71. The alternatives are buying an annuity or taking the RRSP as fully taxable cash. You can convert earlier, in whole or in part, at any age.

How is the RRIF minimum calculated? Multiply the fair market value of the RRIF on January 1 by the prescribed factor for your age at the start of the year, or your spouse's age if you elected that when the RRIF was set up. Before 71 the factor is 1 / (90 - age). At 71 it is 5.28 percent and it rises to 20 percent at 95 and older. The RRIF Minimum Withdrawal Calculator runs this calculation with your balance and age.

Is there a minimum in the year I set up the RRIF? No. Minimum payments start the year after the RRIF is established. Any amount you choose to take out in the setup year is an extra withdrawal, and withholding applies to it.

Is there a maximum RRIF withdrawal? No. You can withdraw part or all of the account in any year. Amounts above the minimum are subject to withholding at source, and the full amount withdrawn is taxable income for the year.

How much tax is withheld from a RRIF payment? No withholding is required on the minimum amount, although you can ask for voluntary withholding. On amounts above the minimum, outside Quebec, withholding on the excess is 10 percent up to $5,000, 20 percent from $5,001 to $15,000, and 30 percent above $15,000. Quebec uses a different combined schedule. Withholding is a prepayment, and your return settles the actual tax at your marginal rate.

Can I use my younger spouse's age for the minimum? Yes, if you elected to do so when the RRIF was set up and before payments began. The election lowers every year's factor. It generally cannot be changed later on that RRIF, even if your spouse dies, although a new election can be made on a new RRIF after a transfer. It does not change the age-71 conversion deadline, which follows your own age.

What if I do not need the minimum income? The payment still has to leave the RRIF, but you do not have to spend it. Common routes are contributing the after-tax amount to a TFSA if you have room, moving it to a non-registered account, or taking the payment in kind so the investment itself moves without being sold. The withdrawal is taxed as income in the year it leaves the RRIF in all three cases.

Does RRIF income qualify for pension splitting? Yes, if you are 65 or older at the end of the year. Up to 50 percent of eligible pension income, including RRIF payments, can be allocated to a spouse or common-law partner on a joint election filed with both returns. RRIF income at 65 and older also counts toward the federal pension income amount on up to $2,000.

13. Related reading

• RRIF Minimum Withdrawal Calculator - enter your January 1 balance, your age, and a spouse's age if an election is on file, and get the minimum and the factor used.
• OAS Clawback in Canada - the 15 percent recovery tax that RRIF income can trigger at higher net income, with thresholds and worked math.
• When to Take CPP in Canada - how the CPP start age changes the retirement income mix that RRIF minimums land on top of.
• RRSP vs TFSA in Canada - which account to draw from first, and where a RRIF payment you do not need can go next.
• CPP Maximization Calculator - compare CPP at 60, 65, and 70 alongside your RRIF projection.

14. Sources

• Canada Revenue Agency, Minimum amount from a RRIF: the minimum is the fair market value at the start of the year multiplied by a prescribed factor, the factor depends on the annuitant's or the elected spouse's age at the beginning of the year, and for ages under 71 it is calculated as 1 divided by (90 minus age) (canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/completing-slips-summaries/t4rsp-t4rif-information-returns/payments/minimum-amount-a-rrif.html).
• Canada Revenue Agency, Chart: prescribed factors for RRIF minimum amounts by age, including 5.28 percent at 71 and 20 percent at 95 and older (canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/completing-slips-summaries/t4rsp-t4rif-information-returns/payments/chart-prescribed-factors.html).
• Canada Revenue Agency, RRSP options when you turn 71: conversion to a RRIF or annuity, or deregistration, by the end of the year you turn 71 (canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/rrsps-related-plans/rrsp-options-when-you-turn-71.html).
• Canada Revenue Agency, Tax rates on withdrawals from an RRSP or RRIF: lump-sum withholding rates of 10, 20, and 30 percent by amount, with a different schedule for Quebec residents, and no withholding required on a RRIF minimum (canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/rrsps-related-plans/making-withdrawals/tax-rates-on-withdrawals.html).
• Canada Revenue Agency, Pension income splitting and the pension income amount: RRIF payments received at 65 or older are eligible pension income for splitting of up to 50 percent and for the pension income amount on up to $2,000 (canada.ca, topics: split-pension-income and line 31400 pension income amount).