RRSP withdrawal tax calculator

The RRSP withdrawal tax rates, in one table

What your institution takes off the top depends on one thing only: how much you withdraw at once. Not your income, not your province — outside Quebec — and not your age.

The bands are inclusive at the top: a withdrawal of exactly $5,000 is withheld at 10%, and a single dollar more moves the whole withdrawal to 20%.

Quebec is only half in that table, and it matters. The 15% shown for a large Quebec withdrawal is the federal share. Revenu Québec withholds its own amount on top, and the CRA does not publish that figure — its page tells you to ask your institution or Revenu Québec. So a Quebec resident has more taken at source than the column says, and this page does not pretend to know how much.

And if you have left Canada, none of the bands apply. A non-resident is withheld a flat 25% whatever the amount, which a tax treaty may reduce. That cuts both ways, and not the way people assume: on a $3,000 withdrawal a non-resident has 25% taken against a resident's 10%, and on a $50,000 one it is 25% against 30%. For a non-resident the withholding is usually the end of it; for a resident it never is, which is the next section.

The 30% they withhold is not the tax

This is the misunderstanding that costs people money every April. When you take money out of an RRSP the institution withholds 10% up to $5,000, 20% up to $15,000, 30% above that. Most people read that as the tax on the withdrawal. It is a deposit.

The withdrawal is added to your income for the year and taxed at your marginal rate like any other dollar. On $85,000 in Ontario, taking out $20,000 means $6,000 withheld — and the withdrawal actually costs $6,047. You owe another $47 when you file.

The gap grows with income, because the withholding rate is fixed and your marginal rate is not. On $150,000 the same $20,000 withdrawal has $6,000 withheld and costs $8,976 — a shortfall of $2,976 that arrives as a bill months later.

Splitting a withdrawal does not help

The withholding rate steps up at $5,000 and $15,000, so taking $20,000 as four withdrawals of $5,000 has less withheld than one of $20,000. Institutions are supposed to look at the series, and even where they do not, nothing about the actual tax changes.

All of it lands on the same return at the same marginal rate. Withholding less simply moves the shortfall from now to April, larger. It is the same money in a worse order.

The only reason to think about the withholding rate at all is cash flow — knowing what will actually arrive in your account today, which is what the calculator above shows alongside what it will cost.

Where the withdrawal shows up on your return

This is the part that makes the previous section concrete, and it is three lines of the T1.

The withdrawal itself arrives on a T4RSP slip and goes on line 12900, the RRSP income line. It sits there as ordinary income alongside your salary — nothing on the return marks it as retirement money or treats it differently.

The tax already withheld is in box 30 of that same slip, and it goes on line 43700, Total income tax deducted — the same line as the tax deducted from your paycheques. That is the mechanism by which the withholding turns out to be an instalment rather than a tax: it is credited against the bill, exactly like payroll withholding, and whatever is left over is what you pay or get back.

If the money is coming out of a RRIF rather than an RRSP, the line changes with your age on 31 December: line 11500 if you were 65 or older, line 13000 if you were not. Same money, two different lines, and almost nobody knows why — line 11500 is the pension line.

The withdrawal you do not get to choose

An RRSP does not last forever. It has to be wound up by the end of the year you turn 71, and you have three ways to do it: take the whole thing in cash, buy an annuity, or — what almost everyone does — convert it into a RRIF, a registered retirement income fund.

A RRIF keeps the money invested and untaxed inside the account, and the difference is that withdrawals stop being optional. From the year after the RRIF is set up you have to take a minimum amount out every year, worked out by your carrier from your age at the start of the year. You can take more. You cannot take less.

There is one lever worth knowing: the minimum can be based on your spouse's or common-law partner's age instead of yours, elected when the RRIF is set up. A younger spouse means a smaller forced withdrawal, and therefore less income you did not ask for.

The minimum is not withheld at source the way an ordinary withdrawal is, and it is still taxable. This page does not model RRIF minimums — the factor is set by regulation and your carrier applies it — but the conversion deadline is the date to have in your head, because missing it means the entire RRSP becomes income in one year.

The two withdrawals that are not taxed at all

Everything above assumes an ordinary withdrawal. There are two that are not: no tax is withheld, and nothing is added to your income. Both are loans you make to yourself, and the catch is the repayment rather than the tax.

The Home Buyers' Plan lets you take up to $60,000 out of your RRSPs to buy or build a qualifying first home, on Form T1036, and repay it to the plan over 15 years. For comparison, taking that same $60,000 out as an ordinary withdrawal on $85,000 of income in Ontario would have $18,000 withheld on the day and cost $22,189 in the end. That is the size of the difference.

And the repayment schedule has just been pushed back, which almost nothing published says yet. For a first HBP withdrawal made between 2026 and 2028, the 15-year repayment period starts in the 5th year after the withdrawal rather than the 2nd. Withdraw in 2026 and your first repayment year is 2031 — five years of nothing to pay, where the old rule gave you one.

The Lifelong Learning Plan does the same for education: up to $10,000 a year and $20,000 in total per participation, on Form RC96, repaid over 10 years. A spouse or common-law partner can withdraw their own $10,000 in the same year from their own RRSPs, so a couple can move $20,000 in a year between them. And the amount is not tied to what the course costs — the limit is the limit.

What both share is the failure mode. Miss a scheduled repayment and that year's instalment is not a penalty: it is added to your income for that year and taxed at your marginal rate, exactly as if you had made an ordinary withdrawal then. So the plans do not remove the tax, they defer it and give you the chance to avoid it entirely by putting the money back.

Neither is modelled in the calculator above, which prices an ordinary withdrawal. Both are reported on Schedule 7 with your return.

What the tax does not measure

The room is gone. Withdrawing from an RRSP permanently destroys the contribution room it used. Put in $20,000, take it out, and you cannot put it back — unlike a TFSA, where the room returns the following year. That is not a tax cost, so it appears nowhere in the figures, and over a working life it is usually the larger loss.

And the growth is gone with it. The point of the account is decades of compounding untaxed. A withdrawal at $35 costs the tax today and everything that money would have become by $65.

Which is the argument for the two plans above wherever they fit: a HBP or LLP withdrawal is repaid to the plan, so the room comes back as you repay it. An ordinary withdrawal never does.

Where these figures come from

Read off the CRA's own pages, with the date:

CRA — MP, DB, RRSP, DPSP, ALDA, TFSA limits, YMPE and the YAMPE — read 2026-09-07. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/registered-plans-administrators/pspa/mp-rrsp-dpsp-tfsa-limits-ympe.html

CRA — Tax rates on RRSP withdrawals — read 2026-09-07. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/rrsps-related-plans/making-withdrawals/tax-rates-on-withdrawals.html

CRA — The Home Buyers' Plan — read 2026-09-22. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/rrsps-related-plans/what-home-buyers-plan.html

CRA — Lifelong Learning Plan withdrawals — read 2026-09-22. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/rrsps-related-plans/lifelong-learning-plan/participate.html

CRA — Employers' Guide, Payroll Deductions and Remittances (T4001) — read 2026-09-22. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/forms-publications/publications/t4001/employers-guide-payroll-deductions-remittances.html

CRA — First Home Savings Account (FHSA) — read 2026-09-07. https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/first-home-savings-account.html

And what these figures do not cover:

— Quebec withholding is only half here. The 5, 10 and 15 percent shown for Quebec residents is the federal share; Revenu Quebec withholds its own amount on top, and the CRA does not publish that figure — it tells you to ask your institution or Revenu Quebec. So a Quebec withdrawal has more taken at source than the rate shown, and the final tax is worked out the same way regardless.

— Institutions charge their own withdrawal fee on top of the tax, commonly a flat amount per withdrawal, and it is set by each institution rather than by the CRA. No figure for it appears here because there is no single figure to publish.

— Your actual RRSP room is not 18% of this year's income. It is the room the CRA carries on your notice of assessment: unused room from previous years carries forward, and a pension adjustment from a workplace plan reduces it. The figure here is the room a year of this salary generates, not the room you have.

— The Home Buyers' Plan and the Lifelong Learning Plan are described here with their real limits and repayment rules, but neither is modelled in the calculator: the figures above are for an ordinary withdrawal. Missing a scheduled repayment turns that year's instalment into taxable income, and that consequence is not calculated either.

— A withdrawal permanently loses the contribution room it used. That is not a tax cost, so it does not appear in the figures — but it is the part that costs most over a lifetime.

— The FHSA lifetime limit and the rules for carrying unused room forward are not applied; the annual participation room in the first year is what is shown.

Questions

How much tax do I pay to withdraw $20,000 from an RRSP in Ontario?

$6,000 is withheld at 30%, but the withdrawal actually costs $6,047 once it is added to $85,000 of income. You owe $47 more when you file.

Is the withholding tax the final tax?

No. It is an instalment. The withdrawal is added to your income and taxed at your marginal rate — the withholding is just what the institution sends the CRA on the day, and it is usually less than the eventual bill for anyone above a modest income.

Can I avoid the withholding by taking smaller amounts?

You can reduce what is withheld — the rate steps up at $5,000 and $15,000 — but not what you owe. Every dollar lands on the same return at the same rate. It moves the bill, it does not shrink it.

How can I withdraw from my RRSP without paying tax?

Two ways, and both are loans rather than withdrawals. The Home Buyers' Plan takes up to $60,000 for a qualifying first home on Form T1036, repaid over 15 years — and for a first withdrawal between 2026 and 2028 repayment does not start until the 5th year after, so a 2026 withdrawal is first repayable in 2031. The Lifelong Learning Plan takes up to $10,000 a year and $20,000 in total for education on Form RC96, repaid over 10. Nothing is withheld and nothing is added to your income — but a repayment you miss is added to that year's income and taxed at your marginal rate.

What are the RRSP withdrawal tax rates?

Withholding is 10% up to $5,000, 20% from $5,000 to $15,000, 30% over $15,000, and half those federal rates in Quebec with Revenu Québec withholding on top. Non-residents are withheld a flat 25% unless a treaty reduces it. None of those is the tax rate on the withdrawal — the withdrawal is taxed at your marginal rate like any other income.

What happens to my RRSP when I turn 71?

It has to be wound up by the end of that year — cashed out, turned into an annuity, or converted to a RRIF, which is what nearly everyone does. A RRIF keeps the money invested and untaxed inside the account, but from the following year a minimum withdrawal is compulsory, based on your age at the start of each year. You can elect to use a younger spouse's age instead, which makes the forced withdrawal smaller.

Is there a fee to withdraw from an RRSP?

Usually, and it is not a tax. Institutions charge their own withdrawal fee, set by each of them rather than by the CRA, so there is no single figure to publish and none appears in the calculator above. Ask yours before you withdraw — it is charged per withdrawal, which is one real argument against splitting a withdrawal into several.

How much tax is withheld on an RRSP withdrawal for a non-resident?

A flat 25%, whatever the amount, unless a tax treaty with your country of residence reduces it. It cuts both ways: on a small withdrawal that is more than a resident pays at 10%, and on a large one it is less than the resident's 30%. For a non-resident that withholding is generally the final tax, which is the real difference.

Do I get the contribution room back?

No, and that is the bigger cost. RRSP room used by a withdrawal is gone permanently, unlike a TFSA where it returns the next year. The tax is the visible loss; the room is the expensive one.