RRIF Minimum Withdrawal Calculator 2026

Your minimum withdrawal this year from CRA’s prescribed factors, the income tax you’ll owe on it, the tax withheld if you take more, and how the balance changes to age 95.

✓ 2026 rates · verified Oct 21–27, 2026

What a RRIF is

A registered retirement income fund is what an RRSP becomes when you start drawing on it. The money stays invested and grows tax-sheltered, but you must take out at least a minimum every year, and everything you take out is taxed as income. You must convert your RRSP by the end of the year you turn 71; you can do it sooner.

How the minimum works

The minimum is the RRIF’s value on January 1 times a factor for your age at the start of the year. Up to 70 the factor is 1 ÷ (90 − age); from 71 it comes from CRA’s chart. There’s no minimum in the year you set up the RRIF.

Plans set up before 1993 (“qualifying RRIFs”) use 5.26% at 71; every other age is the same.

Using a younger spouse’s age

If you chose your spouse’s or common-law partner’s age when you set up the RRIF, the minimum is based on their age instead, so a younger spouse means smaller required withdrawals. The choice is made once, at set-up, and can’t be changed later. Enter their age above if you made it.

Withholding vs the tax you actually owe

The bank withholds nothing on the minimum, so if the minimum is your only RRIF income you’ll owe the tax on it when you file (or in instalments). On a withdrawal above the minimum, it withholds a flat rate on the extra part only: 10% on up to $5,000, 20% up to $15,000 and 30% above that. The tax you really owe depends on all your income for the year, which is what the calculator shows.

Worked example

You’re 72 with $300,000 in your RRIF on January 1, live in Alberta and have $30,000 of CPP, OAS and pension income.

• Minimum: $300,000 × 5.40% = $16,200.00, or $1,350.00 a month.
• Nothing is withheld; the extra income tax for the year is about $3,143.76.
• At 5% a year the RRIF holds $298,800.00 at the end of the year, and $237,532.24 at 85. At 65 the minimum is only 4.00%, so a $300,000 RRIF still grows: $303,000.00 after the first year.

Melting down an RRSP before 71, and the OAS clawback

Some people start withdrawing from their RRSP or RRIF in their 60s, before CPP and OAS start or while their income is low, so that less is left to be taken out later at a higher tax rate. Every dollar out counts as income that year, so larger withdrawals after 65 can also raise the OAS recovery tax. Whether it helps depends on your other income and tax rates now and later; this calculator shows the tax for one year.

What this calculator assumes

• From 65 (by December 31), the federal and provincial age amounts and pension income amounts (on the RRIF payment) are included, and Saskatchewan’s senior supplement; Quebec’s own credits for retirees aren’t. Your other income is assumed to include no other pension that already uses the pension amount. The OAS recovery tax isn’t included.
• The projection takes only the minimum, withdrawn at the end of each year, with a steady return.
• Withholding assumes a single extra withdrawal; regular payments above the minimum are withheld differently.

Rates for tax year 2026, verified October 21 to October 27, 2026 · Page updated October 28, 2026