Turning 71 this year? Your RRSP has a December 31 deadline
If you turn 71 during 2026, you must convert your RRSP into a RRIF (or buy an annuity, or cash it out — almost nobody should) by December 31, 2026. Starting in 2027, you must withdraw a government-set minimum percentage every year, whether you need the money or not. Miss the deadline and the entire RRSP is deregistered and taxed as income in one year, which is the single most expensive mistake available to a Canadian retiree.
What the minimum actually is
The RRIF minimum is a percentage of your January 1 balance, and it climbs every year:
| Age | Minimum withdrawal |
|---|---|
| 71 | 5.28% |
| 75 | 5.82% |
| 80 | 6.82% |
| 85 | 8.51% |
| 90 | 11.92% |
| 95 and over | 20.00% |
Applied to real money, a $700,000 RRIF at 71 forces out $36,960 in the first year — on top of CPP and OAS, and fully taxable as ordinary income. At 85, the same starting balance (grown at 5% and drawn at the minimum) is still throwing off tens of thousands a year, at a rate that eventually outruns any plausible return.
That's the design. A RRIF is not meant to last forever; it's meant to be emptied.
The tax problem nobody plans for
Add it up for a single retiree in Ontario with average CPP ($925/month), full OAS ($751.97/month), and a $700,000 RRIF at 71:
- CPP + OAS: $20,128
- RRIF minimum: $36,960
- Total taxable income: $57,088
That's comfortably below the OAS clawback line ($95,323 for 2026), so this retiree is fine. But scale the RRIF to $1.6 million and the minimum alone is over $84,000 — which, stacked on CPP and OAS, sails past the clawback threshold and starts costing 15 cents of OAS for every dollar above it. The larger your RRSP, the more the minimum stops being a withdrawal schedule and starts being a tax problem.
Two levers most people miss
1. Use your younger spouse's age. You may elect to base the RRIF minimum on your spouse's age instead of your own — a one-time, irrevocable choice made when the RRIF is set up. If your spouse is five years younger, your minimum at 71 drops from 5.28% to roughly 4.35%, and stays lower for life. Over 20+ years, that's a meaningful reduction in forced taxable income. You can still withdraw more whenever you want; you're only lowering the floor.
2. Start before you're forced to. The years between 65 and 71 are the quietest tax years most people ever have: employment income has stopped, but RRIF minimums haven't started. Deliberately withdrawing from the RRSP during that window — even though nobody is making you — lets you pull money out at a low marginal rate, shrink the balance that the minimum will later be applied to, and shelter the proceeds in a TFSA. This is the "RRSP meltdown," and for anyone with a seven-figure registered balance it is often worth tens of thousands of dollars. We modelled exactly how much.
What to do this year, in order
- Confirm your conversion. Contact your institution now, not in December. Conversion is paperwork, and paperwork in the last week of December is how deadlines get missed.
- Make the spousal-age election if it applies — it's only available at setup.
- Make your final RRSP contribution. You can contribute for the 2026 tax year up until December 31, 2026 (not the usual March deadline — your RRSP ceases to exist). If you have room and income to shelter, this is your last chance.
- Decide your withdrawal strategy, not just your minimum. The minimum is a floor, not a recommendation. Run your numbers through the contributions and RRIF calculator and read the RRIF withdrawals guide.
- If you don't need the money, remember it doesn't have to be spent — it can be withdrawn in-kind (transferring the investments themselves, not cash) and redirected into a TFSA, where it grows tax-free and never counts against the clawback again.
The deadline is real
Turning 71 is one of the few moments in Canadian retirement where the calendar, not you, makes the decision. The RRIF conversion itself is trivial. What matters is the six-year runway before it — and if you're reading this at 66 or 68, that runway is still open.
Not financial advice. Figures verified against CRA prescribed RRIF factors and 2026 Service Canada amounts. Confirm your conversion deadline with your financial institution.