RRIF Minimum Withdrawals 2026: Table and Strategy
This spoke sits under how much money you need to retire in Canada and the seven-step retirement plan. The arithmetic that puts CPP, OAS, and the accounts on one page is the Canadian retirement calculator. You type the pension amounts. The minimum in this article is a separate legal floor on the RRIF, not a spending target.
- CRA’s chart, page details dated 2025-10-01 and reviewed October 3, 2026, uses 0.0528 at age 71 for “all other RRIFs,” then rises each year to 0.2000 at 95 or older.
- At 70 or younger the prescribed factor is 1 ÷ (90 − age). At 65 that is 1/25. At 70 it is 1/20.
- You can elect to use your spouse’s or common-law partner’s age. The carrier otherwise uses your age at the beginning of the year.
- There is no minimum in the calendar year you open the RRIF. The first minimum is the following year.
- A qualifying RRIF and a pre-March 1986 RRIF can use different factors. A RRIF you open from an RRSP now is almost never one of those columns.
What is the RRIF minimum, and when does it start?
CRA describes a RRIF as an arrangement with a carrier you transfer property to, from an RRSP or certain other plans, and from which the carrier pays you. Earnings inside the RRIF are tax-free. Amounts paid out are taxable when you receive them. Starting in the year after the year you establish the RRIF, you have to be paid a yearly minimum. You can take more. You cannot take less and still have the account qualify. The payout period is for your entire life. The carrier calculates the minimum from your age at the beginning of each year, unless you elect your spouse’s or common-law partner’s age.
The base is the fair market value of the property in the RRIF at the start of the year, times the factor. This page does not restate a second CRA formula for “what counts as the value.” Your carrier’s calculation is the one that has to match the slip. If you open the RRIF in 2026, the first forced payment is in 2027, using the age and the value at the start of 2027. That timing is why a conversion late in the year you turn 71 does not create a minimum in that same year. The conversion itself is RRSP to RRIF conversion.
What factor applies before age 71?
CRA’s chart page states the rule in one sentence: if the age is 70 or younger, the prescribed factor is 1 divided by (90 minus the age). The percentages below are that fraction, shown to two decimal places. The carrier uses the fraction. Rounding is for reading, not a second published table.
| Age at the start of the year | Formula | Factor | Shown as a percent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 1 ÷ 35 | 0.028571… | 2.86% |
| 60 | 1 ÷ 30 | 0.033333… | 3.33% |
| 65 | 1 ÷ 25 | 0.04 | 4.00% |
| 70 | 1 ÷ 20 | 0.05 | 5.00% |
Table as of October 2026. It is the formula applied to four ages, not a CRA percentage table. Age 71 is the first row of the prescribed chart, and it is higher than the formula would have been: 1 ÷ (90 − 71) is 1/19, about 5.26%, and the “all other RRIFs” factor at 71 is 0.0528.
The factor is 1/25, which is 0.04. Minimum withdrawal is $250,000 × 0.04 = $10,000. That product is arithmetic on the formula. It is not tax withheld, and it is not the amount you should spend. If your spouse is 60 and you elect that age, the factor is 1/30 instead, and the minimum on the same $250,000 is $8,333.33 before any rounding the carrier applies. Electing the younger age lowers the floor. It does not stop you from taking more.
What are the prescribed factors from 71 on?
Use the “all other RRIFs” column unless the contract really is a qualifying RRIF or a pre-March 1986 RRIF under the footnotes. Those footnotes are on the chart. A qualifying RRIF is one that was set up in the periods the footnote lists and that has not taken in property except from another qualifying RRIF. The pre-March 1986 factors apply only in the cases the first footnote still allows. For a RRIF opened from an RRSP in the years this article is about, the third column is the one.
| Age | Factor | Percent | Minimum on $100,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 71 | 0.0528 | 5.28% | $5,280 |
| 72 | 0.0540 | 5.40% | $5,400 |
| 73 | 0.0553 | 5.53% | $5,530 |
| 74 | 0.0567 | 5.67% | $5,670 |
| 75 | 0.0582 | 5.82% | $5,820 |
| 76 | 0.0598 | 5.98% | $5,980 |
| 77 | 0.0617 | 6.17% | $6,170 |
| 78 | 0.0636 | 6.36% | $6,360 |
| 79 | 0.0658 | 6.58% | $6,580 |
| 80 | 0.0682 | 6.82% | $6,820 |
| 81 | 0.0708 | 7.08% | $7,080 |
| 82 | 0.0738 | 7.38% | $7,380 |
| 83 | 0.0771 | 7.71% | $7,710 |
| 84 | 0.0808 | 8.08% | $8,080 |
| 85 | 0.0851 | 8.51% | $8,510 |
| 86 | 0.0899 | 8.99% | $8,990 |
| 87 | 0.0955 | 9.55% | $9,550 |
| 88 | 0.1021 | 10.21% | $10,210 |
| 89 | 0.1099 | 10.99% | $10,990 |
| 90 | 0.1192 | 11.92% | $11,920 |
| 91 | 0.1306 | 13.06% | $13,060 |
| 92 | 0.1449 | 14.49% | $14,490 |
| 93 | 0.1634 | 16.34% | $16,340 |
| 94 | 0.1879 | 18.79% | $18,790 |
| 95 or older | 0.2000 | 20.00% | $20,000 |
Table as of October 2026, copied from the “all other RRIFs” column. The dollar column is $100,000 times the factor, so you can scale it. A $400,000 RRIF at 71 is four times $5,280, or $21,120. At 95 or older the factor stays at 0.2000. It does not keep rising. The qualifying-RRIF column matches this column from age 72 on. At 71 only, qualifying and pre-March 1986 both show 0.0526, and “all other” shows 0.0528. Using 5.26% on a modern RRIF is the wrong column.
Should you use a younger spouse’s age?
CRA says the carrier calculates the minimum from your age, and that you can elect your spouse’s or common-law partner’s age. A younger age produces a smaller factor and a smaller forced payment. That is useful when the household does not need the cash and a larger withdrawal would raise taxable income, including income that counts toward the OAS recovery tax. It is useless if you were going to withdraw more than the higher minimum anyway. The election is something you make with the carrier. This page does not restate a deadline or an irrevocability rule the RRIF-income page did not print. Read the form before you sign it, and read Guide T4040 if the carrier’s wording and the CRA page disagree.
Taking only the minimum can leave a large taxable balance for a surviving spouse or for the year of death. Taking more than the minimum can be the point of an RRSP meltdown in the years before OAS starts, or of the withdrawal order between the RRIF and the TFSA. The factor does not know your bracket. The federal brackets and the pension-splitting rules are the tax half. A RRIF payment can be eligible pension income at 65, which is the splitting article.
Where does the minimum show up on the return?
CRA’s receiving-income page says that if you were 65 or older on December 31, or you received the amounts because your spouse or common-law partner died, you report the RRIF income on line 11500. In other cases you report it on line 13000. Line 11500 is the door to the pension income amount and to splitting. Line 13000 is not that door. A 60-year-old’s RRIF withdrawal is still taxable. It is not, on that page, eligible pension income just because it came out of a RRIF. Amounts transferred onward to an RRSP, a RRIF, or an annuity are deducted rather than left in income, using Schedule 7 and line 20800, or line 23200, as that page describes. A minimum you spend is not a transfer.
Withholding is a separate calendar. This article does not quote the lump-sum withholding rates, because the withdrawals page was not the page reviewed for those percentages. A direct transfer to a RRIF is not a withdrawal. A payment above the minimum can have tax withheld. Ask the carrier what they will withhold on the amount you actually request, and do not treat the minimum as tax-free because it is mandatory.
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to withdraw the minimum in the year I open the RRIF?
No. CRA says the minimum must be paid in the year following the year the RRIF is entered into, and the receiving-income page repeats that it starts the year after you establish it. Opening a RRIF in December does not create a December minimum. It creates a minimum the next January-to-December year, based on the value at the start of that year and the age at the start of that year.
Is 5.28% the factor for every 71-year-old?
It is the “all other RRIFs” factor at 71 on the chart reviewed October 3, 2026. A qualifying RRIF and a pre-March 1986 RRIF show 0.0526 at that one age. If your contract is one of those, the footnote decides, not this sentence. If you elect a spouse who is under 71, you leave the chart and use 1 ÷ (90 − that age).
Can I take less than the minimum if I do not need the money?
Not from that RRIF. CRA says you can withdraw more, but not less, than the minimum. If the forced income is the problem, the levers that exist before the year starts are the age election, how much you convert, and whether some of the balance is still in an RRSP that has no minimum yet. After the year starts, the value is set and the factor applies to it.
Does the minimum count as pension income I can split?
RRIF income is in the list of eligible pension income if you are 65 or older at the end of the year, or if you receive it because your spouse or common-law partner died. Under 65, a RRIF payment you take on your own is not in that list. Splitting is capped at 50% and needs Form T1032. The minimum and the election are two different forms.
What if the RRIF stops qualifying?
CRA says that if the RRIF is changed so it no longer satisfies the rules, it is no longer a RRIF, and you are considered to have received the fair market value of the property at that time. That is a different event from taking the minimum. Do not “fix” a minimum you dislike by breaking the registration.
Should the calculator use the minimum as my spending?
No. The retirement calculator spends the amount you type, drawn from the TFSA and then the RRSP at a tax rate you type. The RRIF minimum can be lower or higher than that spending. If the minimum is higher, you have taxable income you did not choose. Put that income into the plan. Do not assume the tool applied the factor. It does not.
Sources
- CRA: chart of prescribed factors, page details 2025-10-01, reviewed October 3, 2026
- CRA: receiving income from a RRIF, page details 2026-01-06
- CRA: RRIF overview
The factor is public. The tax on the payment is your return.
Line 11500 versus line 13000, and the brackets on the extra dollar, are the filing side of a minimum you cannot refuse.
Get the 2026 Tax Guide — $49 CAD
