Most RRSP deadlines in Canada come with a cushion. Contributions get the famous first-60-days window into March. Filings get next-business-day treatment when a date lands on a weekend. The age-71 deadline has neither. In the year you turn 71, you have to choose one of three options for your RRSPs — withdraw them, transfer them to a RRIF, or use them to purchase an annuity (s1) — and the choice has to be executed by December 31 of that year, because that is the last day the RRSP can exist in your name. Someone who turned 71 in 2026 is working to Thursday, December 31, 2026, and there is no January version of the same decision. That single fact reorganizes the autumn: the paperwork, the institution's processing queue, and one genuinely one-way election all belong in November and early December, not in the week between Christmas and New Year's Eve. This guide works the decision in the order it actually arrives — the three exits compared, the size of the first forced withdrawal, the election that cannot be undone, and two side doors the general conversion guides consistently miss.
Three exits, one deadline
The three options differ less in mechanics than in what they do to one particular tax year. Withdrawing the whole RRSP puts the entire balance into that year's income at once, and the issuer withholds tax on amounts withdrawn (s1) — withholding that is only a prepayment against a bill calculated at your full marginal rates on the whole amount. Transferring directly to a RRIF or using the funds to purchase an annuity triggers no withholding at the moment of transfer, and tax arrives instead as the money is paid out over the following years, with RRIF payments entered as income on the return for the year they are received (s1). The comparison below is the decision framework in one view; most households land on the RRIF because it is the only exit that keeps every later year adjustable.
| Exit | Tax at the moment of the move | What happens afterwards | How reversible is it? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Withdraw the RRSP | Issuer withholds tax; the full amount is income in that year (s1) | Nothing remains registered; future growth is taxed outside any plan | Irreversible — withdrawn room does not come back |
| Transfer to a RRIF | No tax withheld on a direct transfer (s1) | A minimum must be paid out every year starting the year after the RRIF is established (s2); investments and control stay with you | Withdrawals above the minimum are your choice each year |
| Buy an annuity | No tax withheld when RRSP funds are used directly to purchase it (s1) | The insurer pays a set income stream; payments are taxed as received (s1) | Effectively permanent — the capital is exchanged for the payment contract |
Mixing exits is allowed in practice — part to a RRIF, part to an annuity is a common shape — but each part still has to be settled by the same December 31. What is not on the menu is doing nothing and deciding in January. The deadline attaches to the RRSP itself, so the autumn task is not finding the perfect split; it is making a deliberate split at all, with time for the institution to process it.
What the first RRIF minimum actually looks like
A RRIF's forced withdrawals do not start immediately. Starting in the year after the year you establish a RRIF, you have to be paid a yearly minimum amount, and your carrier calculates it from your age at the beginning of each year (s2). The minimum is the RRIF's value at the start of the year multiplied by a prescribed factor, and the CRA's factor chart for a typical RRIF runs from 5.28% at age 71 to 20% at age 95 or older (s3). On a stated balance, the schedule looks like this:
| Age at the start of the year | Prescribed factor | Yearly minimum on a $100,000 RRIF |
|---|---|---|
| 71 | 5.28% | $5,280 |
| 75 | 5.82% | $5,820 |
| 80 | 6.82% | $6,820 |
| 85 | 8.51% | $8,510 |
| 90 | 11.92% | $11,920 |
| 95 or older | 20.00% | $20,000 |
Two consequences follow from the arithmetic. First, a conversion completed in the year you turn 71 buys one calm year: no minimum is owed for the year the RRIF is opened, and the first forced payment arrives the following year. Second, the factor rises every year whether the balance does or not, so the RRIF is a drawdown schedule, not a storage account — you can always withdraw more than the minimum, but never less (s2). Knowing the first few years of factors before you convert turns an abstract obligation into a plannable income line, and it is the honest way to compare the RRIF exit against an annuity quote.
The election you make once, on the application form
Buried in the conversion paperwork is the one decision in this whole process that cannot be revisited. You can elect to have the RRIF minimum calculated from your spouse's or common-law partner's age instead of your own (s2) — but the election must be selected when filling out the original RRIF application form, and once it is made, it cannot be changed (s4). Where the spouse is younger, the dollar difference is not trivial. If the minimum is based on a 65-year-old spouse's age instead of 71, the factor for age 70 or younger is 1 divided by (90 minus the age) (s3) — at 65, that is 1/25, or 4.00%. On the same $100,000 RRIF, the first minimum is $4,000 instead of $5,280: $1,280 a year that stays sheltered instead of being forced out and taxed, with the gap repeating every year the age difference persists. The election only ever lowers the floor; it never restricts you, because withdrawing more than the minimum remains available in any year (s2). The trap is purely procedural: a household that converts in a December rush, signs the standard application, and learns about the election in February has no way back into it for that RRIF. Ask the question before the form is signed, not after.
Two side doors most guides miss
The first side door stays open after your own RRSP closes. You can contribute to an RRSP until the year-end in which the account owner turns 71 — and where you are over 71 but your spouse is younger, you can keep putting money into a spousal RRSP as long as you still have RRSP contribution room of your own (s5). The contributions use the contributor's room and are deducted on the contributor's return, while the account belongs to the spouse (s5). For a 72-year-old still earning income, that is a live deduction the 'your RRSP is over' framing hides. One caution travels with it: the three-year attribution rule means withdrawals made in the year of a contribution or the two following years may be taxed in the contributor's hands rather than the spouse's (s5), so late spousal contributions and early spousal withdrawals should never be planned in the same breath.
The second side door is a trap door for anyone carrying a Home Buyers' Plan balance. You cannot repay HBP amounts after the end of the year you reach 71, because RRSP contributions themselves end then. In the year you turn 71, the choice is to repay the remaining balance in full, repay part of it, or repay none — and whatever is still unpaid at the beginning of the year you turn 72 is divided by the number of years left in the repayment period and included as income on line 12900 in each of those years (s6). The same fork exists for Lifelong Learning Plan balances. None of this appears in the standard conversion walkthroughs, which is exactly how a manageable repayment becomes a decade of small, unchosen income inclusions.
The conversion checklist
- Confirm the deadline applies to you this year. If you turned 71 at any point in the calendar year, December 31 of that year is the last day for every RRSP in your name (s1).
- Inventory every RRSP, including forgotten ones. Old employer plans and accounts at institutions you no longer use all carry the same deadline; each one needs its own instruction.
- Choose the split among the three exits. Withdraw, transfer to a RRIF, or purchase an annuity — comparing the tax timing in the table above, not just the headline product features (s1).
- Decide the spouse-age election before any application is signed. If your spouse is younger, price the difference using the factor chart (s3) and make the election on the original RRIF application, because it cannot be changed afterwards (s4).
- Clear any HBP or LLP balance decision in the same sitting. Repay in full, in part, or accept the line 12900 income spread — deliberately, with the amounts written down (s6).
- Submit instructions weeks before December 31, then verify execution. A signed form in a processing queue is not a completed conversion; confirm in writing that each RRSP has actually been matured, and keep the confirmation with your tax file.
- Calendar the first minimum. Note the year after the RRIF is established as the first minimum-withdrawal year, and the factor that will apply, so next year's cash-flow plan already includes it (s2, s3).
What success looks like: before December 31, every RRSP in your name shows as matured — transferred, annuitized, or withdrawn by your instruction — the spouse-age election is recorded on the RRIF application exactly as you decided it, and any HBP or LLP balance has a written repayment decision beside it. If you can produce those three confirmations in January, the deadline did its job.
FAQ
Can I use the first-60-days window for this, like a normal RRSP contribution? No. That window governs when contributions can be deducted; the age-71 rule governs whether the RRSP may exist at all. In the year you turn 71 you must already have chosen among withdrawing, transferring to a RRIF, or buying an annuity (s1), and the choice belongs to that calendar year.
Is tax withheld when I convert to a RRIF? No tax is withheld on amounts transferred directly to a RRIF or used to purchase an annuity; tax is withheld when funds are withdrawn from an RRSP, and RRIF payments are taxed as income in the year received (s1). Within the RRIF, no tax is withheld on the minimum amount itself, while amounts above the minimum are subject to withholding (s4).
Can I still contribute to any RRSP after I turn 71? Not to your own — but if your spouse is 71 or younger and you have contribution room, you can contribute to a spousal RRSP until the end of the year your spouse turns 71, claiming the deduction yourself (s5). Mind the three-year attribution rule before planning any early withdrawal from that account (s5).
What happens to my Home Buyers' Plan balance at 71? Repayments stop being possible after the year you turn 71. Any balance left at the start of the year you turn 72 is divided by the remaining repayment years and included in your income on line 12900 for each of those years (s6) — unless you repay it, in full or in part, during the year you turn 71.