Turning 71 in 2026? Your RRSP has a hard deadline: December 31
The year you turn 71, your RRSP must close by December 31 — convert it, annuitize it, or the CRA taxes the whole thing at once. The rules, the options, and the moves that still work in the final months.
The RRSP has one truly unforgiving rule: it must be wound up by December 31 of the year you turn 71. Not the year you retire, not your 71st birthday — the end of that calendar year. Do nothing, and the CRA can treat the entire balance as income in a single year, taxed at your top rate.
If that's you in 2026, here's the map.
Your three exits
- Convert to a RRIF — what most people do. The investments move over untouched and keep growing tax-deferred; the account simply switches from "money in" to "money out."
- Buy an annuity — trade some or all of the balance for a guaranteed payment for life. Can be mixed with a RRIF.
- Cash out — almost always the worst option, for the single-year tax reason above.
Conversion itself triggers no tax. Tax only applies as money comes out of the RRIF.
What the RRIF requires of you
- Nothing in the conversion year. Convert in 2026 and your first mandatory withdrawal isn't until 2027 — and you can push it to December 2027.
- The first minimum at age 72 is 5.40% of the RRIF's value on January 1. The percentage climbs every year after.
- There's a floor, but no ceiling — you can always take more.
- Use a younger spouse's age for the minimum schedule and the required withdrawals shrink. You elect this once, at conversion — worth deciding deliberately, since it preserves tax deferral you can't get back later.
Minimums are a tax schedule, not financial advice. The right withdrawal for you can be well above the minimum — especially if deferring just builds a bigger tax bomb for later or triggers OAS clawback at 72+.
Moves that still work before the deadline
- Make your final RRSP contribution. If you have room, it must go in by December 31, 2026 — the usual 60-day window into the next year doesn't exist once the RRSP closes.
- Keep contributing via a spousal RRSP. If your spouse is under 71 and you still have room (say, from continued work), spousal contributions remain open until their 71st year.
- Plan the withdrawal path, not just the conversion. Withdrawal size interacts with the OAS clawback threshold ($95,323 for 2026) — a too-big RRIF draw can cost 15 cents of OAS per extra dollar. Map the drawdown schedule with the RRSP meltdown calculator and check where your income lands with the OAS clawback calculator.
The takeaway
The deadline is administrative; the decisions around it are not. Convert to a RRIF before December 31 — that part is nearly automatic — but spend the remaining weeks on the choices that actually move money: the final contribution, the younger-spouse election, and a withdrawal plan that keeps your taxable income where you want it for the next twenty years.