Once you live in the US, Canada withholds 25% on a lump-sum RRSP withdrawal. Convert to a RRIF and keep each year's withdrawals inside a ceiling, the greater of twice the RRIF minimum and 10% of the fund's January 1 value, and the treaty cuts the withholding to 15%. This calculator computes your exact ceiling, tests your planned withdrawal against it, and compares the two routes year by year. It's an estimate of the Canadian withholding for planning, not tax advice for your specific situation.
| Year | Age | Jan 1 value | Minimum | Ceiling | Withdrawn | Withheld |
|---|
Shaded rows are years where the planned withdrawal tops that year's ceiling; the amount above the ceiling is priced at 25% (structured as separate payments, see the note below the calculator).
Assumptions this comparison makes: a fund set up after 1992, so the standard factor table applies; no annuity contracts held inside the fund; every dollar withdrawn is taxable to you, with nothing transferred to another registered plan; withdrawals happen during the year and the assumed return is applied to what's left at year end; the age you enter drives the minimum (the younger-spouse election is real, but it's the age you enter that this tool uses); the year-one ceiling for a new RRIF is 10% of what you transfer in. Where your yearly amount tops the ceiling, the split shown assumes the payments are structured so one lands exactly at the ceiling; a single payment that crosses the ceiling is non-periodic in its entirety and loses the 15% rate on the whole payment, not just the excess. The lump-sum line prices the whole account as one payment, which is what collapsing an RRSP looks like; where the money is already in a RRIF, that year's ceiling amount can be taken as its own payment first and keeps 15% on that slice, so emptying a RRIF in one year costs less than the lump-sum line shows. On the other side, a ten-year illustration that holds the fund at its January 1 value assumes returns exactly offset the withdrawals; this drawdown declines instead, and because the ceiling falls with the balance, the year-one 15% cost does not simply multiply out over the years. And this is Canada's side only: as a US resident you still report each withdrawal on your US return and claim the Canadian tax on Form 1116, which is where the real all-in answer lives, so treat these numbers as the withholding comparison, not the total cost. One practical point the arithmetic can't show you: 15% is a treaty rate rather than the default, so the payer has to be satisfied it applies before using it. Expect the institution to want evidence of your US residency and treaty entitlement on file, on its declaration form or an equivalent, and to withhold the statutory 25% until it has that. The full guide walks both sides.
The conversion-and-ceiling sequence for a US resident: the steps, the forms, and the traps that cost 10 points of withholding.
This tool provides general information and rough estimates only, not tax advice for your situation. Methodology checked against the statutes, regulation and treaty text linked above; rules current to the 2026 filing year.
The Cross-Border Assessment is a fixed $249. You get a written, CPA-prepared read of your RRSP position, both sides of the border, before anything moves.
See the $249 assessment