PRPP withdrawals

While the Income Tax Act places no restrictions on withdrawing funds from your PRPP account at any time, it does place limits on the credits available to you depending on your age when you receive payments. For example, if you receive payments from your PRPP before you are 65 years of age, you will not be eligible for pension income splitting or the pension income amount.

The Pooled Registered Pension Plans Act limits the distributions (withdrawals) that you can make to ensure that your PRPP funds are available for your retirement. Similar to other RPPs, the funds in your PRPP are generally “locked-in” and cannot be withdrawn before you retire from employment.

Under certain circumstances, withdrawals can be made. For more information, see PRPP life events or go to the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions Canada.

Note

If the PRPP funds are directly transferred from one registered plan to another, we consider this to be a transfer of funds and not a withdrawal. For more information, see PRPP transfers.

Impact on other federal benefits or credits

When a member receives an amount from a PRPP, they must include it on their income tax and benefit return in the year they receive it. Since benefits such as old age security (OAS) or guaranteed income supplements (GIS) are calculated on the individual's income reported on their income tax and benefit return each year, these benefits may be reduced accordingly.

Tax Tip

Funds in a PRPP can be directly transferred by the PRPP administrator to another registered plan on a tax-free basis. This will not impact other federal benefits and credits since the funds would not have to be included as income on an income tax and benefit return.

For more information, see Transferring.

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