RDSP Withdrawal Repayment Calculator
Estimate the government assistance repaid before requesting a DAP or LDAP.
Grants and bonds paid in the preceding 10 years, less repayments.
Grant and bond repayment
$3,000$3 for each $1 withdrawn, up to the holdback amount
Beneficiary receives
$1,000Total reduction in plan
$4,000Estimated balance $46,000
Working out the assistance holdback amount
The holdback figure this calculator asks for is defined in the Canada Disability Savings Regulations: the total Canada Disability Savings Grant and Canada Disability Savings Bond paid into the plan over the preceding 10 years, reduced by any part of that assistance already repaid to Employment and Social Development Canada in respect of the same period. It is not the plan balance, and it is not everything the government has ever paid in. Assistance older than 10 years has aged out and no longer sits behind a withdrawal, which is why a long-established plan can pay out with a small repayment while a plan opened three years ago carries almost every dollar of grant and bond it has received.
Your issuer holds this number and can tell you what it is on the day you ask. If you are estimating it yourself, add up the grant and bond deposits shown on your annual statements for the last 10 calendar years and subtract any repayment already made. ESDC can also confirm the figure directly.
How the proportional repayment is applied
Since 2014, a withdrawal from an RDSP triggers the proportional repayment rule: for each $1 withdrawn, $3 of the grant and bond paid into the plan in the preceding 10 years must be repaid, to a maximum of the assistance holdback amount. That maximum is what makes the two inputs matter independently: three times the withdrawal is the usual answer, but on a plan whose holdback is smaller than three times the payment, the holdback is the answer and the ratio never gets there.
Repayments are attributed to the grants and bonds that make up the holdback in the order they were paid into the plan, oldest first. Two consequences follow. The dollars repaid are gone permanently — the Government of Canada does not reinstate assistance that has been paid back — and the holdback that remains after a repayment is correspondingly smaller, so a second withdrawal in a later year can cost less than the first. ESDC's worked example is a plan holding a $35,000 holdback: a $3,000 withdrawal produces a $9,000 repayment, because $9,000 is the lesser of three times the payment and the holdback.
Before you request the payment
Three checks are worth making with the issuer first. One, the plan must still hold at least the assistance holdback amount after the payment, or the payment cannot be made. Two, not every plan offers lump-sum disability assistance payments at all; some issuers only support lifetime disability assistance payments, which once started must be paid at least annually and must begin by the end of the year the beneficiary turns 60. Three, where the plan is primarily government-assisted — more government grant and bond than private contributions — payments in a year are generally limited to the greater of the lifetime-payment formula and 10% of the plan's fair market value at the start of the year.
Timing is the one lever available. Because the holdback only reaches back 10 years, waiting until an early tranche of grant and bond ages out of the window reduces the cap, and in plans that have been open longer than 10 years there may be no holdback left at all. Deducting a repayment of an amount that was previously included in income is reported on line 23200 of the beneficiary's return.
Official sources
Frequently asked questions
How much grant and bond is repaid on an RDSP withdrawal?
The proportional repayment is $3 for every $1 withdrawn, capped at the assistance holdback amount: grants and bonds paid in the preceding 10 years, less amounts already repaid.
Can repaid RDSP grants and bonds be restored?
No. Grants and bonds repaid because of an RDSP withdrawal cannot be reinstated.
Why was my RDSP withdrawal request refused outright?
A disability assistance payment is not permitted if, after the payment, the fair market value of the property held in the plan would be less than the assistance holdback amount. A young plan that has received large grants and bonds but holds little else can therefore be blocked from paying anything at all until the oldest assistance ages past the 10-year window.
When does the full assistance holdback amount have to be repaid instead of $3 per $1?
The proportional rule covers ordinary withdrawals made after 2013. The older 10-year repayment rule still applies, and takes back the whole assistance holdback amount, when the plan is terminated, when it ceases to be an RDSP, when the beneficiary loses disability tax credit approval before age 60 and the holder closes the plan or withdraws from it, and when the beneficiary dies. Voluntary closure and deregistration are full-repayment events, not proportional ones.
How much of the payment is taxable to the beneficiary?
The part of a disability assistance payment made up of grants, bonds, rolled-over amounts and investment income is taxable; the part representing private contributions is not. The issuer reports the taxable portion in box 131 of a T4A slip and the beneficiary reports it on line 12500. That RDSP income is excluded when income-tested amounts such as the GST/HST credit, the Canada child benefit and the Canada workers benefit are calculated.
Is there any way to withdraw without triggering a repayment?
Only through a specified disability savings plan election, available where a medical doctor or nurse practitioner certifies that the beneficiary is not expected to live longer than five years. Once the election is filed with the issuer, annual withdrawals of up to $10,000 in taxable plan savings plus a pro-rated amount of contributions can be made without repaying grants and bonds — but no further contributions may be made, no new grant or bond is paid, and carry-forward entitlements are lost for those years.