# Tax for seniors and retirees: an overview

> What changes at tax time when you retire or turn 65: taxable pensions, the age and pension amounts, pension splitting, the OAS clawback and paying tax.

- Web page: https://taxnotes.ca/guides/seniors-and-retirement/
- For: Everyone · Topic: Retiring
- Last reviewed: 2026-10-10

Retiring changes where your income comes from, not whether it's taxed: Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Old Age Security (OAS) and other pension income are generally taxable. Turning 65 also opens up credits that lower your tax, and the OAS clawback is an income test to watch.

## Your retirement income is taxable

In retirement, income often comes from several places at once: CPP or the Quebec Pension Plan (QPP), OAS, other pensions, investments or rent.

The catch is that tax isn't always taken off at the source:

- **CPP and OAS:** tax isn't deducted unless you ask for it.
- **Pensions from more than one source:** the total tax withheld may not cover the tax you owe.
- **Investment, rental or some pension income:** you may need to pay [tax by instalments](https://taxnotes.ca/guides/tax-instalments/) during the year.

To avoid a surprise bill, you can ask Service Canada to withhold tax from CPP and OAS, and review the withholding on your other pensions. For timing your public pensions, see [when to start CPP and OAS](https://taxnotes.ca/guides/when-to-start-cpp-and-oas/); for retirement savings, see [converting your RRSP to a RRIF](https://taxnotes.ca/guides/rrsp-to-rrif/).

## The age amount

If you're 65 or older on December 31, you can claim the federal age amount. For 2025 it's $9,028 if your net income is $45,522 or less. Above that it shrinks as your income rises, and it's gone at higher incomes; a chart on the federal worksheet works it out.

If you don't need all of your age amount to bring your tax to zero, you may be able to transfer the unused part to your spouse or common-law partner (or claim theirs). Provinces and territories have their own age amounts; see our [personal credits table](https://taxnotes.ca/rates/personal-credits/).

## The pension income amount

You can claim a federal pension income amount of up to $2,000 on eligible pension income. At any age, that includes life annuity payments from a pension plan. From 65, it also includes RRIF payments (including life income funds) and RRSP annuity payments. OAS and CPP or QPP payments are not eligible pension income.

## Pension income splitting

If you have a spouse or common-law partner, you can jointly elect to report up to half of your eligible pension income on their return. When one of you has a higher income, this can lower your combined tax, and it can let both of you use the pension income amount. Splitting changes each person's net income, which can affect the age amount and the OAS clawback for each of you. See [pension income splitting](https://taxnotes.ca/guides/pension-income-splitting/).

## The OAS clawback

If your 2025 net income is above $93,454, you repay part or all of your OAS pension: 15% of the income above that line, up to the full pension. Service Canada also takes this "recovery tax" off monthly OAS payments, based on your income from an earlier year: 2025 income sets the deductions from July 2026 to June 2027. The [registered plans table](https://taxnotes.ca/rates/registered-plans/) shows the threshold by year.

Because the test uses your own net income, pension income splitting can help: it lowers the net income of the spouse who transfers pension income.

## Other credits to check

The CRA points adults 65 and older to several other claims:

- medical expenses, including attendant care
- home accessibility expenses, for renovations that make a home more accessible
- the disability tax credit and the Canada caregiver credit, if you or someone you support has an impairment
- donations to registered charities

See [credits for caregivers](https://taxnotes.ca/guides/caregiver-credits/) and [the disability tax credit](https://taxnotes.ca/guides/disability-tax-credit/).

## Keep filing every year

Even if you owe no tax, file every year. The CRA uses your return to work out benefit and credit payments, and they can stop if you don't file. The deadline is April 30, or June 15 if you or your spouse are self-employed. In Quebec, you also file a provincial return with Revenu Québec.

## In Quebec

Quebec's return has its own amounts for seniors, worked out together on Schedule B:

- **Age amount:** $3,906 for 2025 if you were 65 or older on December 31 (your spouse can also qualify).
- **Amount for a person living alone:** $2,128 if you lived alone all year (with some exceptions for children and students).
- **Amount for retirement income:** up to $3,470, based on certain retirement income you or your spouse report. OAS, QPP and CPP pensions don't count.

These amounts can be reduced based on your family income. For Quebec's rules on splitting retirement income, see [pension income splitting](https://taxnotes.ca/guides/pension-income-splitting/).

## Sources

1. [Adults 65 years and older and the CRA](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/segments/changes-your-taxes-when-you-retire-turn-65-years-old.html) (canada.ca)
2. [Line 30100 – Age amount](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/about-your-tax-return/tax-return/completing-a-tax-return/deductions-credits-expenses/line-30100-amount.html) (canada.ca)
3. [Pension income splitting (eligible pension income and the pension income amount)](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/individuals/topics/pension-income-splitting.html) (canada.ca)
4. [Old Age Security pension recovery tax (Service Canada)](https://www.canada.ca/en/services/benefits/publicpensions/old-age-security/recovery-tax.html) (canada.ca)
5. [Revenu Québec: Age amount, amount for a person living alone and amount for retirement income](https://www.revenuquebec.ca/en/citizens/tax-credits/age-amount-amount-for-a-person-living-alone-and-amount-for-retirement-income/) (revenuquebec.ca)
6. [Revenu Québec: Schedule B 2025, Tax Relief Measures (TP-1.D.B-V)](https://www.revenuquebec.ca/documents/en/formulaires/tp/2025-12/TP-1.D.B-V%282025-12%29.pdf) (revenuquebec.ca)

Tax figures in this guide come from the TaxNotes.ca rates tables (https://taxnotes.ca/rates/), which cite the Canada Revenue Agency and, for Quebec, Revenu Québec.

Last reviewed: October 10, 2026

How to cite: "Tax for seniors and retirees: an overview", TaxNotes.ca, last reviewed 2026-10-10, https://taxnotes.ca/guides/seniors-and-retirement/. For a figure or rule, also cite the official source listed above.

Licence: CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Free to share and adapt with attribution: https://taxnotes.ca/reproducing-our-content/