RRSP Deadline 2027: The March 1 Cutoff

Contribute by this date and you may deduct it on the 2026 return you file in spring 2027. The 2026 dollar limit is $33,810.

Why the deadline is 60 days after year end

The RRSP deadline is not an arbitrary date. The rule is the 60th day after the end of the calendar year. Sixty days after 31 December 2026 falls on 1 March 2027, which is a Monday, so there is no shift.

That detail matters more often than you would expect. In some years the 60th day lands on a weekend and the deadline moves to the next business day — the previous year's 60th day, 1 March 2026, fell on a Sunday. Do not assume March 1 is always the date, and do not assume it always shifts. For the 2026 tax year it is Monday, March 1, 2027, full stop.

Treat it as a hard cutoff rather than a target. Transfers between institutions can take several business days, and a contribution is dated when it lands in the RRSP, not when you instruct the transfer. If you are moving money from another bank, start a week early.

The quirk nobody explains: the first 60 days belong to two tax years

A contribution made between 1 January and 1 March 2027 sits in an unusual position. You can deduct it on your 2026 return, or you can report it and carry the deduction forward to 2027 or later. You must report it on the 2026 return either way; what you choose is whether to claim it now.

This is genuinely useful if your income jumps. Someone who earned $60,000 in 2026 but expects $110,000 in 2027 can contribute in February 2027, report it on the 2026 return, and save the deduction for the year it is worth far more. A deduction is worth your marginal rate, so deferring it into a higher-rate year is real money rather than a technicality.

The trade-off is simple: claiming now gives you a refund months sooner, while waiting gives you a bigger one later. If your income is stable, claim it now and stop thinking about it.

How much room you actually have

Dollar limits published by the Canada Revenue Agency.

Your room is 18% of the previous year's earned income, capped at the dollar limit, minus any pension adjustment, plus unused room carried forward. The “income needed” column is simply the limit divided by 18%.

What actually counts as “earned income”

The 18% is applied to earned income, which is a narrower term than total income and catches people out every year. It includes employment income, net self-employment income, net rental income from real property, royalties, research grants and taxable alimony received. CPP disability benefits also count.

It does not include investment income, capital gains, most pension income, OAS or CPP retirement benefits, death benefits, or amounts already sheltered in a registered plan. A retiree living on dividends and pension income generates no new RRSP room at all, however large that income is.

This is why two people with identical total incomes can have very different room. A $120,000 salary creates roughly $21,600 of new room; $120,000 of dividend income creates none. If your income is mostly passive, your contribution capacity comes from carry-forward, not from last year.

Why the limit always looks a year behind

The 2027 RRSP limit of $35,390 is exactly the 2026 money-purchase limit. That is not a coincidence — the RRSP dollar limit deliberately lags the money-purchase limit by one year, so that RRSP savers and members of defined-contribution pension plans get comparable room over time.

The practical consequence: you can see next year's RRSP limit today, because it is already published as this year's money-purchase limit. There is no need to wait for an announcement.

The deadline that has no grace period: age 71

The annual contribution deadline gets 60 extra days. The age-71 deadline does not. You must wind up your RRSP by 31 December of the year you turn 71 — not 60 days later, not by your birthday, but by the end of that calendar year. Most people convert to a RRIF; the alternatives are buying an annuity or taking the whole balance in cash, which is almost always the worst option because the entire amount becomes taxable income at once.

If you still have room and want to use it, make your final contribution before the plan closes in December of that year. Many people lose the last year's room simply by assuming the usual March window applies.

One useful exception: if your spouse or common-law partner is younger than 71, you can keep contributing to a spousal RRSP in their name using your own unused room, right up to the end of the year they turn 71. The deduction is yours; the plan is theirs.

Over-contributing, and the $2,000 cushion

You are allowed to exceed your room by $2,000 over your lifetime without penalty. That cushion is not deductible — it just avoids the fine. Beyond it, CRA charges 1% per month on the excess, for every month it remains in the plan.

Because the penalty is monthly rather than annual, speed matters enormously. An $8,000 over-contribution costs about $60 for one month and roughly $720 if left for a year. If you discover an over-contribution, withdrawing it promptly is usually far cheaper than waiting for CRA to raise it with you.

Five things people get wrong every February

1. Assuming their room is 18% of this year's income. It is 18% of last year's earned income. Your 2026 room was set by what you earned in 2025.

2. Forgetting the pension adjustment. If you are in a workplace pension, a pension adjustment reduces your RRSP room, sometimes to almost nothing. It appears on your T4 and is already reflected on your Notice of Assessment.

3. Ignoring carry-forward. Unused room accumulates indefinitely. Many people have far more room than one year's contribution suggests — check the figure on your most recent Notice of Assessment rather than estimating.

4. Contributing in the last 48 hours. A transfer initiated on 27 February may not settle until after the deadline. The date that counts is when the money arrives in the RRSP.

5. Withdrawing from a spousal RRSP too soon. If your spouse withdraws from a spousal plan within three calendar years of your last contribution to any spousal plan for them, the withdrawal is attributed back to you and taxed in your hands. The rule catches people who treat a spousal RRSP as a shared savings account.

If you miss March 1

Nothing is permanently lost. Unused RRSP room carries forward indefinitely, so a contribution made on 2 March 2027 simply counts toward the 2027 tax year instead of 2026. There is no penalty for missing the date and no expiry on the room.

What you lose is timing. If 2026 was an unusually strong income year — a bonus, a severance payment, a capital gain — the deduction was worth more applied against 2026 than it will be against a normal 2027. That is the real cost of missing the date, and it is the reason the deadline matters more in some years than others.

Using RRSP money for a first home

The Home Buyers' Plan lets a first-time buyer withdraw up to $60,000 from an RRSP tax-free toward a home, repayable over 15 years. A couple can withdraw that amount each.

There is a trap in the timing: funds must generally sit in the RRSP for at least 90 days before withdrawal under the HBP. Contributing in late February and withdrawing in March does not work. If you are planning to combine an RRSP contribution with a home purchase, work backwards from the closing date, and compare it against an FHSA, which has no repayment obligation at all.

RRSP Deadline — Frequently Asked Questions