Methodology: every figure, and how confident we are

Every number this calculator uses is listed on this page, with how confident we are in it and where it came from. Nothing is hidden behind “trust us”.

This is a calculator, not financial advice. It produces estimates for planning. It is not a tax return, not a payroll system, and not a substitute for an accountant or a licensed advisor. If you need an exact figure for a filing or a legal purpose, use the CRA’s own tools or talk to a professional.

What it is: a model built carefully, checked against primary figures, and corrected in public when it is wrong. The section on known gaps is the honest part. It lists what the model does not yet do, including a bug found and fixed the day before this page was written.

How confident we are in each number

Each figure carries a confidence tier, set in the code itself rather than on this page. This page is generated from those tiers, so it cannot claim a confidence the engine does not actually record.

On sourcing, precisely. Government figures were confirmed against the published pages of canada.ca and Retraite Québec, then cross-checked against independent sources reproducing the same tables. They were not retrieved by automated request, because both sites refuse those. So the honest description is confirmed and cross-checked, not CRA-sourced. That is why the tier on most figures here reads “cross-checked” rather than “published CRA figure”.

A worked example. The maximum OAS for ages 65 to 74 in the current quarter is $751.97. canada.ca states the amount for 75 and over in the same quarter as $827.17, and that rate is exactly 10% higher by statute. $827.17 divided by 1.10 gives $751.97, and $751.97 times 1.10 gives $827.17. The published figure and the derived one reconcile to the cent. Two independent routes to the same number are stronger evidence than one citation, and that is the standard applied throughout.

Precision follows confidence. Where a figure is estimated rather than confirmed, results derived from it are rounded to the nearest $100 instead of shown to the dollar. Printing $12,519 from data that is only good to plus or minus $400 is its own kind of dishonesty.

What the ratings mean

• CRA figurePublished CRA figure
• Cross-checkedPublished figure, cross-checked
• CalibratedCalibrated to an independent calculator
• EstimatedEstimated, not yet sourced
• Set in statuteFixed in legislation, so there is nothing to source.
• AssumptionOur assumption, and adjustable in the tool.
• Not a figureA descriptive label rather than a number.

Every figure the engine uses

Generated directly from the calculator’s source, so this list cannot fall out of step with the tool.

What comes off your paycheque

Federal tax, provincial tax and the payroll contributions. These drive the take-home pay figure and everything built on top of it.

• Federal tax bracketsCA_FED_BRACKETS
  14% / 20.5% / 26% / 29% / 33%
  Cross-checked

  Five bands for 2026.

• Federal credit rateCA_CREDIT_RATE
  14.00%
  Cross-checked

  The rate non-refundable credits are valued at.

• Default inflation assumptionDEFAULT_INFLATION
  2.50%
  Assumption

  An assumption rather than a published rate, and adjustable in the tool.

• Canada employment amountCA_EMPLOYMENT_AMOUNT
  in engine
  CRA figure

  A credit on the first slice of employment income.

• Federal basic personal amountCA_FED_BPA
  in engine
  CRA figure

  Phases down at higher incomes.

• Spouse or common-law amountCA_SPOUSE_AMOUNT
  in engine
  CRA figure
• Northwest Territories cost-of-living offsetNT_COST_OF_LIVING
  in engine
  Estimated
• Nunavut cost-of-living offsetNU_COST_OF_LIVING
  in engine
  Cross-checked
• Quebec federal abatementQC_ABATEMENT
  in engine
  Cross-checked

  Reduces federal tax payable for Quebec residents. Reconciled three ways against a published calculator.

Retirement benefits

CPP, QPP and OAS. These are the figures the retirement projection starts from, and every one of them is editable if you know your real number.

• Average new CPP at 65CPP_AVG
  $925
  Cross-checked

  January 2026. The QPP average is not published anywhere we can reach, so this figure stands in for Quebec and the tool says so on screen.

• Maximum CPP or QPP at 65CPP_MAX
  $1,508
  Cross-checked

  $1,507.65 a month. The QPP maximum is identical by design.

• OAS increase at 75OAS_75_UPLIFT
  +10%
  Set in statute

  Statutory, so the ratio is exact even though the dollar figures move quarterly.

• Average OASOAS_AVG
  $713
  Estimated

  No longer used as a default. See the note on OAS below.

• Years of residency for full OASOAS_FULL_RESIDENCY_YEARS
  40 years
  Set in statute

  Anything less is prorated in fortieths.

• Maximum OAS, ages 65 to 74OAS_MAX
  $752
  Cross-checked

  Re-indexed quarterly. See the note on OAS below.

• Maximum OAS, ages 75 and overOAS_MAX_75
  827
  Cross-checked

  Exactly 10% higher by statute.

• Quarter the OAS figures come fromOAS_QUARTER
  July–September 2026
  Not a figure
• Age amountCA_AGE_AMOUNT
  in engine
  CRA figure

  A credit from 65, reduced at higher incomes.

• Pension income amountCA_PENSION_AMOUNT
  in engine
  CRA figure
• OAS recovery tax (clawback)OAS_RECOVERY
  in engine
  Cross-checked

  2026 tax year. Applied per person and capped at the OAS actually received.

Contribution room

The annual and lifetime limits for registered accounts.

• FHSA annual limitFHSA_ANNUAL
  $8,000
  Cross-checked
• FHSA lifetime limitFHSA_LIFETIME
  $40,000
  Cross-checked
• RRSP annual maximumRRSP_MAX
  $33,810
  Cross-checked

  Up from $32,490 in 2025.

• RRSP accrual rateRRSP_RATE
  18.00%
  Cross-checked

  As a percentage of earned income.

• TFSA annual limitTFSA_ANNUAL
  $7,000
  Cross-checked

Provinces and territories

All ten provinces and all three territories, each with its own brackets and basic personal amount.

• AB – Alberta
  $22,769
  Cross-checked

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• BC – British Columbia
  $13,216
  Cross-checked

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• MB – Manitoba
  $15,780
  Cross-checked

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• NB – New Brunswick
  $13,664
  Cross-checked

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• NL – Newfoundland
  $13,096
  Calibrated

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• NS – Nova Scotia
  $11,926
  Calibrated

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• ON – Ontario
  $12,989
  Cross-checked

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• PE – PEI
  $14,997
  Calibrated

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• QC – Quebec
  $18,952
  Cross-checked

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• SK – Saskatchewan
  $20,381
  Cross-checked

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• YT – Yukon
  $17,952
  Calibrated

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• NT – Northwest Territories
  $18,198
  Cross-checked

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

• NU – Nunavut
  $19,659
  Cross-checked

  Basic personal amount. Brackets sourced separately.

A note on OAS

OAS is the only figure here that re-indexes quarterly. Everything else moves once a year, which means OAS can go stale on its own while nothing else does. So it is always shown with the quarter it came from.

It is also the one benefit that does not depend on your earnings at all. It scales only with years of Canadian residency after 18: forty years or more earns the maximum, and less is prorated in fortieths. The tool therefore defaults to the maximum rather than an average. Defaulting to an average quietly understated most people’s retirement income, which inflated the savings they appeared to need.

What we deliberately simplify

• It models one person with employment income. Self-employment, rental and dividend income, and union dues are not modelled.
• It applies simplified averaging rather than line-by-line return math, and does not claim the full set of credits and deductions a real return can. It will not match your T4 to the dollar.
• The effective tax rate includes CPP and EI. That is a defensible simplification for “what actually leaves my paycheque”, but CPP is deferred compensation rather than tax, so the figure is not comparable to a pure income-tax rate.
• Retirement projections assume a constant real return. Real markets deliver good decades and bad ones, in an order nobody gets to choose.

Known gaps

Published deliberately. A gap you can read about is worth more than one you find in the results.

• No RRIF minimum withdrawals at 71. The model does not yet force the CRA minimum withdrawal schedule once an RRSP converts to a RRIF. For plans running well past 71, this understates taxable income in later years.
• CPP is not reduced for a short contribution history. Someone retiring at 45 has roughly twenty fewer contribution years and will not receive the average benefit, but the model currently hands them the average anyway. That makes early-retirement projections optimistic. It is the next thing being fixed.
• The QPP average benefit is unknown to us. Retraite Québec does not publish it anywhere we could reach. Quebec users see the CPP average as a stand-in, labelled as such in the tool. If you know the real figure, please send it.
• Fixed on 26 August 2026: a parsing bug in custom benefit amounts. Typing a CPP estimate of $1,000 or more stored it with a thousands separator, which one part of the model read as only the digits before the comma. The retirement tab showed it correctly while the summary showed roughly a thousandth of it. Found in an internal audit, fixed and deployed the same day. If your summary looked implausibly low before that date, this was why.

Where this model does more work

Not a sales pitch. These are the specific places this model does more work than a simpler one, and each is checkable.

• Quebec is modelled properly, not relabelled. QPP instead of CPP at its own higher rate, the QPIP premium, the reduced federal EI rate that exists because QPIP covers parental benefits, and the 16.5% federal abatement.
• CPP contributions are split by tax treatment. The base portion generates a non-refundable credit, while the enhanced portion and CPP2 are deducted from income instead. These are genuinely different mechanisms.
• Pension splitting is optimised, not assumed. The model searches the 0 to 50% range for the split that minimises combined household tax, which is not always the maximum transfer once credits and clawbacks bite.
• The OAS clawback is capped at the OAS actually received, and tested per person rather than on household income.
• The 10% OAS increase at 75 is modelled, so late-retirement income is not flat for life.
• Benefit math has one implementation. The retirement and summary views call the same function. They did not always, and that difference is what caused the bug listed above.