RESP Withdrawal Calculator

The estimate applies the student's selected-year federal and provincial income tax to the EAP as incremental income. It does not include every non-refundable credit, tuition carryforward or benefit interaction — the tuition tax credit in particular can shelter more of an EAP than this estimate shows. Accumulated income payments to the subscriber follow different tax rules and are covered separately below.

Three kinds of RESP money, taxed three different ways

A promoter can pay money out of an RESP in three ways, and each has its own tax treatment. A return of contributions is simply the subscriber's own after-tax savings coming back — it is never taxed and no slip is issued, whether the promoter pays it to the subscriber or hands it to the beneficiary alongside their EAP. An educational assistance payment (EAP) is built from the CESG, the Canada Learning Bond, any provincial grant and every dollar the plan has earned — the promoter reports it in box 042 of a T4A, and the student includes it as income for the year they receive it. An accumulated income payment (AIP) is what is left of the plan's investment earnings once contributions and any EAP have been separated out, generally paid to the subscriber rather than the student, and it carries its own, harsher tax rule covered further down.

The EAP limit: $8,000 (or $4,000) for the first 13 weeks, then it lifts

During the first 13 consecutive weeks of a qualifying educational program (full-time, post-secondary), the most a student can receive in EAPs is the lesser of $8,000 and their actual costs. A specified educational program (a student aged 16 or over studying part-time) caps the 13-week period ending at the time of payment at $4,000 instead. Once the student has completed 13 consecutive weeks of qualifying full-time enrolment, the dollar limit disappears entirely and EAPs can match real costs for as long as the student keeps qualifying — the $8,000 figure only reappears if there is a 12-month stretch with no 13 consecutive weeks of qualifying enrolment in between. A post-secondary education (PSE) contribution withdrawal sits completely outside this limit, so a promoter can always release extra tax-free contribution room instead of pushing an EAP over the cap. Where genuine first-term costs still exceed the limit, the promoter can ask the Minister of Employment and Social Development, in writing, for a one-off higher EAP.

Grant repayment — what an over-withdrawal or a beneficiary who never enrols costs you

RESP contributions are capped at a lifetime $50,000 per beneficiary; go over that and the excess is taxed at 1% per month until it is withdrawn. Separately, withdrawing contributions while a beneficiary still has grant money attached normally forces a CESG repayment — the only exceptions are a withdrawal to correct an over-contribution of $4,000 or less, or a withdrawal made while the beneficiary is eligible for an EAP. Push an over-contribution withdrawal above $4,000 and the CESG becomes repayable on the entire amount withdrawn, and the grant room used up is not restored. If a beneficiary never pursues post-secondary education at all, the subscriber's own contributions still come back tax-free, but the up-to-$7,200 CESG can only be redirected to a sibling with unused grant room — otherwise it, and any of the up-to-$2,000 Canada Learning Bond that went unused, has to be repaid to the government when the plan is wound up.

Proof of enrolment — what the promoter checks before releasing an EAP

Before paying an EAP, the promoter must obtain proof that the beneficiary is enrolled in a qualifying or specified program at a recognised post-secondary institution, and satisfy itself that the amount requested is a reasonable estimate of the student's education costs — CRA does not require the promoter to collect receipts up front. A student who has just finished or paused their program is not immediately cut off: a beneficiary remains eligible for EAPs for up to six months after enrolment ends, provided the payment would have qualified had it been made immediately before enrolment stopped.

AIP — the accumulated income payment, and its extra 20% tax

A promoter can only pay an AIP once one of three conditions is met: the payment is made after the year containing the RESP's 9th anniversary and every living beneficiary has turned 21 and is no longer EAP-eligible; the payment is made in the year containing the plan's 35th anniversary (40th for a specified, disability-related plan); or every beneficiary has died. CRA can waive the 9-year/age-21 condition where a beneficiary suffers from a severe and prolonged mental impairment that is reasonably expected to prevent them from ever pursuing post-secondary education. Once the first AIP is paid, the RESP itself must be wound up by the end of February of the following year. The payment is then taxed twice: your ordinary income tax under Part I, exactly like any other income, plus a flat additional tax of 20% (12% for Quebec residents) under Part X.5 of the Income Tax Act, calculated separately on Form T1172 and filed with your return.

Rolling the AIP into an RRSP to dodge the 20%

The original subscriber — or, after the original subscriber's death, their surviving spouse or common-law partner if no other subscriber remains — can shelter up to a lifetime $50,000 of AIP from the additional tax by directing it into their own or their spouse's RRSP, PRPP or SPP. That cap is separate from (and simply happens to match the size of) the $50,000 lifetime RESP contribution limit discussed above — the two ceilings track different things. Two conditions both have to hold: you need enough RRSP deduction room to absorb the contribution, and you must contribute it — and deduct it — for the very year you received the AIP, either within that year or in the first 60 days of the next one. Choosing to shift the deduction to an earlier tax year instead, which the normal 60-day RRSP rule would otherwise allow, forfeits the additional-tax relief entirely. Filing Form T1171 with the promoter in advance lets them skip withholding tax on the rolled-over portion, rather than withholding it and waiting for a refund.

Worked example — timing the EAP against the student's own income

A full-time student in Ontario, still inside their first 13 weeks, withdraws an $8,000 EAP (right at the limit) plus a $2,000 tax-free return of contributions. If they have no other income for 2026, the EAP sits entirely below both the federal $16,452 and Ontario $12,989 basic personal amounts — this calculator's engine puts their estimated tax at $0, so the full $10,000 arrives with nothing held back for tax. If that same student already earned $10,000 from a co-op placement or summer job earlier in 2026, the same $8,000 EAP now pushes their combined income above both basic personal amounts, and the engine estimates $216.72 of combined federal and Ontario tax on the withdrawal — still under 3% of the EAP, and before counting whatever tuition tax credit their program generates. Drawing EAPs in years the student's other income is lowest, and leaving heavier income years for later, is what keeps the basic personal amount and tuition credit doing the most work.

Worked example — an AIP with and without the RRSP rollover

CRA's own Form T1172 example: a Manitoba subscriber receives a $16,000 AIP and has $14,000 of RRSP deduction room available. She files Form T1171 so the promoter transfers $14,000 of the AIP directly into her RRSP, and claims that $14,000 as an RRSP deduction for the same year. Only the remaining $2,000 is subject to the additional tax: $2,000 × 20% = $400. She reports the full $16,000 as income and the $400 additional tax, but her RRSP deduction offsets the regular tax on the transferred $14,000 in the same return. Had she instead had no RRSP room at all — or transferred the money but claimed the deduction for a different tax year, which forfeits the relief — the entire $16,000 would be exposed to the additional tax: $16,000 × 20% = $3,200, on top of her regular tax on the same $16,000. The RRSP rollover is the only thing standing between those two outcomes.