For couples
Retirement planning for couples
Canada taxes each spouse separately, but the rules give couples room to move: pension income splitting, CPP sharing, spousal RRSPs, and an OAS clawback that is tested per person. Then there is the question most calculators skip: what happens to the household's income when one of you dies. The tools and guides below answer those questions with the government's own figures, each with its source and verified date.
Plan together
Couples retirement planner Both spouses taxed separately, the pension split optimised each year, CPP sharing, the clawback per spouse, RRIF minimums and a survivor scenario, year by year. Retirement planner The flagship planner: will the money last, with market randomness and longevity. How much do we need to retire? Spending, the government benefits a couple can count on, and what the savings have to cover.
Split and share income
Pension income splitting Move up to 50% of eligible pension income on paper with form T1032. Who qualifies, the age-65 rule, what counts. Pension splitting calculator The split that minimises your combined tax this year, all 13 jurisdictions. CPP sharing Both 60+ and living together? Share the CPP earned together through Service Canada. Rules, the worked example, how to apply. CPP sharing calculator Who is paid what after sharing, and the tax and clawback saved. Spousal RRSP Build the lower earner's retirement income while you work. Whose room it uses, the three-year attribution rule, the age-71 perk.
Government benefits as a couple
OAS clawback for couples The recovery tax is per spouse (15% over $93,454 of 2025 income). Six levers, two worked examples. CPP and OAS together When each starts, how they interact, and timing them as a household. When to take CPP Why the higher earner deferring and the lower earner starting early is often the couple's answer. GIS for couples Tested on combined income: $685.56 a month each when both receive OAS, this quarter. The Allowance (60 to 64) For the younger spouse of a GIS recipient, and for low-income widows and widowers aged 60 to 64.
If one of you dies
CPP survivor's pension 60% of the deceased's pension at 65+, capped with your own at $1,531.56 a month in 2026. Why the average is a third of the maximum. CPP death benefit The one-time $2,500 payment: who applies and how long it takes. RRSPs, RRIFs and TFSAs at death The spousal rollover, the TFSA successor holder, and the designations that avoid probate. Estate planning for couples Wills, joint ownership, beneficiary designations and the tax bill at the second death. Power of attorney Who acts for you if you cannot, for property and for personal care.
Good to know
Which couple questions does this site answer with the government's own numbers?
Whether to split pension income and by how much, whether CPP sharing helps, where each spouse sits against the OAS clawback line, what the GIS pays a couple, when each of you should start CPP and OAS, what happens to CPP, OAS and registered accounts when one spouse dies, and whether the household's money lasts. Every page names its source and the date it was verified.
What is the difference between pension income splitting and CPP sharing?
Pension income splitting is a CRA election on the tax return (form T1032) that moves up to 50% of eligible private pension income on paper; CPP and OAS are never eligible. CPP sharing is a Service Canada application that changes who is actually paid part of the CPP earned while you lived together. You can use both; the couples planner applies both every year.
Is the OAS clawback based on our combined income?
No. The recovery tax is assessed on each spouse's own net income, 15% of the amount over $93,454 of 2025 income for payments from July 2026 to June 2027. The GIS, by contrast, is tested on a couple's combined income.
Does RetireSmarter cover Quebec couples?
The tax engine includes Quebec's brackets and the federal abatement, and every CPP page notes that Quebec residents are under the QPP, which has similar but not identical rules, administered by Retraite Québec.
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Live data
Live from the source, refreshed daily
Read every morning from Service Canada, Statistics Canada, the Bank of Canada and the CRA, and again at 11 a.m. ET on weekdays. Published figures only, no estimates.
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