Is the Tax System Stacked Against Retirees?

Retirees face mandatory RRIF withdrawals, clawbacks, and increased clawbacks due to dividend gross-ups. Many retirees feel that the tax system is stacked against them, including Gordon Pape. Whether this is true or not comes down to expectations.

In Canada, we have a number of programs designed to help subsets of the population financially. The favoured groups tend to be those with low incomes, children, and retirees. With OAS, GIS, and the age credit, it’s hard to argue that retirees have it worse than the typical working person under the age of 65. The only meaningful debate is whether retirees are favoured by an appropriate amount or whether they should be favoured more or less.

In his book Retirement’s Harsh New Realities, Gordon Pape makes a number of points to justify his assertion that the tax system is stacked against retirees. Let’s look at each one in turn.

Taxes on RRIF Withdrawals

Many retirees who saved diligently in their RRSPs for years are unhappy about having to pay taxes on their savings when forced to make RRIF withdrawals. I think the problem is that the tax breaks they received over the years are long forgotten and they come to think of their RRSP and RRIF balances as completely their own money.

The best way to think of your RRSP savings is as partly belonging to the government. If your marginal tax rate in retirement will be 30%, then the savings in your RRSP or RRIF is only 70% yours. Your part and the government’s part grow together, and when you make a withdrawal, the government gets their cut. Few people like paying taxes, but RRSPs are a great deal even when you have to pay taxes on withdrawals.

Mandatory RRIF Withdrawal Amounts

Wealthier retirees are unhappy about how much they are forced to withdraw from their RRIF each year. They complain that they can’t earn enough income to make the withdrawal and must dip into principal.

The RRSP/RRIF system was not designed to allow retirees to maintain their principal indefinitely. People are supposed to draw down their RRIFs as they age. Further, you don’t have to spend the money that you withdraw; a great strategy is to save the amount you don’t need right away in a TFSA. You are required to pay your taxes, but you don’t have to spend your principal.

OAS Clawback

Retirees with high enough incomes get hit with a 15% increase in their marginal tax rate in the form of an OAS clawback. Whether this feels like a hardship comes down to expectations. If you believe you are entitled to this money no matter your income level, then the clawback is maddening. However, we’re not talking about an extra tax on retirees; this is really a question of whether you get a benefit that younger Canadians don’t get. It’s possible to have a discussion about whether retirees should keep more of this benefit, but it’s hardly a case of retirees being singled out unfairly for higher taxes.

Dividend Tax Credit

The taxation of dividends can be confusing. As Pape points out, companies must pay taxes on their earnings before they pay dividends. So, the companies started with a larger sum before giving you your dividend payment. For your taxes, you are treated as though you received the larger sum, and then you’re given credit for the taxes the company paid. The amount you keep in the end is roughly the same as if you received the larger sum and paid regular taxes on it.  (Update: this amount is not exactly the same as I showed in a later post.  See here.)

This last part is worth repeating. The amount you keep after taxes is roughly the same as if you received the larger amount and then paid taxes at your marginal tax rate. Using Pape’s example, if you received $100, and this gets grossed-up to $138, the amount you keep of your $100 is the amount you would have kept if you had earned $138 of regular income.

Pape refers to the extra amount that you never really receive as a “phantom income.” He doesn’t like the way it increases clawbacks and affects other income tested benefits. I say you can’t expect to get credit for the taxes the company paid without using the grossed-up amount as income.

Dividends Paid to Registered Accounts

Pape makes a very good point about dividends earned in registered accounts (RRSP, RRIF, TFSA, etc.). Even though your investments are supposed to grow tax-free, you never get back the taxes paid by the company that gives you dividends. This is an inconsistency in the way that dividends are handled. Of course, this hits all people with registered accounts, not just retirees.

Capital Gains

Pape makes another good point that when you offset capital gains against past capital losses, you still get hit with clawbacks. I don’t see why your taxes owing should be different if you offset capital gains with this year’s capital losses versus last year’s capital losses.

Conclusion

I don’t believe that the tax system is stacked against retirees. In fact, they are favoured over typical taxpayers. I think it makes sense to favour retirees somewhat and we can discuss exactly how much they should be favoured, but this discussion won’t get anywhere if we start from the premise that retirees are being treated unfairly.