The deadline to contribute to your Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP) for the 2024 tax year was March 3, 2025. If you contributed to your RRSP by the deadline, congratulations! This article might not be for you.
But if you’re one of the Canadians who meant to contribute and forgot, or didn’t quite meet your savings goals this year, don’t fret.
Whatever the reason for not contributing to your RRSP, here’s what missing the deadline means for your 2024 tax return — and some things to think about for the year ahead.
Remind me: What is an RRSP?
First things first: An RRSP is a savings plan that is registered with the federal government. You and your spouse/common-law partner can contribute to the plan, depending on the type of plan you have. It is designed to help you save for retirement by allowing your investments to grow tax-deferred for as long as the investments remain in the plan.
You can hold a variety of investments within an RRSP, including Guaranteed Investment Certificates (GICs), and Mutual Funds.
What’s more, qualifying RRSP contributions are deductible from your taxable income, which may help you reduce your tax bill.
What happens to my RRSP contribution room if I missed the deadline?
The amount of money you can add to your RRSP each year depends on what you earned the year before. The contribution limit is 18% of your earned income, up to a maximum of $31,560 for the 2024 tax year, subject to certain adjustments. For the 2025 tax year, the maximum contribution is $32,490.
Even if you missed the RRSP deadline, you won’t lose the contribution room you earned for 2024. Any unused contribution room is simply carried over to the next year. If you want to check exactly how much contribution room you have, look at the bottom of your Notice of Assessment from the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) or log into your account on the CRA website.
How do RRSP contributions affect tax returns?
On top of being a way to save for retirement, an RRSP contribution is tax deductible. That means it could lower your taxable income for the year, which may result in lowering the amount of tax you need to pay or potentially result in a tax refund. If you didn’t contribute to your RRSP for the 2024 tax year, you may have missed out on a refund or smaller tax bill for 2024.
You can still contribute funds to your RRSP after the deadline, and don’t fret, you may be able to claim those 2025 contributions for the 2025 tax year.
Making monthly deposits vs. a lump sum
Some people make lump sum contributions to their RRSP before the annual deadline. But if it feels like too much of a financial stretch to come up with a lump sum RRSP contribution before the annual deadline, consider depositing a smaller amount of money into your RRSP each month.
Making monthly contributions might feel more manageable for your household budget. You also won’t be rushing to meet the deadline next March because you’ll have been consistently contributing all year long.
To help make regular contributions, you might consider setting up an automatic recurring deposit into your RRSP so you don’t have to worry about making manual ones.
Consider contributing to a TFSA
There’s no deadline for contributing to your Tax-Free Savings Account (TFSA), however contributions are not tax-deductible. Every account holder over the age of 18 gets more contribution room on January 1 each year. Be careful of the contribution limits in the TFSA. If you overcontribute to your TFSA, you'll face a penalty tax of 1% per month on the excess amount, based on the highest excess amount in the month, for each month the excess remains in your account.
The contribution room is cumulative, and you won’t lose it if you choose not to contribute to your TFSA this year
Investment gains held in a TFSA are generally tax-free so you won’t pay taxes on future withdrawals.
While both the RRSP and TFSA can be used to save for retirement, the TFSA is a bit more flexible when it comes to withdrawing funds, as you can withdraw tax-free. With RRSPs, withdrawals do not replenish contribution room, but with a TFSA, withdrawals do replenish contribution room in the following calendar year.
With some exceptions, like a qualifying home purchase under the Home Buyers’ Plan (HBP), or an educational withdrawal under the Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP), withdrawing money from your RRSP before retirement may result in a larger tax bill compared to withdrawing during retirement years, since you’ll likely be taxed at a higher rate during working years than you would at retirement. (You can read more about tax brackets and marginal tax rates here.)
Find out what other tax deductions apply to you
RRSP contributions are one way to reduce your taxable income, but there are other things to consider, too.
If you’re hoping to maximize your tax deductions for your 2024 return, remember that childcare, medical expenses, charitable donations, moving expenses and home office expenses are sometimes tax deductible. Take a look at the CRA's full list of eligible deductions. For more information, consider speaking with a tax advisor to learn more about how these may be applicable to you.
Speak with a TD Personal Banker
If you’re unsure about how much you can allocate to an RRSP, consider sitting down with a TD Personal Banker so you can review your income, bills, household budget, and goals for retirement.
Personal Bankers can use TD Goal Builder to create an action plan and roadmap that reflect your financial goals — perhaps your priority is saving for a home purchase instead of retirement — and give you access to a dashboard where you can keep tabs on your progress towards each goal.