# RRSP / Spousal RRSP swap



## none (Jan 15, 2013)

I'm in the lowest tax bracket (<37K) but my wife is fairly high (>85K). My wife also has a great pension that ends up contributing 18% of her salary to her person so her retirement is all but taken care of. I point that out as she'll still get 12% RRSP room going forward.

Although I expect to make a fair bit more once I graduate from school could I withdraw say 10K from my RRSP - and pay tax on it (~20%) give that money to my spouse ($8000) who could put it in a spousal RRSP for me and claim a 34% tax break and put in (1.34*8000) = $10,729.

I think the rule is I couldn't touch the money for 2 years but it's for retirement so I don't care.

Does this make sense? Am I missing something? 7% guaranteed return for an hour of paper work seems worth it to me.

Thank you


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## cldellow (Feb 16, 2012)

Why not have her contribute $8,000 to a spousal RRSP for you with her own money?

Once you take the money out of your RRSP, you've lost the contribution room forever. That may not be a big deal; but it's worth thinking about.


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## none (Jan 15, 2013)

I restarted this thread in the taxation forum so this is a little redundant.

We have scads of RRSP room and because my wife has a pension, doesn't plan on using at least 10% of her space per year. basically i'd be 'selling' 10K worth of space for $700. I don't really see RRSP room as that valuable - 18% of your salary is quite a bit (far more than most people use)


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