# how to calculate RRSP contribution for US dollar account?



## digitalatlas (Jun 6, 2015)

hi,

if i have a questrade RRSP account and want to contribute USD (i'm not even sure if this is possible), how do i find out how much of my contribution room this occupies? does the dollar amount get converted into CAD for the purposes of calculating the contribution, and where do i get this exact number (on the questrade account activity page?).

is this even possible, or am i forced to convert the USD to CAD first, then make the contribution? or does questrade automatically make the conversion?

i already have USD in my questrade RRSP, but the original contributions were made in CAD, and i purchased USD a few years ago when our dollar was stronger. 

thanks!


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## My Own Advisor (Sep 24, 2012)

For Canadian brokerages, RRSP contributions are made in CDN $$ or CDN dollar equivalent. 

You should be able to contact your brokerage, look at any online RRSP statements or look at previous year's T1 CRA tax files to understand your RRSP contributions made; as some examples.


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## vi123 (Oct 29, 2015)

digitalatlas said:


> hi,
> 
> if i have a questrade RRSP account and want to contribute USD (i'm not even sure if this is possible), how do i find out how much of my contribution room this occupies? does the dollar amount get converted into CAD for the purposes of calculating the contribution, and where do i get this exact number (on the questrade account activity page?).
> 
> ...


You can make contributions in USD. When you do this at RBC, they use the CRA exchange rate from the previous day to calculate your contribution in CAD terms. Just check with your brokerage.


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## Eclectic12 (Oct 20, 2010)

digitalatlas said:


> ... if i have a questrade RRSP account and want to contribute USD (i'm not even sure if this is possible), how do i find out how much of my contribution room this occupies? ...


I would expect the brokerage to produces an RRSP contribution slip in CAD. You can phone them to confirm this.

If not, I believe for stocks that the BoC rate on the day of the transaction can be used for ACB calculations so likely this same number can also be used for RRSP contributions.


When I googled, TD responded to a similar question that they used their client buy USD rate of the day of the contribution (likely higher than the BoC rate).

You may want to call CRA to see if you can override to this to the BoC rate (assuming questrade confirms they will use their buy rate) as the same USD go into the RRSP but the higher conversion rate is going to use up more of your RRSP contribution room than the BoC rate.


Cheers

Cheers


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