OAS Payments: 2022 OAS Deposit Dates

Dividend Earner

Dividend Earner

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You’ve made it and now you are planning your retirement income but there is a bunch of tax implications to consider starting with understanding the old age security (OAS) pension. 

As soon as you reach 65 years old, you are eligible to receive OAS even if you are still employed or have never worked. The word ‘eligible‘ is really important here as you can delay your payments for higher payments later on (the income tax decision point).

OAS Payments do increase over time and are adjusted quarterly in January, April, July, and October for an average annual growth of 1.77%.

No, the increase will not keep up with inflation even though it’s attempting to. Inflation differs for everyone based on your spending. Maket sure not to rely on the increases to keep up with inflation.

The payment for the last quarter of 2021 is at $666.83. See the graph below on the growth you can expect over the years and the monthly details further down.

The Guaranteed Income Supplement is another program that you can enrol in at the same time as you enrolled with the OAS Pension.

OAS Quick Facts

There is a lot of details below but here are quick answers to the most common questions.

What is the maximum OAS for 2022?

The maximum monthly OAS payment for 2021 is $666.83 for a total annual pension income of $8,001.96.

Will OAS benefits increase?

OAS benefits increase every year to take into account inflation. The average increase over the past 10 years has been 1.7%.

Should I defer OAS until 70 years of age?

It’s really personal to your situation and generally, if you have a pension and a retirement plan, the numbers usually point to deferring until later but you really need to do the math. The benefit is higher when deferring CPP until you are 70.

Can I collect OAS while working?

The short answer is yes you can. The long answer is that you need to figure out what is the most optimal way to receive your OAS from a tax perspective.

Can I collect OAS while living abroad?

Only under certain conditions but generally, you need to be living in Canada for at least 6 months in order to be eligible for OAS. 

Eligibility for OAS Pension

For OAS, the eligibility is pretty simple and depends on whether you live in Canada or not when you r3each 65 years old.

If you are living in Canada, you must:

  • be 65 years old or older
  • be a Canadian citizen or a legal resident at the time your OAS pension application is approved
  • have resided in Canada for at least 10 years since the age of 18

If you are living outside Canada, you must:

  • be 65 years old or older
  • have been a Canadian citizen or a legal resident of Canada on the day before you left Canada
  • have resided in Canada for at least 20 years since the age of 18

OAS Payments for 2022

How much OAS benefits you can receive is a little complicated and each situation is different.

  • The maximum monthly OAS payments you can get in 2022 is $666.83.
  • To receive any OAS payments, you need an annual income lower than $134,253.

To dive into the details, your OAS payments are based on how long you have lived in Canada after you turned 18. If you have been in Canada for less than 40 years, your payments will be reduced by 1/40 for each year. Another way to calculate it is to use the following formula.

Your OAS payment = Full OAS Payment * (Years in Canada / 40)

If your income is higher than $79,054 (2020), you may have to repay part or your entire Old Age Security pension. It’s called a recovery tax when you have to pay back part, or all, of your OAS payments, or OAS Clawbacks.

For your awareness, OAS payment rates are reviewed in January, April, July and October to ensure they reflect cost of living increases, as measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

  • If the cost of living goes up, your monthly payment rates will increase.
  • If the cost of living goes down, your monthly payment rates will not decrease.

The payment dates for OAS usually are towards the end of the month and it can start on the first month after you turn 65 if your application is all set and processed.

wdt_ID Year Maximum Monthly Benefits Maximum Annual Benefits Growth
1 2011 524.23 6,290.76
2 2012 540.12 6,481.44 3.02
3 2013 546.07 6,552.84 1.10
4 2014 551.54 6,618.48 1.06
5 2015 563.74 6,764.88 2.23
6 2016 570.52 6,846.24 1.18
7 2017 578.53 6,942.36 1.40
8 2018 586.66 7,039.92 1.42
9 2019 601.45 7,217.40 2.50
10 2020 613.53 7,362.36 2.02
11 2021 635.26 7,623.12 1.03
12 2022 666.81 8,001.96 1.04

OAS Payment Dates For 2022

January 27, 2022 May 27, 2022 September 27, 2022
February 24, 2022 June 28, 2022 October 27, 2022
March 29, 2022 July 27, 2022 November 28, 2022
April 27, 2022 August 29, 2022 December 21, 2022

How to Apply for OAS?

Application starts when you turn 64. Your employer may initiate the process on your behalf or you may need to apply. Service Canada may send you a letter when you turn 64 to inform you that you need to apply.

If you are not automatically enrolled, you will need to apply. You can do so online or by filling the necessary form and one key decision you will need to make is if you are delaying your OAS for a larger payment.

When to Start OAS or OAS Deferral Options

During your application, you’ll be asked to choose when you want to start receiving your OAS:

  • Start receiving your OAS pension at age 65.
  • Start receiving your OAS pension at a specific date of your choosing.

However, you need to understand when is the best time which is all about your income expectations from when you turn 65 and onwards.

While you can receive your first Old Age Security pension payment the month after you turn 65, you can receive a higher amount for each month you decide to delay your first payment. You can delay receiving OAS payments until you are 70, or 60 months (5 years) after you turn 65.

The longer you delay, the larger your pension payment will be each month. It’s not magic, you mostly delay getting the money you are due until later which allows you to ensure you can minimize the OAS clawbacks depending on your income.

At this point, if you are still working and earning more than the maximum threshold or the minimum for the OAS recovery tax (or OAS Clawbacks), you need to make a decision.

Between your employment income, your work pension income and your investment income, you need to start extrapolating your income from when you turn 65 until you are 70.

How is OAS Clawback Calculated

The formula is pretty simple and the tax rate is 15% of the income you earn above the minimum threshold.

For example, if the threshold for 2019 is $77,580 and if your income in 2019 was $90,000, then your repayment would be 15% of the difference between $90,000 and $77,580:

$90,000 – $77,580 = $12,420

$12,420 x 0.15 = $1,863

You would have to repay $1,863 for the July 2020 to June 2021 period. Going back to what you receive above, the amount is fixed but you may have to pay taxes so be careful and be aware of potential taxes you may have to pay.

How To Minimize OAS Clawback

As you can see above, what you need to do is minimize the amount of income you report so you can stay under the thresholds or very close to it. To achieve that, you have a number of options.

Maximize your TFSA as withdrawal are completely tax-free. If you can grow a $1M TFSA, you can withdraw from it without paying taxes and reaching the $1M milestone is actually easy if you contribute to your TFSA every year. See the potential TFSA growth table at the bottom.

Income splitting is a way to assign some of your income to your spouse (or vice versa). RRIF, for example, can easily be split but RRSP cannot until it converts to an RRIF so making deposit in your spousal name is something that you need to do much much earlier so that you can withdraw from each account.

Defer OAS / CPP until later. By deferring, you essential push an additional income until later when you may have a lower income. This is why it’s important to understand your future income. However, you need to be careful as the future OAS income will be higher so you need to balance it all.

Use your RRSP contribution room if you have some available. You can contribute to an RRSP until the end of the year in which you turn 71. If you are still employed and receive an income, you can use the contribution room to lower your income and avoid an OAS clawback as long as you don’t put yourself in hardship financially. You can also consider a spousal contribution if it makes sense depending on your spouse’s income.

Last but not least, optimize your investments for income tax purposes. Ensure you have the right investments in the appropriate accounts. For example, GICs and interest income are fully taxable whereas dividends tax and capital gains tax have different advantages.