Morgan Ulmer CFP®
Certified Financial Planner® professional
Morgan joined the team in February, 2019 with 8 years of financial planning and financial literacy training under her belt. She is as comfortable working on complex financial planning engagements as she is helping young adults understand budgeting and debt management.
Since 2013, the Government of Canada has phased in a laudable process: auto-enrolling eligible seniors at age 65 for Old Age Security (OAS) payments. Instead of you having to proactively apply for OAS, the government will determine eligibility a month after you turn 64. If eligible, you will get a letter notifying you of automatic enrolment beginning at age 65. And voila! You’re an OAS recipient.
Simplifying access to government benefits should be celebrated and will benefit almost everyone.
Almost.
Working past age 65 is no longer uncommon, and Canadians do so for many reasons. For these working seniors, receiving OAS at 65 may not be desirable and they may want to delay receipt of their OAS benefit. Here’s why:
- Canadians can defer OAS payments to age 70. If you delay receiving your OAS pension, your monthly pension payment will be increased by 0.6 percent for every month you delay receiving it, up to a maximum of 36 percent at age 701.
- Old Age Security begins to be “clawed back” (Service Canada prefers the term pension recovery tax) when total net world income is above a certain amount. For 2019, this amount is $77,580. OAS is recovered at a rate of 15 cents per dollar above this amount, until it is completely clawed back at an income of $125,9372.
- Even if OAS is not clawed back, working seniors are likely in a higher tax bracket than when they retire. This means they’ll pay more tax on their OAS payment than if they waited to collect in a lower income year.
In short, working seniors may lower their taxes, avoid OAS clawback and receive a higher OAS benefit if they delay OAS. Find out more about how to defer OAS here, and speak to a Certified Financial Planner® to find out if delaying OAS is right for you.
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This information is of a general nature and should not be considered professional advice. Its accuracy or completeness is not guaranteed and Queensbury Strategies Inc. assumes no responsibility or liability.
1 As per Old Age Security – Eligibility
