All the Numbers

The Lifelong Learning Plan

From the All the Numbers wiki · Savings accounts

The Lifelong Learning Plan (LLP) lets you withdraw from your RRSP without tax to pay for full-time training or education for yourself or your spouse. Like the Home Buyers' Plan, it is a loan from your own savings: the money has to go back.

The rules

  • You may withdraw up to $10,000 in a calendar year and $20,000 in total in one participation period.[1] The plan has existed since 1999.
  • The amount is repaid over ten years in equal minimums, each one tenth of the balance.[1]
  • Repayment normally starts in the fifth year after the first withdrawal, or the second year after the last year the student was enrolled full time, whichever is earlier.[1] The start is set by the student's enrolment: when the person was not a qualifying student for at least three months in each of the two years before, the repayment period begins at the start of the third, fourth or fifth year of the participation period. Otherwise it begins in the sixth calendar year.[2]
  • A repayment is not deductible, as it only puts back money that was already deducted.
  • Whatever is not repaid by the minimum in a year is added to that year's income.[2]

What All the Numbers does

All the Numbers has no Lifelong Learning Plan. It has no field for study, enrolment or an LLP withdrawal, so a plan never includes one.

The engine can calculate it. It accepts withdrawals up to the $10,000 and $20,000 limits before the repayment period starts, works out the start from the student's enrolment facts or takes it as supplied, and repays each year's minimum the same way as a Home Buyers' Plan: from spare cash, then non-registered savings, then the TFSA, never from an RRSP. The part of the minimum those cannot pay is added to income.[3] A withdrawal after repayment has begun, or a second participation period, is refused. After the year the RRSP must mature, at 71, nothing can be repaid, so each later minimum is added to income instead.

See also tuition credits.

See also

  • RRSP room, deduction and withdrawals · Room accrues at 18% of earned income up to the annual cap, contributions earn a deduction refunded the following April, and withdrawals are taxed as income. The plan assumes you start with no carried-forward room unless you say otherwise.
  • The Home Buyers' Plan · Up to $60,000 out of an RRSP, untaxed, for a first home — but it is a loan to yourself, repaid over fifteen years, and a missed repayment is taxed as income that year.
  • The tuition credit · Eligible tuition fees earn a federal credit at the lowest tax rate. Unused credit carries forward without limit, and a student can pass part of the current year's credit to a spouse or parent. All the Numbers does not ask for tuition, so plans do not include it.

References

  1. ↑CRA Guide RC4112, Lifelong Learning Plan · Lifelong Learning Plan: up to $10,000 per calendar year and $20,000 total per participation; repaid over 10 years in equal minimums (1/10 of the balance), starting the earlier of the 5th year after the first withdrawal or the 2nd year after the last year the student was enrolled full time; LLP withdrawals possible since 1999 · See the source · effective 1999-01-01
  2. ↑ITA 146.02(1) "repayment period" (a)(i)–(iv), "eligible amount" (c)–(f), 146.02(3)–(4) · LLP repayment period starts at the beginning of the 3rd/4th/5th year of the participation period when the designated person was not a qualifying student (≥ 3 months) in each of the two preceding years, otherwise the sixth calendar year; ten equal repayments; shortfall is income · See the source · effective 1999-01-01
  3. ↑Our convention: a disciplined household repays the minimum (Income Tax Act s. 146.01(3), 146.02(3) designated repayments; s. 146.01(4), 146.02(4) the shortfall is income) · Each year the Home Buyers' Plan (and Lifelong Learning Plan) minimum is repaid into the participant's own RRSP in December (November in the year they turn 71, before the RRSP becomes a RRIF), paid from the month's spare cash, then non-registered savings, then the TFSA, in the household's withdrawal order; an RRSP or RRIF is never drawn to repay; only the part those cannot fund is added to income. Nothing above the minimum is repaid · effective 2026-10-14