Can an RRSP Contribution Made Just Before Death Still Be Deducted?

Executors often find a recent RRSP contribution receipt among a deceased person's papers and aren't sure what to do with it. The question of an RRSP contribution deceased final return deduction comes up more often than people expect — especially when someone contributed to their RRSP not long before they passed away.

The short answer is that the ordinary RRSP deduction rules still generally apply, but there are a few wrinkles executors need to watch for. This article walks through how it typically works.

The General Rule: Contributions Follow the Normal Deduction Rules

A contribution made to an RRSP while the person was alive is generally deductible the same way it would be for anyone else — subject to the contributor having enough available contribution room. Death doesn't retroactively undo a contribution that was validly made beforehand. The deduction can typically be claimed:

• On the deceased's final (terminal) return for the year of death, or
• Carried forward and claimed on a return for a later year, if the deceased had unused contribution room and the executor chooses not to claim it all in the year of death.

The key constraint is the same one that applies to any taxpayer: the deduction can't exceed the contributor's available RRSP contribution room at the time. An executor administering the estate needs to establish what that room actually was.

How an Executor Confirms Available Contribution Room

Since the deceased can no longer confirm this directly, the executor typically needs to reconstruct it from the available records:

1. Locate the deceased's most recent Notice of Assessment, which normally shows RRSP contribution room carried forward from CRA's own calculation.
2. Check for any contributions already made earlier in the same year that would reduce the room still available.
3. Confirm the contribution receipt itself — the amount, the date, and whose RRSP it went into (the deceased's own plan, or a spousal RRSP).
4. Verify there's no over-contribution — if the contribution exceeded available room, different rules apply and professional advice is important.

CRA's contribution room figures change based on each person's income and prior contributions, so an executor should not assume a contribution was within room just because it seems reasonable — verifying against the actual Notice of Assessment matters.

Special Situations Executors Run Into

Spousal RRSP Contributions

If the deceased contributed to a spousal RRSP — a plan registered in their spouse's or common-law partner's name — shortly before death, the deduction is generally still claimed by the deceased (the contributor), not the spouse, following the normal spousal RRSP rules. The spouse remains the annuitant of their own plan; the deceased's estate simply claims the deduction the contributor was entitled to.

A Contribution That Turns Out to Exceed Available Room

Occasionally, an executor discovers that a contribution made shortly before death pushed the deceased over their available room — perhaps because the person's income for the year was lower than expected, reducing the room CRA would otherwise have allowed. This can trigger separate consequences for over-contributions, which are handled differently from an ordinary deduction question. Get advice before assuming the excess amount can simply be deducted.

What Happens to the RRSP Itself at Death

Separately from the deduction question, the RRSP's value is generally included in the deceased's income in the year of death, unless it rolls over on a tax-deferred basis to a surviving spouse, common-law partner, or certain financially dependent beneficiaries. That is a distinct issue from whether a late contribution can be deducted — executors sometimes conflate the two.

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