The OAS clawback explained

Old Age Security is the pension you get for having lived in Canada. Unlike CPP, you do not contribute to it and you do not earn it through work. But above a certain income, the government takes some of it back — and above a higher one, it takes all of it.

The official name is the Old Age Security pension recovery tax. Everyone calls it the clawback.

The rule in one line

Above the year's threshold, 15 cents of every additional dollar of net world income is recovered from the pension.

That is it. It is not a bracket system, it is not progressive beyond that single rate, and it applies from the first dollar over.

For the 2025 income year, the threshold was $93,454. Someone with $100,000 of net world income was $6,546 over, and 15% of that is $981.90 recovered.

The part that catches people out

The recovery is not taken from the year you earned the income. It is taken from the pension paid in the following July to June.

Income year	Recovery period	Recovery starts at	Nothing left at (65–74)	Nothing left at (75+)
2024	July 2025 – June 2026	$90,997	$148,451	$154,196
2025	July 2026 – June 2027	$93,454	$152,062	$157,923
2026	July 2027 – June 2028	$95,323	$155,109	$161,088

So a single unusual year — a property sale, a large RRIF withdrawal, a severance payment — is felt up to eighteen months later, by which time the cause is easy to forget and impossible to change.

The 2026 figures are Service Canada's own estimates until October each year, when they are finalised.

Move the income slider and watch where it lands.

Two thresholds, not one

The table has a second column for a reason. There is a minimum threshold where recovery starts, and a maximum where the entire pension has been taken back. Between them, some of the pension survives. Above the maximum, none does.

The upper threshold is higher for people 75 and over, because the OAS pension itself is higher for that group — there is simply more of it to recover.

How it is actually collected

Once the Canada Revenue Agency knows the income, the estimated repayment is divided by twelve and deducted monthly from the pension payments rather than billed as a lump sum. A letter explains the deduction before it begins.

For anyone living outside Canada, there is a separate return — the Old Age Security Return of Income — which must reach the CRA by April 30. Miss it, and OAS payments stop in July until it arrives.

What "net world income" means

It is income from everywhere, not just from Canada, and it is measured before the OAS repayment itself is deducted. The things that most often push someone over are not salary — by this stage there usually isn't one — but:

• RRIF withdrawals, which are fully taxable and have a minimum that rises every year
• Capital gains realised in a single year
• Pension income, CPP, and any employment that continues
• Investment income held outside registered accounts

Which is why people encountering this for the first time are often surprised: nothing about their lifestyle changed, but one transaction did.

Sources (Government of Canada)

Read directly on September 21, 2026:

• Old Age Security pension recovery tax — the 15% rate, the worked example, the full threshold table for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 income years, the monthly deduction mechanism and the April 30 return deadline for non-residents.
• Old Age Security: do you qualify — the residency requirements that decide the pension being recovered in the first place.

Thresholds are adjusted annually and the estimates for the current year are finalised each October, so check the table above against the source before relying on it.