25% tax on RRSP misleading or incorrect?

[geneva]

I have been doing significant research on my wife's upcoming pension plan "rollover" for lack of a better term. I noticed many posts here stating RRSP withdrawals incur a 25% non-resident Canadian Tax. This is somewhat misleading and may be incorrect for most Canadians living in the US. In many cases only 15% should be withheld.

I would like the experts here to help me confirm some information I found. First some background:
My wife is a Canadian Citizen and permanent resident of the US for 10 years. All ties to Canada have been severed for tax purposes long ago and she will be filing form NR-73 to get non-residence status with CRA.

Her BC Pension is giving her a few options.
1. Locked-in RRSP or LRSP
2. Locked-In LIF or LLIF
3. Lump Sum in Cash

Being a non-resident for tax purposes immediately provides for "Exceptions to the Locking-In Requirement for Locked-in RRSPs and LIFs" according to the Financials Institution Commission Website.

If she chooses Option 1, 2 or 3, and withdraws the whole pension then yes, 25% tax applies and US income tax will also apply.

But, if she chooses Option 1 or 2 and receives pension payments then the rate drops to 15%. Can anyone confirm this?

My sources are:
IRS Publication 597
CRA's Non-Resident Tax Calculator

The key is to take payments (currently about 6.5% of the RRSP's Value) instead of a larger lump sum. I think the minimum age to do this in BC is 55. Confirm?

Also, according to one source:
"Finally, a note about the 15% limit on periodic payments if you end up in most treaty countries. The more recently negotiated or renegotiated treaties usually specify the limit to be the lesser of 15% or the rate that would be payable if the periodic payments were received by a Canadian resident. With the personal credit at ~$10k and other credits (spousal, age, etc.) applying as well, there may be no Canadian tax payable whatsoever on modest amounts."

Does this mean the 15% tax could be reduce to 0% assuming the pension payments are below say $10,000? Even for my wife that files no Canadian tax returns??

Any help or confirmations would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

[agnelson]

Yeah, most people in US take lump-sum RRSP withdrawals, but indeed, if taken as a pension, the NR tax for US residents becomes 15%.

If however, the taxpayer has little other world income (like a retiree, or a non-working spouse), they can elect to file a 217 return in Canada, which may reduce the tax to what a Cdn would pay on that income. This would apply whether the withdrawal was a lump-sum or periodic (although it would provde a bigger refund on a lump-sum that was withheld 25% of course).

My spouse has filed 217 returns over the past decade and has completely withdrawn her RRSP (60k ) and paid about $40 in Cdn tax.
If you plan properly, you can file an NR5 every year (befire the year starts) to reduce the actaul withholding to a lower figure, and then file 217 at year end to make fiab=nal tax calculation.

Do remember however that the entire portion of that RRSP/RRIF/LIF withdrawal, regardless of how it is taken, is fully taxable in US.

I deal with these Q's all the time at forums.serbinski.com. Please follow up there.

You would not have read "many posts" there which would have mislead you. This is a travel forum, not a tax forum.