Find out what is new in the latest versions of the spreadsheet. Please note that new versions of the spreadsheet come with the advanced worksheets hidden by default. Follow the instructions in the Upgrading section on the Start Here worksheet to import your data and use the Show button to show the advanced worksheets.

V25.5

New Features

Added low and no interest loans which are paid off according to a fixed payment schedule.
Added tax deductible investment loans.
Added hints and warnings for RRIF withdrawals and RRSP income attribution.
Ensure all tax tables are current (updated MB).

Improvements/Clarifications

Renamed Basic Optimizers to simply Optimizers.
Improved Smooth Taxes contribution and withdrawal strategies to take into account basic tax deductions and the OAS clawback.
Clarify that rates of return must be entered for all accounts which may be created by the spreadsheet.
Disable cut and paste operation to avoid having users break formulas by accident.
Allow the principal residence mortgage payment to have cents.
Minor wording clarifications around expected long term annual returns in the Data Entry worksheet.
Clarify that the Snapshot worksheet must be checked for actual RRSP contribution and registered retirement fund withdrawal amounts.
Don't allow net income and taxable income to be negative.
Add descriptions to the DB Pension so it can also be used for an annuity.
Allow first year salary and deductions to be overridden. Needed in the case that the person retires in the first year.
Added additional information to the popup that describes the Estate optimizer.
Clarify that current OAS amount entered on the Data Entry worksheet is the full amount before the OAS clawback.
Remove the word "Discretionary" from Retirement Fund Withdrawals as it is now the entire amount, not just the discretionary portion.

Bug Fixes

Transfer LIRA and LIF funds to spouse's RIF on death, not non-registered account. This does not account for the maximum withdrawal limit on transferred federal LIRA/LIFs.
On Excel for Mac, require the user to create an empty text file when exporting data to work around Mac OS sandbox limitations.

V25.4

Version 25.4 of the spreadsheet was provided to a few users but was never officially released. It has been superseded by V25.5.

New Features

Update maximum LIF withdrawal percentages for 2025.
Defer capital gains tax changes (inclusion rate = 2/3 over $250,000) until 2026.
Apply the spouse's age tax strategy to LIF minimum withdrawals (was previously RIF only).
Ensure all tax tables are current (updated AB).

Improvements/Clarifications

Use the COLA contribution and withdrawal strategies in the Hybrid methods. These have proven to be better than the Smooth Taxes strategy for most user data sets.
Clarified non-registered Canadian Eligible Dividend and Interest & Foreign Dividends income lines on Snapshot.
Allow optimizers to calculate future RRSP contributions when current contribution room is zero.
Added explanatory note on the Data Entry worksheet about relative percentages of each asset class in the non-registered accounts.
Add Inflation Multiplier column to advanced user worksheets to make calculating future values easier.

Bug Fixes

The LIRA/LIF jurisdiction will Export/Import properly for future releases. A warning message is shown asking the user to check their jurisdiction.
Handle the case in the Snapshot Income and Expense columns where RRSP contributions and retirement fund withdrawals happen concurrently. This is a display issue only and does not affect the spreadsheet calculations.

V25.3

The way that amounts and rates of return are entered for non-registered accounts on the Data Entry worksheet have been simplified. You will need to re-enter your data for these accounts.

New Features

Simplified rate entry for nonregistered accounts in the Data Entry worksheet.

Improvements/Clarifications

Break out RRSP, RRIF, LIRA and LIF accounts in the Snapshot and add additional detail to these accounts. Combine all registered retirement accounts in the Dashboard charts.
Allow for the pension amount tax credit in the Smooth Taxes and Hybrid withdrawal methods.
Retirement Fund Withdrawal Override is now the total amount of the withdrawal including required minimums. You cannot withdraw less than the minimum required.
Transfer LIRAs and LIFs to the spouse's non-registered account as opposed to their RRSP or RRIF when they are unlocked due to death. This follows the spreadsheet's policy of moving funds to the place of most flexibility when it makes sense from a tax perspective.
Add a LIRA unlock hint in the Dashboard.
Don't exchange spousal RRSP contributions in the same year.
Don't move funds to a RRIF to claim pension income tax credit if there is already sufficient pension income or split pension income.
On the Dashboard, clarify what is included in expenses for the purpose of calculating the emergency fund.

Bug Fixes

Show Group RRSP contributions in the Snapshot worksheet.
Show LIRA/LIF to RRSP/RRIF unlock transfers correctly in the Snapshot worksheet.
Show one-time expenses correctly in the Snapshot worksheet.
Generate the current value of final year real estate using the real estate inflation rate instead of the general inflation rate.
Include the current year's reconciliation in estate tax, not the previous year's reconciliation.
Force an update of the provincial tax tables when the inflation rate is changed.
Include RRIF funds in the As Needed and Last Resort retirement fund withdrawal strategies.

V25.2

RRSP and RRIF and LIRA and LIF accounts have been split. If you have these accounts, check the Data Entry worksheet to ensure that the amounts and rates of return are correct.

New Features

Taxation

All of the tax calculations have been updated for 2025 with the latest information known when the Spreadsheet was released.
An NR (non-resident) option was added to the Province/Territory popup menu in the Data Entry worksheet. It omits provincial tax calculations.
Prepaid tax and reconciliations have been implemented to better match actual cashflow.

Projection Summary

The amounts in the Projection Summary can now be shown in current or future year dollars. Select current or future from the popup menu. Current dollars are also known as Net Present Value or NPV.
The colour contrast in the Projection Summary has been improved.

Optimization

The Retirement Age(s), Budget and Donations optimizers can now target a residual amount in the Account Balances in the Final Year. Specify an amount in the Target Account Balance cell in the Basic Optimizers section.
Added a stress test to the Basic Optimizers via a Test button.
Added an option to hide the charts while optimizing (now the default) to speed up the optimizer. Also charts were not updating in Excel 365.
Added a progress indicator which is visible when the charts are hidden.
The Smooth Taxes and Hybrid Contribution and Withdrawal Strategies now use an income level as their Target amount to give more reliable projections when the early years of employment and retirement differ from the norm. You will need to re-run your optimizations.

Accounts

RRSP and RRIFs have been split into separate accounts.
LIRA and LIFs have been split into separate accounts.
Added the ability to override the LIRA unlock age determined by the spreadsheet.
Improved the emergency fund calculations or people with fluctuating large tax bills.
Change the Emergency Fund amount from number of years to months.

Other

Added better support for people already receiving CPP/QPP and OAS. Added current monthly CPP and OAS amounts in data entry worksheet.
Blank out appropriate fields in Dashboard when people are receiving CPP/QPP or OAS and retirement fund contributions when retired.
Added the ability to override the DB pension start age determined by the spreadsheet. Defaults to the retirement age.
Improved the pension splitting calculation.
Added additional validation to user entered values in the Dashboard.

Improvements/Clarifications

Changed the positive projection status from Healthy to Funded.
Renamed the Income Tax Payable cells on the Data Entry worksheet to Estimated Tax to be Withheld This Year to better reflect their purpose.
Added additional instruction around calculation of rates for non-registered accounts.

Bug Fixes

Fixed a bug in the 2075 capital gains estate tax calculation, other years calculated the tax for the following year
DB pensions are now split starting at age 55 instead of 65.
The flat rate portion is no longer included in a CPP survivor's pension if the deceased was not entitled to CPP.
Various fixes to the CPP survivor benefit calculation.
Stop employment calculations if a person dies while still employed.
Fixed the estate calculation when the first spouse dies. The spreadsheet was not accounting for account transfers before calculating the tax.
Fixed an error in the cashflow account allocation which assumed only one person was alive when balancing net worth.
Calculate Estate Tax as of year end as opposed to the start of the year.
Stop employer and employee group RRSP contributions at age 71 if employee works past that age.

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