How to withdraw rrsp now living in US

[Frommontreal2AZ]

I am 60 yrs old dual citizen receiving disability in Arizona. I have lived in the US 24 years and have $180K rrsp and $70k lira in Canada. I want to understand the most tax effective way to withdraw this amount as I expect low revenue for the next several years. I have never notified the irs of my rrsp, as I don’t think anything is actionable until I start withdrawing the funds.
Appreciate your insights, thanks.

[nelsona]

Well, you *should* have been informing them of your RRSP through various methods starting in 1985 (so, as soon as you moved) but that ended a few years ago, so no harm no foul. I would hope, at a minimum you have been reporting FBAR all these years.

The key information you need is the book value of your RRSP on the day you became a US taxpayer, That portion of your RRSP is not taxable in US. Your LIRA is 100% taxable in US.

At this point, the most effective way of meshing Cdn tax and US tax is to convert your RRSP into a RRIF, so that yearly withdrawals of uptp 10% of the value will be taxed at 15%. How you withdraw your LIRA will depend on the rules in the province which governes your account, but probably it should be converted to a LIF, and periodic withdrawals set up, so it too will be txed at 15% in Canada.
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Then you report the withdrawls from each of these accounts, and figure the non-taxable portion as I described above., and take the 15% tax as a credit on form 1116 of your 1040.

[Frommontreal2AZ]

Many thanks for the detailed reply.
I am from Quebec. Are you familiar with their rules?

[nelsona]

I'll leave that to you. It also depends on how your company set up the LIRA.