Quebec Pension Plan (QPP): Contributions, Benefits, and Calculation

The Quebec Pension Plan is a mandatory public insurance program that collects contributions from anyone working in Quebec and pays benefits back when you retire, become disabled, or die leaving a spouse or children. It runs alongside the Canada Pension Plan and coordinates with it, so credits follow you if you move between provinces. For 2026, contributions are calculated on employment income between $3,500 and $85,000, and the maximum monthly retirement pension at age 65 is $1,441.25.¹

Who Contributes and How Much

Enrollment is automatic. If you work in Quebec, you start contributing to the QPP the year you turn 18, once your earnings pass the annual basic exemption of $3,500.² There is nothing to sign up for.

Salaried employees have their share deducted from each paycheck, and the employer pays a matching amount. Self-employed workers pay both halves when they file their income tax return.² To qualify for any retirement benefit later, you need at least one valid year of contributions on file.

For 2026, contributions apply in two tiers:

On earnings between $3,500 and $74,600, the rate is 6.30%, capped at $4,479.30 for the year. Employers match that; self-employed workers pay a combined 12.60%.³
On the slice of earnings between $74,600 and $85,000, a second contribution applies at 4%. This second tier, introduced in 2024, will eventually increase retirement benefits for workers earning above the primary ceiling.⁴

Income below $3,500 and above $85,000 is not subject to QPP contributions. Both ceilings are adjusted every year.

What the Plan Pays Out

The QPP covers four situations: retirement, disability, the death of a contributor, and support for the contributor’s children after death. Several benefits can be received at the same time.

Retirement Pension

You can start your retirement pension as early as age 60 or delay it until age 72. At age 65, the maximum monthly base pension for 2026 is $1,441.25.¹ What you actually receive depends on how much you earned and how long you contributed. The pension replaces a portion of your working income, not all of it.

Disability Pension

If you are under 65 and unable to work because of a severe and prolonged health condition, you can apply for a disability pension. Retraite Québec’s medical advisors decide whether you qualify, and you need enough years of contributions to be eligible.⁵ An extra amount is paid for each dependent child under 18. At age 65 the disability pension converts automatically to a retirement pension.

Survivor Benefits

When a contributor dies, the plan can pay three separate benefits:

A surviving spouse’s pension, paid monthly to the legal spouse, civil union partner, or qualifying common-law partner. For 2026, the maximum ranges from $719.50 per month for a survivor under 45 with no dependent children up to $1,173.58 for a survivor between 45 and 65.⁶
An orphan’s pension, paid for each child of the deceased under 18. It goes to whoever is caring for the child and ends when the child turns 18.⁷
A one-time death benefit of up to $2,500, paid to the heirs or to whoever covered the funeral costs.⁸

Common-law partners qualify for the spouse’s pension only after living with the deceased for at least three consecutive years, or one year if the couple had or adopted a child together. A common-law partner cannot claim it if the deceased was still legally married to or in a civil union with someone else at the time of death.⁶

How Your Retirement Pension Is Calculated

Retraite Québec looks at every year of pensionable earnings since you started contributing. Your average career earnings, measured against each year’s ceiling, set the base amount. The more years you contributed at or near the ceiling, the higher your pension.

Starting Early or Late

Starting before 65 permanently reduces the monthly amount by 0.5% to 0.6% for each month before your 65th birthday. Starting at 60 means a pension 30% to 36% lower than what you would have received at 65, for life.⁹

Waiting past 65 has the opposite effect: your pension increases by 0.7% for each month you delay, up to age 72. Waiting until 70 raises the pension by 42%.¹⁰

Dropout Provisions

Not every low-earning year drags your average down. The general dropout excludes the 15% of months with your lowest earnings from the calculation. Over a 40-year contributory period, that removes roughly six years of weak earnings.

A separate child-rearing dropout lets parents exclude months where earnings were low because they were caring for a child under seven. A parent with both a stretch of low earnings and young children can benefit from both provisions.

Annual Indexation

Once your pension starts, it is indexed every January to keep pace with the cost of living. Retraite Québec applies the increase automatically.

Working While Receiving Your Pension

You can keep working after your pension starts. If you continue to earn employment income, you keep contributing, and every January Retraite Québec adds a retirement pension supplement based on the previous year’s contributions.¹¹

The supplement equals 0.66% of the earnings above $3,500 on which you contributed in the previous year. It is added to your pension permanently and is itself indexed each year. It applies even if you were already at the maximum pension.¹¹

At 65, you can choose to stop contributing. Contributions end automatically on January 1 of the year after you turn 72.

Pension Sharing Between Spouses

Married and civil union spouses who are both at least 60 and both receiving their retirement pensions can share the portion earned during the years they lived together. Shifting income from a higher-earning spouse to a lower-earning one can lower the household’s tax bill.¹² If the relationship ends, sharing stops and the pensions return to their original amounts.

How to Apply

You will need your Social Insurance Number, direct deposit information, and, for disability or survivor claims, documentation for dependents such as birth certificates and proof of relationship. The main form for retirement benefits is the B-001 Application for a Retirement Pension, available on the Retraite Québec website.¹³ The form also asks about work history outside Quebec and your preferred tax withholding.

Filing through the My Account online portal is the fastest route and produces a response within days. Paper applications take longer. Retraite Québec recommends applying several months before you want payments to start.

Payments arrive on the last working day of each month.¹⁴ If you apply after turning 65, you can request retroactive payments for up to 12 months (including the month Retraite Québec received your application), but a retroactive start date results in a lower monthly pension for life than simply starting later.¹⁵ Retroactive payments are not available for pensions claimed before 65.

How QPP Coordinates With the Canada Pension Plan

The QPP and the Canada Pension Plan are separate programs run by different governments, but they are designed to function as one system for workers who move between Quebec and other provinces. Credits earned under the CPP count toward QPP eligibility and benefit calculation, and vice versa. You do not apply to both plans; whichever province you live in when you retire pays the combined amount.

Survivor benefits work the same way. If a deceased contributor worked in multiple provinces, Retraite Québec uses the full earnings record from both plans to calculate the surviving spouse’s and orphan’s pensions.⁶

QPP and U.S. Social Security

A totalization agreement between Canada and the United States prevents workers from being taxed by both countries’ social security systems on the same income. A self-employed worker living in Quebec contributes to the QPP and is exempt from U.S. Social Security taxes; to claim the exemption, request a certificate of coverage (Form QUE/USA 101) from Retraite Québec and attach it to your U.S. tax return each year.¹⁶

If you fall short of the credits needed to qualify for U.S. Social Security on your own, the agreement lets the Social Security Administration count your QPP credits toward eligibility, provided you have at least six U.S. credits (roughly a year and a half of work) of your own. In the other direction, U.S. Social Security credits earned after 1965 can count toward QPP disability and survivor benefits if you have at least one year of QPP credit.¹⁶ For the QPP retirement pension itself, one year of QPP contributions is enough, so U.S. credits are not needed.

For a U.S. resident, QPP benefits are taxed by the United States as though they were U.S. Social Security benefits under the U.S.-Canada tax treaty.¹⁷ Up to 85% of the benefit may be included in your U.S. taxable income, depending on your total income, and it is reported on your federal return the same way as domestic Social Security.

The Windfall Elimination Provision, which used to reduce U.S. Social Security benefits for people also receiving a QPP pension, no longer applies. The Social Security Fairness Act, signed on January 5, 2025, eliminated WEP entirely.¹⁸

One last piece of good news for U.S. filers: QPP benefits count as social-security-type payments from a foreign government, and the IRS excludes them from both Form 8938 and the FBAR (FinCEN Form 114).¹⁹ You do not report your QPP entitlement on either form, regardless of the amount.

1
Retraite Québec. 2026 Benefit Amounts and Key Data
2
Retraite Québec. Contributions to the Québec Pension Plan
3
Revenu Québec. Maximum Pensionable Earnings and Québec Pension Plan Contribution Rate
4
Revenu Québec. Employers – Principal Changes for 2026
5
Retraite Québec. Disability Pension Under the Québec Pension Plan
6
Retraite Québec. The Surviving Spouse’s Pension Under the Québec Pension Plan
7
Retraite Québec. The Orphan’s Pension
8
Retraite Québec. Death Benefit of the Québec Pension Plan
9
Retraite Québec. Retirement Age
10
Retraite Québec. Calculation of Your Retirement Pension Under the Québec Pension Plan
11
Retraite Québec. Retirement Pension Supplement
12
Retraite Québec. Retirement Pension Sharing Between Spouses
13
Retraite Québec. Application for a Retirement Pension Under the Québec Pension Plan
14
Retraite Québec. Payment Dates
15
Retraite Québec. Payment of Your Retirement Pension Under the Québec Pension Plan
16
Social Security Administration. Totalization Agreement With Canada
17
Internal Revenue Service. United States – Canada Income Tax Convention
18
Social Security Administration. Windfall Elimination Provision
19
Internal Revenue Service. Comparison of Form 8938 and FBAR Requirements