An Executive PRSA offers a highly tax-efficient way of extracting cash for your own benefit or for that of company executives from a limited company. It does not include the Trustee oversight of an traditional Executive Pension Plan (EPP), but also excludes a monthly policy fee.

Yes, all private pension holders are still entitled to the State pension in addition. The current State Social Welfare Pension is only: €248.30 per week. The contributory pension starts at age 66 and the non-contributory not until age 67. Executive pension plan benefits can be taken from age 50 onwards and will not reduce your State pension benefits.

No a PRSA is held in your own name, so does not require a Trustee appointment.

An executive pension plan provides full tax relief on contributions, as well as tax-free fund growth and a tax-free lump payment option come retirement. This means;

1. Company-funded executive pensions effectively receive 52% PAYE relief, plus corporation tax relief @12.5%!
2. There is no DIRT or capital gains tax on investment growth.
3. After taking up to 200,000 tax-free on drawdown, you can choose to reinvest the balance and only have to pay a lower rate tax (currently 20%) on withdrawals.

Under current legislation your company can contribute as much as they wish on behalf of any salaried employee, provided they do not a pension pot from all current and previous sources in excess of 2.15m.

The maximum contributions that can be paid to your Scheme by you and/or your employer will depend on your personal circumstances including company service and salary.

Subject to the above, there is no limit to how much you can contribute but tax relief on personal contributions is restricted. Only contributions paid by you will be considered for the purposes of determining maximum contribution limits for tax relief purposes, which equate to a % of net relevant earnings (annual salary) and increase with age starting from 15% under age 30.

Employers can pay regular or single contributions to their executive PRSA. An Executive PRSA can also accept transfers from other Executive pensions as well as previous group schemes – these would usually be paid as electronic fund transfers from other institutions.

Employers can pay a single contribution at any time into an executive pension. This can be done instead of, or as well as, paying regular monthly or annual contributions.

Senior employees and non-executive directors can make regular contributions on the same basis as their employer with the combined contributions payable through company payroll. They can also make one-off lump sum payments within Revenue Limits via EFT.

If you die prior to retirement, the full PRSA value payable as lump sum to estate. No requirement to transfer any part of the funds to an ARF.

Under a PRSA, you can now retire from age 50, on termination of the current related employment.

If you have to stop working due to serious ill-health, you can take your pension benefits earlier than these stated ages!

Once you have taken your 25% tax-free, you can choose to reinvest the balance in an ARF (investing in funds for tax-free growth as before) and make regular and ad hoc withdrawals to provide an income.