Calculate your maximum tax-free pension contributon

%
Description Calculation Value
Your Age:
Your Income:
Pensionable Income: (maximum €115,000)
Maximum Contribution: (age related)
Your Tax Relief:
Employer Contribution:
Total Contribution:

Pension contributions in Ireland benefit from a tax incentive whereby income tax relief is applied to earnings that are contributed towards your pension. This tax relief is at your marginal or higher rate of income tax.

Depending on your salary or earnings and your age, there are maximum limits to the amount of income allowed as pension contributions that can benefit from tax relief i.e. you cannot claim tax relief on unlimited pension contributions.

Find out how much you can save for retirement and maximise the tax relief available to you using our maximum pension contribution calculator.

Maximum Pension Contribution Calculator

What are pension contributions?

A pension is a long term savings plan to provide an income when you retire. A pension contribution is money that you alone, or you and your employer, or your employer alone, contribute to a pension scheme to provide you with a pension. There are various kinds of pension contributions.

  • Occupational pension contributions
  • Private pension contributions
  • Pan European Personal Pension Product contributions
types of pension contributions

Occupational pension contributions

An occupational pension is provided by an employer in order to make pension provisions for employees. There are two types of occupational pension.

A defined contribution scheme is where your pension income is calculated based on the contributions you have made during your working life. You may pay a proportion of your salary and your employer may also contribute to your pension. 

A defined benefit scheme is based on your final or average salary while in employment and your years of service. Your employer may also contribute to the scheme.

If you wish to make increased contributions to your occupational pension scheme (private or public sector). You can do this by making additional voluntary contributions (AVC) if the pension scheme permits this.

Private pension contributions

A private pension is a type of pension savings plan that you contribute to in order to provide savings or a pension pot for your retirement. 

A personal retirement savings account (PRSA) is an investment account that you alone or you and your employer or your employer alone may contribute to in order to generate a retirement income. 

Standard PRSAs have capped charges and limited investment funds while non-standard PRSAs do not have capped charges and have a wider range of investment funds.

A personal pension plan (PPP), also known as a retirement annuity contract (RAC), is a type of insurance product taken out by those who are self employed or who do not have access to an occupational pension scheme. 

The insurance company will invest your contributions in order to provide you with an income on your retirement and will charge you for providing the pension.

Pan European Personal Pension Product contributions

A pan European personal pension product (PEPP) is a type of personal pension scheme which may be contributed to by you and your employer.

This type of pension arrangement is portable as you can accrue retirement benefits when residing in any EU member state. 

What types of pension contributions benefit from tax relief?

Pension contributions to all types of revenue approved pension schemes benefit from income tax relief. The contributions may take the following forms:

Ordinary contributions are contributions to any kind of pension made on a regular basis from your salary or income. These contributions are deducted from your gross pay when calculating tax relief.

You may apply for tax credits for special contributions to your pension eg. a one off payment. These tax credits will be included in your tax credit certificate.

If you make additional contributions to your occupational pension scheme, tax relief will be applied to AVCs where appropriate.

The tax relief limits apply to the combined amount paid to all pension products including occupational pensions, RACs or personal pension plans, PRSAs, and PEPPs.

types of pension contributions benefit from tax relief

How are maximum pension contributions calculated?

The maximum pension contributions are the maximum contributions that can benefit from tax relief at your marginal rate of income tax. 

There is both an age and income percentage related maximum and an overall total earnings limit.

Age related earnings percentage limits

The age related earnings percentage limit sets out the maximum pension contributions that you can make that are eligible for income tax relief.

Where you have more than one source of income, only the income from which the pension contributions are made is eligible for this relief.

Age  Percentage 
<30  15%
30 – 39  20%
40 – 49  25%
50 – 54  30%
55 – 59  35%
60+ 40%

Total earnings limit

You can avail of income tax relief on pension contributions on earnings below €115,000 per year.

This total does not include employer contributions to your pension.

Learn more about your pension contributions today

Pensions can be complex and confusing and it is difficult to know how best to save for your retirement.

If you wish to maximise the tax relief you can avail of while saving for retirement, use our maximum pension contribution calculator.

Alternatively, you can contact us and discuss your pension today. Get expert advice and assistance from our experienced and independent pension advisors for your retirement planning.

Work with a Financial advisor

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