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Accounts in Ireland

Every kind of account and pension the planner offers in Ireland: what each one is, when money can come out, how it is taxed, and the pages we read the rules from.

Engine 2026Reviewed

Most Irish retirement savings sit in pensions: a workplace scheme, a personal retirement savings account (PRSA) or a retirement annuity contract. All of them pay out the same way when you take the benefits: up to a quarter as a lump sum, tax free up to €200,000 over your life, and the rest into an approved retirement fund (ARF) that you draw from as income. Outside pensions, savings sit in an ordinary investment account or a life assurance investment bond.

Each has its own row in the money step, and a pension you have not drawn from yet is a different row from an ARF you already draw from. A pension already paid to you as an income, such as a defined benefit pension or an annuity, goes in the pension step instead, beside your State Pension.

Rules as of the 2026 tax year, read from the authorities on 2026-07-27. Each account lists the pages we read it from.

Accounts you can enter

A new plan starts with 64% in Ordinary investment account, 36% in PRSA or workplace pension pot, not drawn yet, until you replace it with your own accounts. Where that split comes from: Central Statistics Office, Household Finance and Consumption Survey 2023: households aged 55 to 64.

Ordinary investment account

Profit on funds and exchange traded funds is taxed at a flat rate when you sell, and again automatically every eighth year even if you sell nothing.

Shares, funds, exchange traded funds, bonds and deposits held directly, outside any pension or life policy. Irish and other European funds pay a flat 38% exit tax on their profit when you sell, and again every eighth year as if you had sold. Shares pay capital gains tax at 33% on profit above €1,270 a year, and deposits pay 33% on their interest each year. The Detailed view asks which of these you hold, and assumes funds until you say otherwise.

When a pension pays its lump sum, the plan puts the cash here.

How it is taxed, rate by rate, is on the tax page.

In the withdrawal orders
With the ordinary accounts
Pays out
Whenever you like
At the first death
Your partner takes it over, and the gain built up in it is wiped for tax

PRSA or workplace pension pot, not drawn yet

Nothing comes out before 60, or 50 once you have retired or left the job. At the age you choose, and by 75, up to a quarter comes out as a lump sum and the rest becomes an ARF.

A personal retirement savings account (PRSA) is a personal pension that moves with you from job to job, paid into by you, your employer or both. Contributions get tax relief on the way in, which the plan does not model, and nothing is taxed while the money stays invested.

Benefits can start from 60, or from 50 once you have retired. At the age you choose, and at 75 at the latest, the plan pays the lump sum into your ordinary investment account: a quarter of the pot unless you choose less. Over your life the first €200,000 of pension lump sums is tax free, the next €300,000 is charged 20%, and anything above €500,000 is taxed as income. The law does not raise these limits with prices, and neither does the plan.

The rest of the pot then moves into an ARF, where it is taxed only as you draw it. If you choose instead to take it all as cash, all of it is taxed as income in that one year.

A PRSA you kept open after taking its lump sum (a vested PRSA) is taxed like an ARF, so enter it in the ARF row.

This row is also for a defined contribution pot in a scheme your employer set up, including additional voluntary contributions (AVCs) and a buy-out bond holding a former employer's pension. It follows the same rules, from 60, or from 50 once you have left the job.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Nothing comes out before 60
Pays out
Whenever you like
In a couple
Whose it is changes the tax, so the planner asks
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Age you take the benefits From 50 to 75. We assume your retirement age.
  • Share taken as a lump sum From 0% to 25%. We assume 25%.
  • What happens to the rest We assume: into an ARF.
Where the model simplifies

  • There is a lifetime cap on how large a pension fund can grow before an extra charge lands: 2,200,000 for 2026, rising by 200,000 a year to 2,800,000 in 2029, with 40 percent charged on anything above it. We do not model the cap, so a plan that saves its way past it is shown as cheaper than it would be. It is also the one Irish figure that rises with earnings, which it starts doing in 2030.

    Your real tax is higher/anyone whose pension savings reach 2,200,000

The law behind it
TCA 1997 Part 30 Ch. 2A; Revenue Pensions Manual ch. 24

Retirement annuity contract

Nothing comes out before 60. At the age you choose, and by 75, up to a quarter comes out as a lump sum and the rest becomes an ARF.

A retirement annuity contract (RAC), sometimes called a personal contract, is a personal pension written as an insurance policy, long used by the self-employed. Despite the name, at retirement the fund can go into an ARF instead of buying an annuity.

Benefits can start from 60, even while you are still working, and must start by 75. The law allows 50 only in some occupations and with Revenue's approval, which the plan does not offer. At the age you choose, the lump sum and the rest of the fund follow the same rules as a PRSA.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Nothing comes out before 60
Pays out
Whenever you like
In a couple
Whose it is changes the tax, so the planner asks
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Age you take the benefits From 60 to 75. We assume your retirement age.
  • Share taken as a lump sum From 0% to 25%. We assume 25%.
  • What happens to the rest We assume: into an ARF.
Where the model simplifies

  • There is a lifetime cap on how large a pension fund can grow before an extra charge lands: 2,200,000 for 2026, rising by 200,000 a year to 2,800,000 in 2029, with 40 percent charged on anything above it. We do not model the cap, so a plan that saves its way past it is shown as cheaper than it would be. It is also the one Irish figure that rises with earnings, which it starts doing in 2030.

    Your real tax is higher/anyone whose pension savings reach 2,200,000

The law behind it
TCA 1997 s.784, s.787O

ARF or drawn-down PRSA

Every euro you take out counts as income at your normal rate. From the year after you turn 60 there is also a minimum you must take out each year whether you want to or not.

An approved retirement fund (ARF) is where most pension money goes after the lump sum. It stays invested in your name and you take what you want, when you want. Every euro you take out is taxed as income, with the Universal Social Charge.

The law treats a minimum as paid out to you each year, and taxes it whether you take it or not: 4% of the fund from the year after you turn 60, 5% from the year after you turn 70, and 6% of the whole fund once it is worth more than €2,000,000. The plan pays out that minimum as income, and what you do not spend moves to your ordinary investment account.

Until you are 66, and after that until your State Pension (Contributory) is awarded, money from an ARF also pays social insurance (PRSI). The plan charges it, and stops at 70 at the latest.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Pays out
At least a legal minimum every year
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
Where the model simplifies

  • From 61 the plan pays out at least 4 percent of your retirement fund every year, 5 percent from 71, and 6 percent of the whole fund above 2,000,000, taxed as income, whether or not you wanted the money. Whatever you do not spend is moved to your ordinary account. What we simplify: the law values the fund on 30 November and collects the tax the following February, while we use the balance at the start of the year and charge in the same year. In a normal growing market that values the fund slightly earlier and lower than the law would, so the forced amount we charge runs slightly low. The 6 percent rate applies when all your ARFs and drawn-down PRSAs together are worth more than 2,000,000; we test each account on its own, so two funds that only cross that line together are charged 4 or 5 percent here.

    Your real tax is higher/anyone with an approved retirement fund from 61 planning to draw less than the floor, most of all in rising markets where the 30 November valuation outruns our opening balance

  • Social insurance (PRSI) is charged on money drawn from an ARF or a drawn-down PRSA under 66, and from 66 until the State Pension (Contributory) is awarded, never from 70, and we charge it, along with your rent while you pay it. We charge each year's draws at the year's average rate where the law uses the rate on each payment's date, which comes to the same for draws spread across the year. For a couple we take both partners' draws together and go by the first person's age, so where the two of you are on different sides of 66 or 70, what we charge can be wrong either way.

    Could go either way/anyone drawing an ARF before the State Pension

The law behind it
TCA 1997 s.784A, s.790D

Life assurance investment bond

Profit is taxed at 38% when you take it out, and every eighth year as if you had, from inside the policy. What you paid in comes back untaxed.

A life assurance investment bond, also called a unit-linked policy, is an investment held through a life assurance company: you pay in, the insurer invests it in its funds, and you cash in all or part of it later.

Only the profit is taxed, at a flat 38% exit tax kept apart from your income, so it never reaches your income tax bands. Each withdrawal is part what you paid in and part profit, in proportion to the policy's value, and only the profit part is taxed.

Every eighth year the law treats the policy as cashed in and takes 38% of the profit so far from inside the policy, even if you take nothing. The plan does the same, and counts that tax against what is due when you do take the money out, as the insurer does.

If the person whose life the policy is written on dies, the policy ends and 38% of its profit is taxed then, and the plan moves the rest into the survivor's ordinary account. A policy written on both your lives that pays out on the second death carries on, and the plan reads an account you both own that way.

In the withdrawal orders
With the ordinary accounts
Pays out
Whenever you like
Taxed while you hold it
Yes, paid from inside the account
At the first death
It ends, and its value is paid into your partner's ordinary account, less 38% of the gain built up in it. A policy written on both your lives carries on until the second death
The law behind it
TCA 1997 s.730D, s.730F; Revenue Tax and Duty Manual Part 26-01

Auto-enrolment pot (My Future Fund)

Paid out whole at the State Pension age: a quarter as a tax-free lump sum, the rest taxed as income that year.

My Future Fund is Ireland's automatic enrolment pension, run by the State, which began taking contributions on 1 January 2026. You, your employer and the State all pay in.

Under today's law it pays out once, at the State Pension age, as a single payment. A quarter is tax free within the same €200,000 lifetime limit as your other pension lump sums, and the rest is taxed as income that year. The plan pays it out exactly that way and moves the money into your ordinary investment account.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Nothing comes out before your state pension age
Pays out
Whenever you like
In a couple
Whose it is changes the tax, so the planner asks
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Share taken as a lump sum From 25% to 25%. We assume 25%.
  • What happens to the rest We assume: taken as cash.
Where the model simplifies

  • Ireland's automatic pension enrolment scheme started on 1 January 2026, alongside a 115,000 cap on the earnings that qualify for pension relief and contribution limits that rise with your age. The cap and the limits apply while you are still saving rather than while you are drawing down, so they do not reach the tax figures on this page. The scheme's own payout at the State Pension age is modelled: a quarter tax free within the lifetime lump sum limits and the rest taxed as income that year.

    Could go either way/anyone still working and paying into an Irish pension

The law behind it
Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024; TCA 1997 s.790AA

Pension from abroad

Its lump sum counts towards the same €200,000 tax-free limit as your Irish ones.

A pension pot you built up in another country before moving to Ireland, such as a UK personal pension, that you have not drawn from yet. Irish law taxes its lump sum like an Irish one, and it shares your €200,000 lifetime tax-free limit with your Irish pension lump sums.

At the age you choose, the plan pays the lump sum into your ordinary investment account, tax free up to what is left of the €200,000, charges the part above it at 20% up to €500,000 in all, and taxes anything beyond that as income for the year, with the Universal Social Charge. The rest of the pot moves into an ARF or is taken as cash. The earliest age is set by the foreign scheme's own rules, so the plan only asks when.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Pays out
Whenever you like
In a couple
Whose it is changes the tax, so the planner asks
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
What the planner asks about it
  • Age you take the benefits From 50 to 75. We assume your retirement age.
  • Share taken as a lump sum From 0% to 25%. We assume 25%.
  • What happens to the rest We assume: into an ARF.
The law behind it
TCA 1997 s.200A

Kinds of pension

A pension paid to you as an income goes in the pension step, not here. Choose its kind there and the plan taxes it by that kind's rules; leave it on standard and it is taxed like a state or workplace pension.

Annuity bought with pension savings

Taxed in full as income.

No part of an annuity bought with pension money is tax free in Ireland. Every euro is taxed as income, with the Universal Social Charge but without social insurance (PRSI).

The law behind it
TCA 1997 s.779 (charge to tax of pensions under Schedule E); Revenue Pensions Manual ch. 21 s.21.7 ('All annuity payments and distributions from ARFs are chargeable to tax under Schedule E')

Defined benefit workplace pension

Taxed in full as income.

If you take part of the pension as a lump sum when it starts, enter the lump beside the reduced pension. The plan taxes it in the same lifetime limits as every other pension lump sum: the first €200,000 tax free, 20% up to €500,000, and income tax above that.

Where the model simplifies

  • A defined benefit pension can be partly swapped for a lump sum at retirement, and we charge that lump in the same lifetime bands as any retirement lump sum. We do not check it against the legal maximum of one and a half times your final salary, and a very small pension swapped for cash entirely is charged here as an ordinary lump, where the law charges 10 percent after a deduction for your years of service.

    Could go either way/anyone taking a lump from a defined benefit pension

The law behind it
TCA 1997 s.779 (charge to tax of pensions under Schedule E), as listed in Revenue Pensions Manual ch. 1

Where other things you hold go

A personal portfolio life policy
Enter it as a life assurance investment bond. Its profit is in fact taxed at 60% rather than 38%, so the plan shows less tax than you would pay.
State Pension, defined benefit pensions and annuities
Enter them in the pension step as an income, choosing the kind for anything other than the State Pension. They are taxed as income for as long as they pay.
A vested PRSA, a vested PEPP or an old AMRF
Enter them in the ARF row. They are taxed the same way, and every AMRF became an ARF on 1 January 2022.
A pan-European personal pension (PEPP) you have not drawn from
Enter it in the PRSA row. It has the same retirement options as a PRSA.
An annuity bought with your own savings
Enter it in the pension step. The plan taxes the whole payment, although the law leaves the part that gives you back the price you paid tax free.
State Savings (Savings Certificates, Savings Bonds, National Solidarity Bonds, Prize Bonds)
There is no row for them. Their returns are free of tax and fixed in advance, and no Irish row both taxes nothing and grows at a fixed rate. In the ordinary investment account they would be taxed as a fund.

New rules not in the model yet

An Investment Account from July 2027
Budget 2027 announced a new Investment Account from 1 July 2027: one per person, a flat 1% charge each year on its value above €50,000, at most €12,000 paid in a year, and no eight-year charge. It becomes law with the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2026, so the plan does not offer it yet.
Lower tax on funds and investment bonds
Budget 2027 also announced a cut from 38% to 35% in the exit tax on Irish and equivalent European funds and on life assurance bonds. Personal portfolio policies stay at 60%. Until the Finance (No. 2) Bill 2026 passes, the plan charges 38%.