I took out a private pension with one of the major banks almost 20 years ago. I made two contributions and then stopped any further payments after 2 months, as I obtained a job with a defined benefits pension scheme. To cut a long story short, the bank have agreed that they will refund me the contributions. I put in about €500 and the pension is now worth about €1100, so there is a gain of €600. Question- what is the taxation of this? Is it treated like deposit account interest (41% on gain) or income (Tax + PRSI + USC so 51% on gain)?