# Withdrawing Income From A PRSA



## Heretix (6 Jan 2008)

Hi all.

If I set up a PRSA, can I withdraw income from it at any time before I am of pensionable age if I need to some/all of the money back for e.g. a future emergency?

Or - when I contribute, is it locked in until I am of pensionable age.



Thank you!


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## boaber (6 Jan 2008)

A PRSA is a Personal *Retirement* Savings Account.

Funds cannot be accessed until you retire - and at this point you must take all benefits at the same time

See this link for further info


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## ClubMan (6 Jan 2008)

> Location: UK


If you are located in the _UK _how are you going to open an _*Irish *PRSA_?!?


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## LDFerguson (7 Jan 2008)

Early retirement may be permitted by Revenue in cases of serious ill-health.


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## oysterman (7 Jan 2008)

Can you draw down your PRSA AVC before you take your occupational pension?

What I'm thinking about is somebody who retires early but opts to delay taking their occupational pension until normal retirement age because they don't want to suffer a reduction in it for drawing it down early.

Can they take money out of  their PRSA for a couple of years before their occupational pension kicks in?

Does anybody know where I'd find these rules? All I can find on the Revenue website is one sentence in their guide to PRSAs, as follows:

_"There are restrictions which prevent a PRSA contributor from indirectly obtaining the benefit of PRSA assets before the earliest date for taking benefits."_

But what does that mean? How do you "indirectly" obtain benefits? And what are those restrictions?


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## Heretix (7 Jan 2008)

ClubMan said:


> If you are located in the _UK _how are you going to open an _*Irish *PRSA_?!?





I may be moving to Ireland in the next 12-18 months so I wanted some information in advance.



Thanks for all of the responses.



I agree with you SPC. The inflexibility makes no sense. Withdrawals could be taxed when made. It is true to say that capital gains and income have different tax rates so those sources of assets will be intermingled, making it difficult to set the appropriate tax rate, but I think a workable solution could be implemented.

The UK SIPP suffers from the same inflexibility.

I was hoping that Ireland was a bit more enlightened than the UK .


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## boaber (8 Jan 2008)

oysterman said:


> Can you draw down your PRSA AVC before you take your occupational pension?



No, the benefits from your PRSA AVC must be taken at the same time as your main scheme.



oysterman said:


> Does anybody know where I'd find these rules?



The Revenue's Pension Manual should help [broken link removed]


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