# SIPP (Self Invested Personal Pension) Availability/Tax Deductibility



## aztrix (2 Sep 2008)

howzit folks?

i recently returned to employment in ireland with no company pension. my options as i understand it are either a prsa or a personal pension to avail of the tax benefits. i currently have a sipp (self invested personal pension) in the uk, so my goal is to consolidate my investment funds and at the same time have the flexibility to make my own investment decisions. i'd like to find out the following if at all possible:



is it possible to invest in my existing sipp (to pool my resources) instead of taking out a prsa or a personal pension in ireland?
if it is possible, would these contributions be tax deductible?
if not is it possible to invest in a prsa and make annual (or some other timeframe) transfers to my sipp?
if none of these options are a starter, what is my next best option for consolidating my investment funds? bear in mind that the sipp is already established and so i'm reluctant to fork out 2500 big ones  to start a self directed pension here

any info or links to references would be highly appreciated.

cheers
aztrix


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## ClubMan (2 Sep 2008)

I'm not sure if you can continue to contribute to a _UK _pension such as you have but I am pretty sure that you cannot get Irish income tax relief on such contributions if you can. I also doubt that you can transfer/consolidate this into an _Irish _pension. Why not just leave it paid up and invested where it is? Remember that consolidating disparate pension funds into one may not always be a no brainer. Sometimes it may make sense to keep them separate anyway.


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## LDFerguson (2 Sep 2008)

It is possible to set up a Self-Directed Personal Pension here without necessarily incurring an up-front fee of €2,500.00.  Standard Life and Irish Life offer self-directed contracts which charge percentages of the contributions / fund, so unless your fund is very large, these will usually add up to less than €2,500.  Brokers can often reduce the standard charges, depending on the amount of work you require.  

You cannot continue to pay contributions to a UK arrangement and claim tax relief on it here.  You can transfer from a UK arrangement to an Irish arrangement, provided both ends of the transaction are compatible.  But as Clubman points out above, you might be better off leaving the UK SIPP where it is.  You'd need to compare terms and conditions of both Irish and UK contracts to decide this.  

Liam D. Ferguson
www.ferga.com


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## aztrix (3 Sep 2008)

thanks folks, i'll have a look at the standard & irish life self-directed pensions.

cheers
aztrix


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