Chief Justice voices concern over pension tax

http://www.rte.ie/news/2011/0426/judges.html

It is feared that alterations to judges' taxes could become a constitutional issue where judges remuneration is reduced while in office.

Are they seriously looking for an exemption from paying tax?

How can a tax on pensions reduce their remuneration whilst in office?

And, as was said on the news, who can adjudicate on whether this is a constitutional issue?!!!

If you've built up a pension pot of a certain amount based on the tax rules can they suddenly change the tax rules? Is that not the real question that's it's retrospective?

DerKaiser said:

How can a tax on pensions reduce their remuneration whilst in office?

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I suppose they consider that part of their annual remuneration is an extra year of accrued pension at the full value they were expecting. I don't really buy into it being a reduction in remuneration though - it's a tax and taxes can go up and down and they take their chances on what taxes will be in retirement, same as everyone else. Their gross remains the same.

Bronte said:

If you've built up a pension pot of a certain amount based on the tax rules can they suddenly change the tax rules? Is that not the real question that's it's retrospective?

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The rules aren't being changed retrospectively - if someone already had a pension pot worth more than 2.3M, they could register with revenue and have that amount frozen and exempt from the supersize tax - but they can't/shouldn't add any more to it as only the registered amount is exempt - so additional build-up of the pension pot will be taxed at 69%. That's fine for people who can stop contributions or ask their employers for cash instead - but for public defined benefit schemes, if you stop your benefits accruing there isn't an option to take the contributions in cash instead as the state schemes don't make contributions - they are pay-as-you-go for the benefits.