Maximum AVC allowed?

[johnl68]

Hi all,
Is the employer contribution a factor when assessing how much avc's one can pay in?
My wife can contribute max 20%, she currently pays in 6% pension + 2% avc + employer contribution 12%=20%.
Has she scope to increase avc's?
Hope that makes sense. Thanks

 

[RedOnion]

Employer contributions are not factored in limit for occupational pension schemes.
For a PRSA they are.

https://www.revenue.ie/en/jobs-and-pensions/pensions/tax-relief-for-pension-contributions.aspx

 

[johnl68]

Thanks for that RedOnion

 

[Coldwarrior]

Pretty sure the employer contribution is not counted, so she could increase her AVC another 12%.

Also learned recently from a pension talk at work that the 20% is based on your total remuneration and not just base salary, so the value of health insurance paid by her employer or a bonus etc can be added to base salary to increase the amount that can be added to the pension, e.g.

Base pay 50k
Bonus 5k
Health insurance paid by employer 5k
Total 60k
Max pension contribution 20% of 60k = 12k (instead of 20k of 50k = 10k)

 

[johnl68]

Thanks Coldwarrior, that's something I wasn't aware of either. she recently got a bonus and whoosh....half of it gone in tax, she thought it might be better to increase avc's if allowed.

 

[Conan]

As Red Onion stated, if the scheme is an Occupational Pension then the Employer contribution does NOT impact the level of member contribution.
If however the scheme is a PRSA, then the Employer contribution is included in the overall contribution limit.