Aviva Personal Pensions

For the Aviva personal pension plan the minimum age is 19 next birthday and the maximum age is 72 next birthday.

There’s no limit to the amount you can pay into your personal pension, but tax relief is only available on amounts up to a certain level depending on your income, your age and Revenue limits. This is set out in the table below (July 2020):

There’s a limit on how much of a member’s earnings can be taken into account for the purposes of the above percentages. The maximum earnings limit is currently set at €115,000 (in 2020). So, if a member’s earnings are greater than this figure their tax relief will only be based on their earnings up to €115,000 – anything above that limit doesn’t qualify for tax relief.

Tax relief reduces the real cost of your pension. You do not have to pay tax on any money (which falls within the limits set out above) that you put into a personal pension. The tax you save is calculated at the highest rate of income tax that you pay (currently 20% or 40%). An example of how this works is set out below:

Monthly pension contribution = €100
Tax relief @ 40% = €40
Total net monthly cost to you = €60

If you pay income tax at the 20% rate, your tax relief will be €20 and your total net monthly cost will be €80.

If you’re self-employed, you’ll need to include your pension contributions in your self-assessment tax returns to get income tax relief. If you’re an employee and your personal contributions are taken from your bank account, you can apply to your local inspector of taxes to have your tax credits adjusted to reflect your pension contributions.

Once you’ve put money into a personal pension you can’t withdraw it until you reach age 60.

If you have to retire early because of ill health, you can take your benefits from your personal pension immediately.

If you die before you retire, we’ll pay the value of your Aviva personal pension to your estate. As with any inheritance, your beneficiaries may have to pay inheritance tax on any benefits we pay to them.

No. You can’t transfer the rights to your Aviva personal pension plan plan to a bank or another institution as security for a loan.

The minimum investment period for paying regular contributions to the Aviva personal pension is 3 years.

You can pay regular or single contributions to the personal pension. The Aviva personal pension can also accept transfers from other personal pensions. You can pay regular contributions by direct debit every month.

You can pay in a single contribution at anytime by electronic funds transfer. You can do this instead of, or as well as, paying regular contributions.

Yes. You can increase your contributions at any time. You can also reduce your contribution to the minimum allowed (which is €100 monthly or €1,000 yearly) or to take a break from making contributions if you want to.

However, don’t forget that reducing or stopping your contributions will affect the value of your pension fund when you retire. Before making any decision to reduce or stop your contributions you should speak with your financial broker.

Yes. When you take out an Aviva personal pension, you can choose to have contributions increase by 5% each year. Before making any decision on your contributions you should speak with your Financial Broker.

Our separate ‘Retirement Guide’ explains all of the various options that may be available to you at retirement or talk to a Financial Broker today!