Aviva Personal Retirement Savings Account (PRSA)

For the Aviva PRSA, the minimum age is 19 next birthday and the maximum age is 72 next birthday.

Your contributions to a PRSA will be eligible for income tax relief up to the current maximum annual contributions shown in the table below. These limits will vary with your age and your net relevant earnings:

1. An individual’s ‘net relevant earnings’ are their earnings from a trade, profession or employment, less relevant losses, capital allowances and certain other payments.
2. The above limits apply to the total contributions paid by you (into their PRSA and other pensions).
3. The maximum ‘net relevant earnings’ on which tax relief can be claimed is €115,000 (May 2023).

Tax relief reduces the real cost of a pension. You do not have to pay tax on any money (which falls within the limits set out above) that you put into a PRSA. 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 = €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.

How you get tax relief will depend on how contributions are paid to your PRSA.

If the contributions are deducted from your salary by your employer, the deduction will be made before PAYE is applied. Therefore, the tax relief will be effective immediately (at source).

If you pay the contribution directly to Aviva from your own bank account, you will need to make the necessary submissions to the Revenue in order to claim any tax relief due. We will issue you with a PRSA Tax Certificate, a copy of which the Revenue may request as confirmation of the payment made to the PRSA.

Once you put money into a PRSA, you can’t withdraw it until you reach your normal retirement age.

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

If you die before you retire, we’ll pay the value of your Aviva PRSA 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 PRSA to a bank or another institution as security for a loan.

You can pay regular or single contributions to the Aviva PRSA. The Aviva PRSA can also accept transfers from other PRSAs (and any other relevant 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 €50 monthly or €600 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.

Yes. When taking out an Aviva PRSA, you can choose to have contributions increase by 5% each year.

Our separate ‘Retirement Guide’ explains all of the various options that may be available to customers at retirement.