This year has brought a lot of legislative changes particularly around pensions, with more to come in 2025.
There has been a lot of changes and as we approach the end of the year we thought we would do a quick summary of these:
PRSAs (Personal Retirement Savings Plans)
These gave opportunities to Company Directors to fund their pensions without limitation (apart from the SFT limit). In this year’s Finance Act, the Government have changed the funding rules again for PRSAs and this means funding will now be capped from January 2025 onwards.
Standard Fund Threshold
The Standard Fund Threshold is set to increase for the first time in 10 years! It will increase on a phased basis by €200,000 each year between 2026 to 2029 – bringing it up to €2.6 million in 2029. From 2030, the SFT will then be indexed-linked to increases in average earnings as per the CSO data.
Year Standard Fund Threshold
2024 €2,000,000
2025 €2,000,000
2026 €2,200,000
2027 €2,400,000
2028 €2,600,000
2029 €2,800,000
Master Trust for group schemes
New European Union rules mean that all company pension plans in Ireland are required to join a Master Trust arrangement or alternatively be faced with significantly more onerous reporting and regulation if they wanted to remain as a stand-alone scheme.
Earlier this year the Pensions Council published a practical guide to Master Trust transition exercises for Employers and Trustees – called the Practical Guide. This guide sets out some of the practical steps and considerations which it has identified that both the Employer and Trustee need to pay particular attention to when working through a move to Master Trust.
Auto-Enrolment Pension Scheme
The Government’s new Auto-Enrolment pension scheme is due to launch next year on 30th September 2025. This new scheme is called ‘My Future Fund’ and is aimed at employees who are not paying into a pension. Employees will be automatically included in the scheme but can opt out after 6 months. This long-awaited scheme will see an extra 800,000 workers being automatically added into a Private Pension Scheme, in addition to the State Pension.
If you need help with your Retirement Planning reach out to the office on 061 – 412388, or contact Gráinne on grainne@sunrisefinancialplanning.ie
