Company Pensions are designed to cater for the retirement income of the employees of a business.

The employer arranges the scheme and makes tax deductible contributions to the fund on behalf of the employee. The employee can also contribute a fixed amount or a percentage of their salary to the Company Pension Scheme in order to avail of further tax incentives.

Tax breaks for the Employer include:

For the Employee – Contributions do not have to be made by employees but many participate in order to take advantage of tax benefits including:

The employer can offer a Company Pension Scheme to the employees and make contributions on their behalf. These contributions are generally a percentage of the employees salary which are deducted at source from their salary, ensuring that they automatically avail of the tax relief afforded by the scheme.

Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) can be made by the employee, many of whom choose to do this in order to avail of further tax savings.

The structure of the Company Pension Scheme varies quite a lot, so employees should be aware of:

• How much their employer is contributing on their behalf

• How much the employee is expected to contribute

• What the scheme will represent in terms of retirement income for the employee

A Company Pension Plan must meet strict legal requirements and revenue rules about:

• Contributions made by employer

• Additional Voluntary Contributions made by the employee

• The options afforded to the employee on retirement