When a company is performing well, it is important to maintain staff morale and one of the best ways to maintain staffing consistency is to contribute to a company pension arrangement.
The expectation is that Auto Enrolment will begin in early 2024 meaning that approximately 750,000 employees who are aged between 23 and 60, earning over €20,000 across
employments, and who are not already enrolled in an occupational pension scheme will be auto enrolled.
With Auto Enrolment, contributions will be paid by employees, and matched by their employers, as a percentage of the employee’s gross income. The State will top-up the rest. This will be done through a Central Processing Unit. The rates of contribution will be phased-in gradually over a decade as follows:
Year Employee Employer State
Years 1 – 3 1.5% 1.5% 0.5%
Years 4 – 6 3% 3% 1%
Years 7 – 9 4.5% 4.5% 1.5%
Year 10 + 6% 6% 2%
Employer contributions and the State top-up will be capped at a maximum €80,000 of an employee’s
gross salary. Employees may contribute on earnings greater than €80,000 if they wish.
Auto Enrolment will be welcome for lower rate workers so they will have a better standard of living in retirement years. However, employers are advised that setting up a traditional scheme for employers on the higher tax rate will experience better tax relief if a separate scheme can be started to keep this cohert happier. Its also noteworthy that contributions will be fixed with the Auto Enrolment Scheme scheme, whereby most employees will wish to contribute an additional voluntary contribution to their retirement plan along their investment journey which can be easily done anytime with a traditional company pension plan.
Why choose Mark Cahill Financial Services?
- Mark Cahill Financial Services can provide the most suitable pension arrangememet to meet your needs, be it Company Pension, self directed pension, PRSA, personal pension, SSAP, Unit trust.
- You will have a choice between the leading life insurance companies, investment & trustee houses in todays marketplace and we can transfer your from one institution to another if this suits your needs better along your pension journey.
- We are experienced in business exit strategies and are comfortable linking in with professional accountants and CTA tax specialists, when discussing pension planning alongide business exit strategies utilising retirement relief and Revised entrepreneurial relief.
- Upon being provided leaving service options when changing employment, we can provide concise advice in relation to all course of action and recommend the best strategy to align with your future plans and goals.
- As tax efficient financial planning is core to our ethos here, we will discuss other tax efficient investments that may be more preferable to your medium risk goals, for example EII investment, CGT investment.
- Mark Cahill Financial Services offer a very personalised service to both employer and its scheme members in the form of group presentations and one to one consultations.
- Mark Cahill Financial Services is an Investment Intermediary with access to different pension providers.
- The setting up process with 1 specialist advisor will be handled quickly and efficiently, minimising total downtime.
- Your account will be handled by a QFA (Qualified Financial Advisor) with a specialist pension discipline RPA (Retirement Planning Advisor) and specialist investment discipline (Specialist Investment Advisor) and Mark is also a PTP (Pension Trustee Practicioner)
- Mark Cahill Financial Services can help you minimise onerous trustee responsibilities.
- Mark Cahill Financial Services can also assist with setting up Group Death in Service (Life Cover as a multiple of staff members salary) and Group Income Protection (Sickness and Disability Cover), which is a very cost effective way to reward and maintain employees.
- Mark Cahill Financial Services will keep you and your staff updated in relation to relevant budgetary and market changes.
