Auto-enrolment gets no tax relief. A pension through a broker does.
Auto-enrolment against a personal pension, for your own salary and age. Or both together, if you want to save more. It shows you the numbers. It does not pick for you.
Your details
Slide, or tap a value to type any amount.
Auto-enrolment works on salary up to €80,000. Above that it takes nothing.
Starts at the same cost to you as auto-enrolment, and goes back to that if you change your salary or age. Move it to what you would actually pay.
Only what your employer has actually agreed to.
From your own pocket, on top of auto-enrolment. It goes through a personal pension, because My Future Fund only takes its set rate.
A share of the top-up itself, not of your salary.
Rates rise in three-year steps.
Sets where your tax moves from 20% to 40%, and so the tax relief on a personal pension.
€44,000 of your salary taxed at 20%€6,000 at 40%
Everything paid in, by 66
Both paths, every year from now to 66, grown at 5% a year.
Illustration only · the value of investments can fall as well as rise. Auto-enrolment’s rates phase up and the relief limit rises with age; salary, your own contribution and any employer match are held where you set them. Figures ignore charges and inflation.
Money above the cap
What it actually costs you
Personal pension, broken down
Your relief limit
Revenue's limit on the contributions that get tax relief, as a share of earnings.
At 35, relief applies to contributions up to €10,000 a year: 20% of €50,000.
Earnings count up to €115,000.
What it actually costs you
Your top-up, broken down
Choosing your funds, and how much risk
My Future Fund invests your money in a small set of standard funds, with limited choice. A personal pension arranged through a broker gives access to a wider range of funds, and lets you choose a risk level that suits you. That applies to the personal pension here, whether it is instead of auto-enrolment or on top of it.
Funds carry a risk rating from 1 (lowest) to 7 (highest), the same scale you will see on any fund’s Key Information Document. Three illustrations, not a menu:
Higher potential returns mean a higher risk of loss. The value of a pension can fall as well as rise, and you may get back less than you put in. These figures are illustrations, not a recommendation of any level, and not a forecast. Which level suits you depends on things this page cannot see, and choosing one is a conversation with Damian.
Under auto-enrolment on its own, your money goes into My Future Fund’s standard funds and the choice is limited to those.
Talk the choice through with DamianAuto-enrolment, broken down
Before you rely on these rates
Checked against gov.ie on 10 September 2026: the 2026 contribution rates, and that all three contributions stop at €80,000 of salary. Still taken from third-party summaries rather than the primary text: the later phase rates and years, and the position that the scheme does not currently accept contributions above its set rate. Confirm those against gov.ie or NAERSA before relying on them. Rates and rules can change.
A calculator can see your salary. It cannot see your employer.
Which path suits you depends on things a calculator cannot see: your employer, your circumstances, and what you want retirement to look like. Damian will talk it through in a free 20-minute chat. Plain English, no obligation.
This calculator is information, not advice. It produces illustrations to help you think, based on the figures and assumptions you choose. It isn't a personal recommendation, and it does not say which path is right for you. Regulated financial advice is given in a personal consultation with Damian, where we take the time to understand your situation first.
The assumptions behind these numbers
- All figures are contributions for a single year at the salary you entered. They are not projections of a retirement fund, and they ignore investment growth, product charges and inflation. The value of investments can fall as well as rise.
- Auto-enrolment rates are 1.5% employee, 1.5% employer and 0.5% State in years 1 to 3, rising in three-year steps to 6%, 6% and 2% from year 10. The ratio is always 3 employee to 3 employer to 1 State. The 2026 rates are confirmed at gov.ie; the later steps are from summaries of the scheme. The phase slider starts on the current year’s phase.
- Your year2026 to 20281.5%, 1.5%, 0.5%
- Your year2029 to 20313%, 3%, 1%
- Your year2032 to 20344.5%, 4.5%, 1.5%
- Your year2035 onward6%, 6%, 2%
YouYour employerThe State
- All three auto-enrolment contributions, yours, your employer’s and the State’s, are calculated on salary up to €80,000, which gov.ie confirms. Payroll stops the deduction after the pay period in which that threshold is crossed, so a little can be paid on earnings above it in that period; this annual illustration ignores that.
- Auto-enrolment contributions are deducted from net, after-tax pay and attract no marginal income tax relief. The employer match and the State top-up are the benefit on that layer.
- My Future Fund does not currently accept contributions above its set rate, which is why Mode 2 routes anything extra through a personal pension. That position is current as of September 2026, comes from third-party summaries rather than the legislation itself, and should be confirmed against gov.ie or NAERSA. If that changes, so does the premise of Mode 2.
- A personal pension or PRSA gets tax relief at 40% on the part of a contribution that sits above your standard rate cut-off point and at 20% on the rest, because a contribution comes off the top of your taxable income. It is limited to Revenue’s age-related percentage of earnings (15% under 30, rising in steps to 40% at 60 and over), with earnings capped at €115,000 for the calculation. A contribution above that limit still reaches your pension, it just gets no relief. PRSI and USC are not modelled. In Mode 2 the top-up is treated as its own contribution, independent of the auto-enrolment layer.
- The standard rate cut-off points are the 2026 figures from Revenue: €44,000 single, €53,000 married or in a civil partnership with one income, and up to €88,000 with two incomes. The €88,000 is a maximum, reached only where the lower earner has at least €35,000 of income of their own; a couple with one income is €53,000 whatever they earn. These change most years.
- Money above the cap is your own contribution rate applied to the part of your salary above €80,000. Auto-enrolment never takes it, so it stays in your take-home pay. The figure for what a personal pension could turn it into uses the same relief as everything else on this page. It is an illustration of where that money could go, not a suggestion to leave or reduce auto-enrolment.
- A personal pension carries no automatic employer or State contribution. In Mode 1 the employer figure is a percentage of salary; in Mode 2 it is a percentage of the top-up itself. Both are zero unless you set them, and only apply if your employer separately agrees to contribute.
- Eligibility for auto-enrolment, and whether you can stay in or opt out, depends on your age, earnings and whether you are already in a workplace scheme. This tool does not check eligibility.
- The three risk illustrations use the 1 to 7 Summary Risk Indicator that EU rules require on every fund’s Key Information Document. The return figures are long-term annual assumptions for illustration, chosen to sit inside the 1% to 8% range the site’s other calculators use and with the medium level at their 5% default, so no two pages imply different growth. The “bad year” figures are rough indications of a fall, not a limit: a fund can lose more. All six figures are placeholders awaiting confirmation against the fund ranges Gresham can actually arrange.
- Fund choice on a personal pension or PRSA is wider than My Future Fund’s, but it is still a set menu from the provider. This page does not claim access to any particular asset class.
- Figures are illustrations, not a guarantee of any outcome, and not personalised advice.