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Pensions after 50: catching up, taking benefits early, and what comes after

Rules as at 24 September 2026. Budget 2027 is on 6 October 2026 and could change them.

Three things change as you pass 50: how much of what you pay in gets tax relief, when some pensions can be taken, and the choice of what to do with a pension when you take it.

Catching up

The share of your earnings that can get tax relief rises with age: 30% from 50 to 54, 35% from 55 to 59, and 40% from 60 on, on earnings up to €115,000 a year. If you are in a pension at work, AVCs (additional voluntary contributions) count within the same limit, together with what you already pay in.

The pension calculator shows what a monthly amount could grow to by the time you retire, and what tax relief adds.

Taking benefits early

  • A pension from a job you have left can, if the scheme’s rules allow it, be taken from 50. You have to have left that employment, and the employer or the trustees generally have to agree. A director with 20% or more of the company generally has to cut all links with it first, including selling the shares.
  • A PRSA (Personal Retirement Savings Account) is normally taken from 60, and from 50 if you retire from an employment.
  • A personal pension is taken from 60, earlier only in a few occupations and with Revenue’s approval.
  • A Personal Retirement Bond follows the rules of the scheme its money came from.

Taking a pension early makes it smaller. Fewer contributions go in, what went in has less time to grow, and an income bought from it costs more, because it is paid for more years. The tax-free amount you can take can be lower too. Early access is a trade, not a bonus.

What comes after: an ARF or an annuity

When you take a pension, after any lump sum, the rest usually goes one of two ways.

  • An annuity is an income for life, bought from a life company with your pension fund. How much it pays depends on annuity rates when you buy, and it can include a guaranteed period of up to 10 years, a pension for a spouse, and yearly increases. The income is taxed.
  • An ARF (Approved Retirement Fund) is your own fund, kept invested, that you draw from as you choose. It is not guaranteed: its value can fall. Growth inside it is not taxed, but what you take out is taxed as income. From the year you turn 61 you are taxed on at least 4% of it a year, whether you take it or not: 5% from the year you turn 71, and 6% of all of it if your ARFs and vested PRSAs together come to more than €2 million. An ARF can buy an annuity at any time.

Neither suits everyone: one gives certainty, the other flexibility and the risk that comes with it. The Approved Minimum Retirement Fund, which some people once had to buy, was abolished from 1 January 2022, and any that existed became ARFs.

Want to go through it?

Which of this applies depends on the pensions you have and when you want to stop working. Book a free call with Damian, or check how much of the Standard Fund Threshold your pensions would use.

This page is general information, not advice. Sources: Revenue, “Tax relief limits on pension contributions”; Revenue Pensions Manual, chapters 9, 21, 23, 24 and 28; the Pensions Authority, “Early retirement” and “What are my pension options?”; Citizens Information, “Personal pensions”; the CCPC, “Personal pensions”.