A UK pension, and living in Ireland

Rules as at 24 September 2026. Both countries change their rules at their Budgets.

If you worked in the UK and now live in Ireland, you may have a UK workplace or personal pension, and a UK State Pension. What can move, what it can cost, and how Ireland taxes what you are paid.

Moving a UK pension to Ireland

A UK workplace or personal pension can only be moved to an Irish scheme that HMRC recognises as a qualifying recognised overseas pension scheme, a QROPS. Moving it anywhere else, the UK scheme may refuse, or the move is taxed at 40% or more.

Since 30 October 2024, a move to a QROPS in the European Economic Area is no longer free of the UK’s 25% Overseas Transfer Charge just because it is in the EEA. It stays free of it mainly when you live in the same country as the QROPS and the move is within your overseas transfer allowance, usually £1,073,100. If you then move to another country within five years, the 25% can apply after all.

The UK State Pension

The UK State Pension is claimed from, and paid by, the UK, if you paid enough National Insurance. It can be paid into an Irish bank account, and it goes up each year while you live in the EEA, which includes Ireland. The QROPS route above is for workplace and personal pensions, not the State Pension.

How Ireland taxes it

A UK pension paid to someone who lives in Ireland is generally taxed in Ireland, not the UK, under the two countries’ tax treaty: income tax and USC, but not PRSI, and a State pension is not liable to USC. A pension for UK government service is the exception: it is usually taxed only in the UK, unless you are an Irish citizen and not also a British one.

Finding a UK pension

The UK government’s Pension Tracing Service finds contact details for UK schemes, free. It does not say whether you have a pension or what it is worth; the scheme does. For pensions from Irish jobs, we can help you find them.

Worth a conversation

Whether moving a UK pension makes sense depends on what it gives you now, what a move would cost in tax and charges, and where you expect to live. There is no general answer, and this page does not give one. Book a free call with Damian to go through yours.

This page is general information, not advice. Sources: GOV.UK, “Transferring your pension: transferring to an overseas pension scheme” and “State Pension if you retire abroad”; HMRC, “Reducing tax-free overseas transfers of tax relieved UK pensions” (30 October 2024) and Pensions Tax Manual PTM102200; Revenue, “Taxation of foreign pensions”; the Ireland–UK double taxation convention, articles 17 and 18; Citizens Information, “Returning to Ireland from the United Kingdom”.