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The Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings Systems Act 2024, signed into law in July 2024, establishes a new retirement savings scheme known as “My Future Fund,� which provides a financial retirement plan for employees who are not already part of a pension related regime.

• A commencement order was signed on September 30, 2024, providing for the scheme to begin on September 30, 2025. As of that date, employees will be automatically enrolled if they are between the ages of 23 and 60, earn more than â‚�20,000 per year, and are not in “exempt employment.â€� Employees aged 18-23 and 60-66 who are not in exempt employment may voluntarily opt into the scheme.
• Exempt employment includes employment in which contributions (either employee or employer) are being made to a qualifying occupational pension scheme, qualifying personal retirement savings account (PRSA), qualifying trust retirement annuity contract (RAC), or qualifying pan-European pension product (PEPP) and the employer is obliged under PAYE regulations to include details of those contributions on the monthly statutory payroll return.
• Employees will be able to opt-out of the scheme during the opt-out window, which is between six months and eight months after the date they were automatically enrolled (or re-enrolled). If they choose to opt out, employees will be refunded their own contributions since enrollment, but the employer or state contributions will remain for their benefit in the fund. Employees will also be able to suspend their contributions for up to two years from six months after enrollment, re-enrollment, or a period of previous suspension. Similarly, a period of suspension can be terminated on any date before the end of the set two-year period by way of notification. Employer and state contributions also cease during any suspension period.
• The law does not specifically address a number of tax matters associated with the scheme, but many were addressed in the Finance Act 2024 passed into law in late December 2024, including:
  • Employee contributions payable under the scheme will not be eligible for income tax relief. State top-up contribution (which will be provided instead of tax relief on employee contributions) will not be treated as income of the employee for tax purposes.
  • A corporate tax deduction is available for employer contributions paid for a contributing participant.
  • Employer contributions will not be taxed as a benefit in kind on the employee.
  • Income and gains derived from investments will be exempt while held in the scheme.
  • The scheme will be viewed as a “relevant pension arrangement,â€� which means the fund value will be aggregated with the value of all such pensions arrangements of the individual to assess whether or not the standard fund threshold (SFT) has been breached at retirement, with the excess aggregate value above the relevant SFT considered taxable. In addition, any lump sum taken from the scheme must be aggregated with lumps sums taken from other such arrangements when considering the lifetime tax-free limit available (currently â‚�200,000).

Read a March 2025 report prepared by the ÀÖÓ㣨Leyu£©ÌåÓý¹ÙÍø member firm in Ireland