Irish people now live longer than ever, and retirement makes up a considerable portion of our lives. With the life expectancy in Ireland being 82 years and the state retirement age at 66 years, you’ll spend about 16 years in retirement. It is an expensive time because it’s likely that your income will have stopped or been considerably reduced. This is why it’s essential to plan for your retirement.

A solid retirement plan is invaluable for retirement and financial matters. But retirement planning is more than just stashing away money for the future. We want to help you to live a rich and fulfilled life. This retirement planning guide will help you to work towards a happy retirement.

Before you retire, here are a few things you should consider:

Start Planning For Retirement Early

It would help if you started planning your retirement as early as possible. It’s never too early. Set up a pension as soon as you can so you have more time for it to grow instead of waiting until you reach your fifties or even older. A small regular payment started in your twenties or thirties could deliver big results in your retirement. Several pension products are available, including self-administered pensions, personal pension plans, and corporate pension schemes. 

Establish a plan to monitor your income and outgoings. This helps to monitor and control your revenues early enough so your spending doesn’t spiral out of control in retirement. It’s also important to acknowledge that you’ll spend more money when you’re not working. 

File Your Tax Returns

One of the essential steps in retirement planning is filing your tax returns. Why? Regularly filing your PAYE returns ensures that you’re entitled to many tax benefits and credits that can give a fund boost to your pension plan. These include medical expense reliefs, flat-rate allowances for different professions, and even age allowance. Not to mention that there’s tax relief for pension contributions.

Make New Friends

While most of our social network is work-related while in employment, it’s essential to get involved in your community and get to know people in your local area. Take part in local events during the weekends, volunteer for community charities, and have time for a chat in the pub or café. In retirement, this regional network of friends can be a considerable comfort. It will also help you to stay active. You’ll need more than money for retirement to be a pleasure for you.

Get Professional Advice

When it comes to retirement planning, everyone will have some advice to give. Family, friends, and even colleagues. But it’s essential to consult professionally qualified financial advisors for your retirement planning. They’re in the best position to inform you about available pension plans and other investment opportunities. Financial advisors also give you impartial guidance and advice.

Want Help From The Experts?

Even with state support for pensioners, you still need to manage your retirement planning. We can help you take control of your retirement plans by carefully finding and planning suitable pension product structures to achieve your goals. We will also help you leverage various tax savings to grow your retirement fund. 

If you would like to learn more about how we help our clients achieve their retirement objectives, we’d be glad to schedule an appointment with an expert.

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The Budget 2022, announced on October 12, 2021, set out several measures intended to broaden businesses and other sectors post COVID-19. These include personal tax increases and increased incentives for people working from home. Besides modest changes to income tax rate bands and credits, the government also announced expenditure measures in critical sectors such as social welfare, health, housing, education, and employment. For example, the Employment Wage Subsidy Scheme (EWSS) was extended to April 30, 2022.

This article looks at Budget 2022 highlights and some of the key tax changes you should know. Let’s get right into it:

1. Personal Tax

While the Finance Bill 2021 retained the income tax rates, there are changes to income tax bands and increases to tax credits. The government announced an addition to the standard rate tax band of €1,500. This will see the income tax standard rate band for single earners increase from €35,300 to €36,800 while married couples and civil partners’ band increase from €44,300 to €45,800.

The widow or surviving civil partner (without a dependent child), employee, earned income, personal tax credits will also increase by €50.

Employees who work from home will be able to claim a 30% tax relief for vouched expenses for broadband, heat, and electricity. The Universal Social Charge (USC) will remain the same, but the band will be increased to €21,295 so minimum wage workers’ salaries can stay outside the higher rates of USC. 

The Help to Buy Property Scheme will also be extended to December 2022.

2. Business Tax

As mentioned, the EWSS will be extended to the end of April. The Employment Investment Incentive (IEE) scheme will also be extended and expanded. The corporate tax for most Irish companies will still be 12.5%. However, businesses with over €750 million in annual turnovers will pay 15% corporate tax. 

Businesses in the digital gaming sector will enjoy a 32% tax credit on eligible expenditures of up to €25 million per project. Additionally, accelerated capital allowances for energy-efficient equipment will be extended up to the end of 2024. Pay Related Social Insurance (PRSI) threshold increased from €398 to €410 per week. This ensures that employers don’t reduce the working hours for full-time minimum wage employees.

Lastly, the Finance Bill 2021 plans to introduce anti-avoidance legislation for multinationals.

3. Covid-19 Recovery

To support economic recovery from Covid-19 restrictions, the government is pumping €7 billion in funding to various sectors. Nearly €3 billion will be allocated to industries with high certainty on costs while over €4 billion has been placed in a contingency fund.

The funding includes:

• €100 million for Pandemic Unemployment Payment (PUP) payments for January 2022
• €800 million for Covid-19 testing, contact tracing, vaccinations, personal protective equipment (PPE), and the HSE Winter Plan
• €200 million to support public transport
• €200 million for the live entertainment, hospitality, and tourism sectors 
• €150 million for the safe running of schools, and for additional education and training places
• €600 million for the extension of the EWSS up to April 2022

The other tax measures include a tax increase on tobacco products, a 0.1% decrease on farmers’ flat rate, and the revision of vehicle registration tax (VRT) upwards. If you have any questions on Budget 2022 or taxation, our experienced expert accountants will be happy to share their insights with you. Get in touch with us.