Hi Judgedeeds,
Sorry if my reply is too late but I have just joined the site and saw that nobody has replied to you.
Without knowing further information we cannot really determine a proper course of action for you so I will give you all the facts as I understand them but maybe someone would clarify if I'm not correct or it may be worth seeking financial advice from someone who is 100% sure on it. Your redundancy payment will be made up of two different sections:
1. Statutory redundancy
2. Any additional redundancy payment from your employer
Statutory redundancy amount
This is all tax free which equates to 2 weeks pay for every year you have worked there + 1 weeks pay
Options for benefits over statutory without using SCSB options
Basic exemption
In addition to the tax free statutory you are also entitled to a tax exemption of the following:
1. €10,160 + €765 for each year service
2. If you are willing to sign a waiver to pension scheme tax free cash at retirement you can increase this amount by a further €10,000 but this should be looked at carefully as it will have an impact at retirement. Alternatively if tax free cash at retirement is a small amount eg €5,000 you don't have to sign a waiver but keep the tax at retirement and increase the amount by the remainder (in my example of tax free cash being 5k you could increase your amount by 5k instead of the 10k.
Please note point 2 above is subject to having claimed for tax relief on a termination payment in the last 10 years.
Options for benefits over statutory using SCSB options
This calculation is really only suitable for someone on a higher salary or long service which again I don't have this info so you'll have to calculate which is your best option. This calculation is also for any amounts over the statutory redundancy and is calculated using the following formula:
Step 1. Add last 3 years salaries together and then divide by 3
Step 2. Total up completed years service (has to be full years) and divide by 15
Step 3. This is the answer to step 1 multiplied by the answer to step 3
Step 4. This it the answer to step Less any tax free cash entitlement from your pension scheme.
You can also opt to sign a waiver to tax free cash at retirement to increase the tax free now but again this should be looked at carefully.
Finally to answer your question without knowing which one of the above works out best we can't really tell you which option works out better but by following the above calculations your should be able to work it out yourself.
Again, I hope my reply was in time to help you consider your options.