avc lump sum - any way of taking the money out before retirement in a lump sum without paying tax on it ?

[thebhoy]

hi
i work in the public sector and have a a-v-c . i havent paid into it for a number of years now, as i will have forty years service done before retirement age
my question is, is there any way of taking the money out before retirement in a lump sum without paying tax on it ?

 

[Conan]

hi
i work in the public sector and have a a-v-c . i havent paid into it for a number of years now, as i will have forty years service done before retirement age
my question is, is there any way of taking the money out before retirement in a lump sum without paying tax on it ?

No
An AVC is a pension fund linked to your main occupational pension. If you will have max service (40 years) , you possibly could use some of the AVC pot to increase your retirement lump sum, as follows:
- if you have more than 40 years by retirement, you can get an additional lump sum of 3/80ths x Final Salary for each year in excess of 40
- if you have occupational income which is not pensionable (eg bonus, allowances etc) , such income is allowable for calculating your max lump sum. So if for example you have additional income of say €5,000 then you could take 150% of such (€7,500) as an additional lump sum at retirement
Any funds remaining in the AVC pot after perhaps taking some as a lump sum, can then be invested into an ARF, from which you can draw down an additional income as required (but obviously subject to tax).

 

[Early Riser]

if you have more than 40 years by retirement, you can get an additional lump sum of 3/80ths x Final Salary for each year in excess of 40

The additional service would also have to come after normal retirement age.
I believe from previous posts that @thebhoy has a normal retirement age of 65, so it would have to be service after that age for this to work. I suspect that he has no way to access this money other than as taxable income post retirement.