Paying into wife's PRSA

[Westbound]

Hi

If I set up a PRSA for my wife, who is leaving work for a while, what happens to the tax relief that would normally be granted to her? She will have no income for a while. Can I claim the relief?

 

[ClubMan]

Can I claim the relief?

Not as far as I know. You can only claim relief on contributions to your own pension/PRSA. Normally if an PRSA holder makes contributions to his/her PRSA while not in a position to benefit from tax/PRSI relief (e.g. not earning enough to pay tax) then s/he can carry the contributions forward and claim relief (within the usual limits) when s/he does start paying tax/PRSI again. However I'm not sure if you can do this against contributions made from the spouse's income.