For a PRSA, both yours and your employers contributions count towards your limit.
For an occ scheme, your employer's contribution doesn't count.
I am a bit confused about this. From research, I thought that if you
weren't in an occupational scheme, i.e. were in a stand-alone PRSA where your employer
did not offer any form of company pension, that your Revenue tax relief percentage limits (i.e. 15%, 20% etc.) were
not affected by an employer contribution. I.E. if I am under 40, I can contribute 20% and my employer can contribute say 5% and I will not breach the maximum allowable contributions as these are different for the 'PRSA 1 (Net Pay) Certificate' scenario - see pages 18/19 of [broken link removed]. If on the other hand I am in an occupational scheme, and am making contributions to an AVC PRSA, the max allowable contribution is set at 20%.
I could be wrong on this however, as that Tax Briefing is nearly 5 years old and maybe has been corrected by a document I can't find. I would greatly appreciate it if someone could put me straight on this, as it is very difficult to get a firm answer!
On a similar issue, when do the age bands change - i.e. I remember reading somewhere that you qualify for the 30-39 band, or the 40-49 band
in the year in which you turn 30 or 40, so that for example if your 40th birthday is 31 December 2007 you can utilise the 40-49 max. allowable contribution band from 1 January 2007. Is this correct?