Personal retirement savings accounts (PRSAs)

A personal retirement savings account (PRSA) is an account you can use to save for your retirement. It is an investment account because you can invest your savings in various investment funds through your account. You can make regular payments or lump sum payments to your PRSA, and these are usually tax deductible. You don’t pay tax on any investment gains but you might end up paying a relatively low level of tax on the retirement benefits you get from your PRSA. You can take out a PRSA with an authorised PRSA provider.

A PRSA provides benefits at retirement based on the amount of payments or ‘contributions’ you have paid in and the investment returns earned on those contributions.

PRSAs are available to you regardless of your job or employment status. You can take out a PRSA if you are a part-time or casual employee, a highly paid professional, self-employed, a homemaker, a carer, a jobseeker, a contractor, an employer, an employee or a partner in a partnership.

PRSAs are flexible; you can increase, decrease or stop your contributions at any time without any charge or penalty. PRSAs are portable; you can carry your PRSA from job to job or transfer it to another PRSA provider without any charge or penalty.

If your employer does not provide you with access to an occupational pension scheme or if certain restrictions apply to their scheme, then you must be provided with access to a Standard PRSA. 

For further information about PRSAs, see the guide on ‘PRSAs – A consumer and employers’ guide’ on this page. A register of PRSA providers and their approved products is also available below along with details of the charges that apply too.