Ireland Auto-Enrolment Pension (MyFutureFund) Contribution Calculator

About the Ireland Auto-Enrolment Pension (MyFutureFund) Contribution Calculator

Ireland’s automatic enrolment retirement savings system — MyFutureFund — enrols employees who are aged 23 to under 60, earn €20,000 a year or more across all their jobs and have no pension through the payroll of their job. On each payment of pay the employee pays a set share of gross pay, the employer pays the same, and the State tops it up by a third of the employee’s share: 1.5%, 1.5% and 0.5% for payments in years 1 to 3 of the scheme, rising every three years to 6%, 6% and 2%.

Enter the payment date, the gross pay and how often it is paid, the date of birth and whether the job has a payroll pension. The calculator applies the tests of the Automatic Enrolment Retirement Savings System Act 2024 — the earnings threshold for the length of the pay period, the €80,000 yearly earnings limit, and the rates for the date of the payment — and shows the same pay in every phase of the rates, a year at other levels of pay, and the dates the Act sets for opting out, suspending and re-enrolment. Nothing you type leaves your browser. Without a pass the page gives a free preview of your own result: the enrolment tests, the rates and the dates, with every amount hidden until you unlock it with a Premium pass.

Who is enrolled automatically

For each pay reference period, NAERSA enrols a person who, on the last day of the period, is aged at least 23 and under 60, is an employee in an employment that is not exempt, and whose total gross pay in all employments in the period is at least the earnings threshold: €20,000 for a year, and proportionately more or less for a longer or shorter period (section 50) — about €384.62 a week, €769.23 a fortnight, €1,538.46 for four weeks or €1,666.67 a month, and €5,000 over 13 weeks. The calculator tests the pay period you enter; NAERSA sets the pay reference periods it uses.

An employment is exempt when the employee pays into, or the employer pays for the employee into, a qualifying occupational pension scheme, PRSA, trust RAC or PEPP through that job’s payroll (section 51). Employees outside the age or earnings tests can opt in from 18 until pensionable age (66), if their job is not exempt (section 53).

The rates, the State top-up and the earnings limit

The Act sets the rates by the years of the scheme, which began on 1 January 2026 (section 61):

• Years 1 to 3 (2026 to 2028): 1.5%, 1.5% and 0.5%;
• Years 4 to 6 (2029 to 2031): 3%, 3% and 1%;
• Years 7 to 9 (2032 to 2034): 4.5%, 4.5% and 1.5%;
• Year 10 onwards (from 2035): 6%, 6% and 2%.

So for every €3 the employee pays, the employer pays €3 and the State €1 (Citizens Information). Contributions are worked out on the gross pay of each payment, and no contribution is payable on the part of a payment that, with the gross pay earlier in the calendar year, goes above €80,000 (section 58(3)); the Minister may prescribe another limit (section 65). Contributions are made after tax: there is no tax relief on them.

Opting out, suspending and re-enrolment

• Opting out: in the window that is more than 6 months but not more than 8 months after the notice of enrolment (or re-enrolment), and in the same window after each rate rise, at the end of years 3, 6 and 9 (section 54). After the first window the employee’s own contributions are repaid; after a rate rise, only the increase. The employer’s and the State’s contributions stay in the fund (section 63).
• Suspending: from 6 months after the enrolment date, for at least one and at most two years (section 62).
• Re-enrolment: after the 2 years that begin with the opt-out date, if the person still qualifies (section 55). A participant who suspends or opts out is not making contributions meanwhile; one who stays a participant keeps contributing even below the age or the threshold, until pensionable age (section 57).

Limitations

• NAERSA decides each enrolment from the payroll data it receives and tells the employer what to deduct: the amounts here show the rules applied to the figures you enter.
• The earnings test uses the pay period you enter as the pay reference period; NAERSA may use another period.
• Amounts are rounded to the cent; a payroll system may round a cent differently.
• The opt-out window is worked out from the date of the notice, with calendar months as the Act states them; the dates NAERSA gives are what count.
• It does not compare MyFutureFund with an occupational pension or a PRSA, and it gives no tax or investment advice.

Privacy

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Everything happens in your browser. What you enter or open here is not uploaded or stored by MySmartCoPilot.