Who can have a SSAS (Small Self Administered Pension Scheme)?
You can set up SSAS pension if you are:
- a director who is a company owner and paid a salary OR
- an employee with agreement from your employer.
What is a SSAS pension?
A SSAS pension is a tax-efficient occupational pension plan. It offers additional benefits to the conventional pension schemes provided by life-assurance companies. A SSAS is self-administered, which allows you to control your contributions and investments. Traditionally, a SSAS has fewer than 12 members, but some providers - such as Independent Trustee Company - provide one-member schemes only.
Under Revenue rules, an approved independent Pensioneer Trustee is appointed to your scheme and they administer it in line with Revenue’s rules and regulations. You will act as co-trustee on your SSAS with the Revenue-approved Pensioneer Trustee, such as Independent Trustee Company.
What are the benefits of a SSAS?
All SSASs provide a variety of benefits to you and your company/employer.
Your benefits:
- Your SSAS is flexible and can change to suit your circumstances.
- Your SSAS is portable, which means you can continue to use it even if you change employer.
- You can enjoy tax relief at your highest rate of tax on any personal contributions made (subject to Revenue limits).
- You have no tax liability for any company/employer contributions made on your behalf.
- Your SSAS assets grow free of both capital gains tax and income tax.
- You may retire at age 50 and take your benefits.
- You can plan how your eventual retirement benefits are taken, in order to reduce your tax liability. For example, you may take a portion of your benefits as a tax-free lump sum and/or set up an Approved Retirement Fund (ARF) to keep your investments in a tax-efficient environment.
- If you are a company director, your company’s current profits and retained earnings can be transferred into your SSAS for your benefit.
Your company/employer benefits:
- Your company/employer can claim full corporation tax relief on company contributions made to your SSAS to reduce their corporation tax liability.
- Your company/employer is not required to act as trustee or administrator on your SSAS, which reduces their obligations.
- Your company/employer can vary contributions each year to suit the financial circumstances of the company.
- Your SSAS is confidential and separate from any other staff benefits scheme within the company.
- Your company/employer can use a SSAS as a tool for the remunerating, motivating and retaining key employees who are not directors.
- Your company/employer can use the SSAS as part of an efficient business exit plan for retiring directors or key employees.
Why choose an ITC SSAS?
1. Control:
As co-trustee of your SSAS, you have control over investment and funding decisions. Your signature is required to authorise any movement of funds within your SSAS.
You do not have to delegate the responsibility to an insurance company fund manager who considers you one among many policyholders. You create a personal investment plan that fits your appetite for risk, your budget and your retirement target.
Your investment choices can be sourced from a wide variety of Irish and international investment providers. For example, you can invest in lower-risk investments such as cash or government stocks, or in higher-risk investments such as mezzanine finance and private equities. You can do this on your own or with a Financial Advisor.
You control when to start and stop or increase and decrease contributions to suit your circumstances, rather than according to the terms of an insurance company contract.
2. Transparency:
You will be provided with details on the set-up costs before you make any decision. The ongoing cost of your SSAS is fully transparent and depends on your investment strategy, which you control.
You have online access to the operating bank account. This allows you to track the movement of monies within your SSAS in real time.
You receive annual accounts on all income and expenditure of your SSAS to allow you to keep track of your funds. Our ITC SSAS compares favourably with the pensions of an insurance company, which is likely to issue an annual statement showing the value of the units you hold in their funds.
3. Flexibility:
Your needs and circumstances shape the investment strategy and the level and timing of contributions. For example, if your salary has been cut you can reduce or stop the contributions to your SSAS at no charge.
Your SSAS is portable, which means you can continue to use it even if you change employer. Unlike an insurance company pension scheme, you will not be required to cash in all investments so it can be moved to your new employer’s scheme.
You have the flexibility to plan how your eventual retirement benefits are taken, to suit your circumstances.
4. Security:
Your pension assets are held in trust on your behalf, through a SSAS. This means that they are completely segregated from our assets, other clients' assets and your company/employer’s assets. This differs from insurance companies, which hold pension assets on their balance sheet.
If your company fails, your SSAS is secure from claims by creditors.
What are the next steps?
- Contact us or your Financial Advisor.
- Download our brochure (pdf, 514KB) and our application form (pdf, 241KB)
- For further details, take a look at our FAQ.