Free €10,000 life cover offer

A recent survey by Irish Life discovered that 2 out of 3 people who have life cover only have enough to protect their mortgage and have none to protect their children or dependants in the event of their death.

As a way of raising awareness, Irish Life are giving away €10,000 of free life cover for year to the first 20,000 people who sign up. There's no catch - the cover is free and anyone can apply provided that they're under 55 and have at least one child aged 13 and under.

Click here to get more information or apply. Or if you know people who might be interested, send them this link.

If you have any queries just drop me an e-mail to liam@ferga.com

An Irish institution bites the dust

I couldn't help feeling a little bit sentimental when I got a notification on Friday last that the EBS Building Society has been replaced by EBS Limited with immediate effect. While it may seem like just a name change and has no impact on customers' accounts, it's actually more than that. It's the demise of the old Educational Building Society, a mutual society founded in 1935 to help teachers and civil servants to buy homes. In its place is EBS Limited, a limited company which will soon become a part of AIB.

It is a shame to see an old mutual society disappear like this, even if the name will continue. Mutuals are owned by their members and would traditionally offer better value for money than private or public companies, which are run for the benefit of their shareholders. I can remember that EBS had a reputation for consistently offering competitive interest rates to their members before the property mania gripped us all.

Admittedly, EBS did lose its way somewhat in recent years as it tried to compete with the other mortgage lenders. It entered the commercial lending arena just as the wheels were beginning to come off, a move from which it never really recovered.

Shame how some bad decisions over a relatively short period of time can bring down a reputable society with a history spanning over 75 years.

More reasons to incorporate your business

If you're a sole trader, or thinking about starting up a business, new legislation should make it easier for you to incorporate the business as a limited company. For example, you'll be able to have just one director, just one document in the company constitution and you'll be able to have an AGM by correspondence. See this article.

At present, there are benefits to being a company director as distinct from a sole trader, when it comes to making pension provision. Here's a brief summary: -

Sole Traders

• Pension contributions limited to a fixed percentage of Net Relevant Earnings, dependant on age.



• Earnings cap of €115,000.



• No PRSI or USC relief.



• Earliest retirement age (except in ill-health) is 60.

Company Directors

• Companies can write off significant pension contributions against Corporation Tax, up to generous Maximum Funding limits.



• Funding not restricted by the earnings cap.



• Company contributions offer effective relief against tax, PRSI and the USC.



• Early retirement permitted from age 50, once director severs ties with company and disposes of shares.

Image: jscreationzs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

No PRSI on Employer PRSA

I know - snappy title. The Department of Social Protection have confirmed that contributions by an employer to a PRSA do not generate a PRSI liability for the employee. Such contributions do, however, generate a USC liability.


In clarifying this, the powers that be have gone less than half-way to rectifying a known anomaly between PRSAs and Occupational Pension Schemes. Employer contributions to Occupational Pension Schemes are not a Benefit in Kind and therefore do not generate a liability for the employee in respect of tax, PRSI or the USC. Employer contributions to a PRSA are a Benefit in Kind and, while tax relief offsets the tax and now the PRSI liability has been removed, the liability to the USC remains.

When PRSAs were launched, less than eight years ago, they were designed to be low-cost, transparent, portable pension savings vehicles that would encourage more people to save for their retirement. Why the Government is now discriminating against them in favour of the older type Occupational Pension Schemes is beyond me.

Image: graur codrin / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Surprise - Mortgage Lending is Down

This week, the Irish Bankers Federation published their Mortgage Market Profile. Unsuprisingly, the Irish mortgage market continues to contract. In my opinion there are two main reasons for this - (1) people are still deferring property-buying decisions due to fear / uncertainty / possibility of further price drops and (2) lending criteria has tightened so much that it's a lot harder to get approved for a mortgage than it was previously.

Here's an extract from the Press Release...

• 3,259 new mortgages issued in Q1 2011 to a value of €577 million
• Home purchasers continue to dominate the market


The IBF/PwC Mortgage Market Profile published today shows that 3,259 new mortgages to the value of €577 million were issued during the first quarter of 2011.

The volume of new lending is down 42% compared to the previous quarter and is down 53.1% on the previous year. While the seasonal pattern of mortgage lending typically results in a lower level of lending in the first three months of the year compared to other quarters, this more pronounced reduction in activity reflects the broader macroeconomic environment.

However, the key home purchaser segments of the market, First Time Buyers and Mover Purchasers, continue to dominate this smaller market. Together they now account for over 77% of the market by value and 67% by volume. In effect, more than three-quarters of all mortgage credit issued now goes to the home purchasing segments of the market.

Lenders generally continue to report subdued underlying demand for new mortgage finance. This has been influenced by uncertainty around macroeconomic developments, property price trends and future interest rate movements. At the same time, lenders continue to point to the need for prudent lending with the all-important focus on the borrower’s employment situation and capacity to repay.

Personal Fund Thresholds - Revenue deadline looming...

In accordance with Section 787P(2), Taxes Consolidation Act 1997, anyone with pension benefits with a capital value of over €2.3 million at 7/12/2010 has until 7/6/2011 to apply for a Personal Fund Threshold (PFT) Certificate. Anyone who misses this deadline faces substantial additional taxation when they retire. Bearing in mind that an application for a PFT Certificate involves gathering details of all pension arrangements, often from a variety of sources, anyone who needs a PFT Certificate should be taking action now.

Worryingly, in this Irish Times piece, Dominic Coyle tells us that by April 8th, only 144 enquiries had been received by Revenue on this topic, out of an estimated 6,000 affected people.

Who does this affect?

While the figure of €2.3 million might seem enormous, don't forget that this is the capital value of a pension fund. So you don't have to be a multi-millionaire to fall into this category. Here's a few examples: -

• Anyone in a Defined Benefit pension scheme with an expectation of a pension of €115,000 per year or more, before lump sum entitlements.

• Any Public Servants with an expectation of a pension of €100,000 per year or more.

• Anyone in either of the above categories with a lower pension entitlement but with additional pension funds from other sources, e.g. AVCs, RACs, pensions from previous employments etc.

• Anyone with Defined Contribution pension funds totalling more than €2.3 million at 7/12/2010.

What happens if the June deadline is missed?

After 7/6/2011, anyone who retires with pension benefits with a capital value of greater than €2.3 million, who does not have a PFT Certificate, will be taxed on the excess over €2.3 million at 41%. This is an additional tax, over and above the normal taxes that will apply to drawdown of pension funds. So an individual who retires with a pension fund of €3 million and no PFT Certificate will pay €287,000 in tax before drawing their pension benefits in the normal way.

How can we help?

We can gather the required information from the various pension schemes, calculate the capital value of pension benefits in Defined Benefit and Public Sector schemes, calculate the Personal Fund Threshold and prepare the application for submission.

The world will end when men & women pay the same for insurance

I wrote recently about how insurance premiums of all sorts will have to be harmonised for gender from 21st December 2012 following a European Court of Justice ruling. So from then on it will be illegal to charge different premiums for men and women for insurance.

But it will never happen!

As it turns out, 21st December 2012 is the day that the world ends. This is the day that the Mayan calendar ends and according to many highly respected sources, it will be the date that the world will come to an end. Google "End of World 2012" if you don't believe me. The internet never lies.

Oh those cunning Europeans.