Massive Change To Pension AMRF

The Finance Bill 2022, is the bill which legalises the changes announced in the Budget. The Bill provides more details beyond that revealed on budget day.

With effect from January 1st all AMRF Pensions are available to be withdrawn. However, the withdrawals will be subject to income tax.

The old rules stated a guaranteed pension income of €12,700 was required in order to have access to your entire pension pot. If you did not have the required €12,700 guaranteed pension income per annum or reached your 75th birthday you had to leave €63,500 in your AMRF.  

The reasoning behind the AMRF was to ensure that individuals had sufficient income into their later years. From 2022 onwards individuals will no longer be subject to such rules and individuals with part of their funds tied up in an AMRF fund will have the capacity to draw down income from such funds.

The locked-in funds, called an Approved Minimum Retirement Fund (AMRF), affects those who choose to transfer their pension pot on retirement to a more flexible Approved Retirement Fund (ARF) – keeping it invested and available for transfer to their family should they die.

There is believed to be 35,000 AMRF holders in Ireland so if you know anybody who retired their pension then they need to know about this change as they may not be aware the funds are now available to them and no longer locked away.