ARF payment - huge drop

Viscount Aggro

I have been getting an ARF monthly payment since early last year, same amount per month.

JAN payment is about 30% less, gross figure. Only deduction are PRSI / USC.

I cant get an answer from the pension company, Zurich.

Only thing I can deduce from the payslip, the tax credit figure is far lower, than each month during last year.

Any ideas?

Geuze

Did you check in your Revenue account how much tax credits and SRCOP are allocated to your ARF income?

Henry Ford III

If the gross payment is reduced that's related to your ARF.

Viscount Aggro

Its gone from 295 to 126 monthly tax credits, allocated to Zurich ARF.

Geuze

Off the top of my head, one place to look is in MyDocuments.

Look for the most recent Cert of tax credits.

bullpost

Not sure if related but I checked my Zurich pension policy and its been performing really poorly the last six months, It had weathered the Covid / war storm really well up to that point. But maybe this is happening generally to pension policies due to recent economic downturn.

Geuze

https://www.zurich.ie/funds/fund-performance-calculator/

Yes, plenty of mixed funds down 10% over the last year.

Drumpot

I had a client phone me up only yesterday with a similar query.

Are you getting a percentage income from your ARF or a set amount? If so it could one a couple of things.

If you chose an annual percentage (eg 4%) of value of ARF as income and got first payment in for example april that meant you got 4% of the value of your Arf paid over only 9 months. This year 4% will be paid over 12 months so less per month.

Alternatively or another factor could be that you are getting a percentage income payment from your ARF and your value of pension has gone down.

In short; unless you chose a specific monthly income to receive from your ARF it’s most likely to do with above.

Viscount Aggro

That makes sense ... I only started ARF last April, taking 4%

Thanks

nhg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120195697#Comment_120195697

You need to check your Tax Credit Certificate for 2023 if your tax credit are reduced or allocated incorrectly to another income you will need to either send in a My Enquiries through MyAccount or call the PAYE Helpline Monday to Friday between 9.30 am and 13.30 pm (excluding bank holidays) to get the issue resolved.

By any chance are you in receipt of a Department of Social Protection payment such as a pension, illness benefits etc in the amount of approximately €195 per week that you weren’t previously…..

Viscount Aggro

Yes, I did get social welfare last year for a few months. Why would that affect this year's tax credits, unless it's Revenue thieving me.

nhg

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120206213#Comment_120206213

You will need to ring Revenue as it seem that the payment you received last year has mirrored across to this years record. This could happen if you were in receipt of the payment when the system was setting up the new tax year, this happens around early November.

If claim is now closed & DSP haven’t updated your record, Revenue will correct this for you & if any refund of income tax due, you’ll get in your next ARF payment (think you mentioned that the only deductions were USC & PRSI, if so, the reduction in SRCOP & tax credits is not effecting your payment as no income tax paid).

Viscount Aggro

How are Revenue deducting from the gross amount. I don't see any deductions on the payroll statement from Zurich.

nhg

Your tax credits & rate may have been reduced to cover the income tax due on a yearly DSP payment - that’s just a guess from the difference you gave in the reduction of tax credits in your post

It wouldn’t explain why your gross ARF payment is 30% lower

Geuze

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120206328#Comment_120206328

That is odd.

I am familiar with an ARF, and Irish Life post out a payslip.

Income tax deductions are on the payslip.

Irish Life are treated like another employer in the Revenue account of the pensioner.