The jargon, in plain English.
Every term we use on this site, defined in a sentence or two - with the 2026 figure where a term has one. If a definition raises a second question, that is what the discovery call is for.
Pensions and retirement
- Annuity
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A guaranteed income for life bought with your pension fund at retirement. Certain and simple, but the capital is gone and the income usually stops when you do.
Where this comes up - ARF Approved Retirement Fund
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A fund you move your pension into at retirement that stays invested while you draw an income from it. What is left when you die passes to your estate. The alternative is an annuity.
Where this comes up - Auto-enrolment MyFutureFund
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The State pension scheme that started on 1 January 2026. Employees aged between 23 and 60 earning €20,000 or more with no workplace pension are enrolled automatically; employee and employer each pay 1.5% of salary at first, rising to 6%, and the State adds €1 for every €3 the employee pays.
Where this comes up - AVC Additional Voluntary Contribution
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An extra payment you choose to make into your workplace pension on top of the standard contributions, to build the fund faster. It gets the same tax relief, within your age-related limit.
Where this comes up - Imputed distribution
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The minimum Revenue assumes you draw from an ARF each year and taxes you on whether you take it or not: 4% a year from 61 to 70, 5% a year from 71, and 6% if the fund is over €2 million.
Where this comes up - Master trust
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One large occupational pension trust run by a professional trustee that many unrelated employers join, instead of each running its own scheme. Most Irish company pensions moved into master trusts after the IORP II rules in 2021.
Where this comes up - Occupational pension scheme
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A pension set up by an employer for its staff, usually with the employer contributing alongside the employee. Most are defined-contribution today: what you get out depends on what went in and how it grew.
Where this comes up - PRSA Personal Retirement Savings Account
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A personal pension contract you own yourself, portable between jobs and open to the self-employed. Contributions get income tax relief within the age-related limits, and employers can pay into it too.
Where this comes up - PRSI Pay Related Social Insurance
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The social insurance deduction on your payslip. The number of PRSI contributions on your record decides whether you qualify for the State Pension and at what rate.
- Standard Fund Threshold SFT
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The cap on the total pension you can build with tax relief: €2.2 million in 2026, rising by €200,000 a year to €2.8 million in 2029. Anything above it is taxed at 40% on top of income tax when drawn.
Where this comes up - State Pension (Contributory)
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The weekly pension paid by the State from age 66 based on your PRSI record: €299.30 a week at the full rate in 2026, or more if you defer it up to age 70.
Where this comes up - Tax-free lump sum
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The part of your pension you can take as cash at retirement: up to 25% of the fund, with the first €200,000 across all your pensions tax-free and the next slice up to €500,000 taxed at 20%.
Where this comes up
Tax
- CAT Capital Acquisitions Tax
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The Irish tax on gifts and inheritances, charged at 33% on anything above your tax-free threshold. Better known as inheritance tax or gift tax.
Where this comes up - CAT group thresholds
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The lifetime amounts you can receive tax-free, set by your relationship to the giver: Group A (child from a parent) €400,000, Group B (sibling, niece, nephew, grandchild) €40,000, Group C (everyone else) €20,000, since 2 October 2024.
Where this comes up - CGT Capital Gains Tax
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Tax on the profit when you sell an asset such as shares or a property that is not your home: 33% of the gain after an annual exemption of €1,270.
Where this comes up - Deemed disposal
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The rule that treats an investment fund as sold and rebought every eight years, so exit tax is paid on the growth to date even though you have not sold.
Where this comes up - DIRT Deposit Interest Retention Tax
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The 33% tax on interest earned on deposits, deducted by the bank before you see it.
Where this comes up - Ex gratia payment
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Anything an employer pays on redundancy above the statutory minimum. Tax-free up to the higher of the Basic Exemption (€10,160 plus €765 a year of service), the Increased Exemption (a further €10,000) or the SCSB, within a lifetime cap of €200,000.
Where this comes up - Exit tax
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The tax on gains in investment funds and life assurance investment policies: 38% since 1 January 2026 (it was 41%). Charged when you cash in, and on the deemed disposal.
Where this comes up - SCSB Standard Capital Superannuation Benefit
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One of the three ways to work out the tax-free part of a redundancy or termination payment: one-fifteenth of your average pay over the last three years, multiplied by your complete years of service, less any tax-free pension lump sum. Usually the best option for long-serving, higher-paid staff.
Where this comes up - Small gift exemption
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The €3,000 a year anyone can receive from any one person without it counting towards their lifetime CAT threshold.
Where this comes up - Statutory redundancy
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The minimum, tax-free payment the law requires after two years (104 weeks) with an employer: two weeks' pay for every year of service plus one extra week, with pay capped at €600 a week.
Where this comes up
Protection
- Death-in-service
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Life cover an employer provides for staff, paying a lump sum (often a multiple of salary) to the family if an employee dies while employed.
Where this comes up - Income protection
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Insurance that pays a percentage of your salary, typically up to 75%, if illness or injury stops you working, after a waiting period, until you return to work or retire. Premiums get tax relief at your marginal rate up to 10% of income.
Where this comes up - Key person cover
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Life or serious illness insurance a company takes out on someone it cannot easily do without. The company owns the policy and receives the payout, to cover lost profit, loans or the cost of a replacement.
Where this comes up - Mortgage protection
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Life cover that pays off the mortgage if you die during the term. Lenders must see a policy in place under the Consumer Credit Act 1995, but you can buy it from any provider, not just the bank.
Where this comes up - Specified illness cover
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A policy that pays a lump sum on diagnosis of one of a list of named serious illnesses, such as cancer, heart attack or stroke. Also called serious illness cover.
Where this comes up
Inheritance and later life
- Dwelling house exemption
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A CAT exemption for inheriting the home you were living in with the person who died, subject to conditions on how long you lived there and not owning another property.
Where this comes up - EPA Enduring Power of Attorney
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A legal document made while you have capacity that names who will make decisions about your property, money and welfare if you later cannot. Since 26 April 2023 EPAs are registered with the Decision Support Service and take effect only when it is notified that capacity has been lost.
Where this comes up - Fair Deal Nursing Homes Support Scheme
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The HSE scheme that funds long-term nursing home care. You contribute 80% of your income and 7.5% of your assets a year (the first €36,000 of assets is disregarded, €72,000 for a couple), and your home counts for at most three years.
Where this comes up - Nursing Home Loan
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The optional part of Fair Deal that lets the contribution based on your home or land be deferred and repaid to Revenue from your estate after death, so nobody has to sell the house to pay for care.
Where this comes up - Section 72 policy
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A life assurance policy set up specifically to pay an inheritance tax bill. If the proceeds are used to pay the CAT due on the estate, they are exempt from CAT themselves.
Where this comes up
Mortgages and savings
- Deposit Guarantee Scheme
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The State-backed protection for money in Irish banks, building societies and credit unions: up to €100,000 per person per institution.
Where this comes up - Emergency fund
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Three to six months of essential outgoings kept in an instant-access deposit account before any money is invested, so a car repair or a gap between jobs does not become expensive borrowing.
Where this comes up - Help to Buy
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A refund of income tax and DIRT paid over the previous four years, for first-time buyers of a new home: 10% of the price up to €30,000, on homes up to €500,000, until 31 December 2029.
Where this comes up - Loan-to-income limit
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The Central Bank cap on how much you can borrow relative to gross income: four times for first-time buyers and 3.5 times for other buyers, with a minimum deposit of 10%.
Where this comes up
Working with a planner
- Cashflow modelling
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A projection of your income, spending, savings and assets year by year for the rest of your life, used to test decisions and what-ifs before you make them.
Where this comes up - CFP CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER professional
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The international standard for financial planners, awarded after examination in Ireland by the Financial Planning Standards Board. A CFP professional is trained to plan across your whole financial life, not to sell one product.
Where this comes up - Discovery call
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The free first conversation with an Eolas Money planner, about 30 minutes, where we listen first and tell you which way of working with us fits, or whether you need us at all.
Where this comes up - Fee-based
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A firm that charges an agreed fee for its planning work rather than relying on commission from products. Where a product is arranged and commission applies, it is disclosed in writing.
Where this comes up - QFA Qualified Financial Adviser
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The Central Bank's minimum competency qualification for advising on retail financial products in Ireland.
Where this comes up
Figures in these definitions were checked on 5 September 2026 against Revenue, Citizens Information, the Central Bank of Ireland and the Decision Support Service, and are refreshed after each Budget and in January. Rules change; confirm the current figure before acting on it.
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