From January 2026, employers will be required to send Auto-Enrolment pension contribution information to the National Auto-Enrolment Retirement Savings Authority (NAERSA) each time they run payroll.
This periodic transmission of information is called the Auto-Enrolment Contribution Submission (AECS).
When does an AECS need to be submitted?
If you have enrolled employees, then an AECS must be submitted each time employees are paid, and it must be submitted on or before the pay date, just like your existing payroll submission to Revenue.
This means AE data cannot be submitted monthly or in bulk later—it must align with each pay run.
What information is included in an AECS?
Each AECS will contain pension contribution information for each employee, including:
- the employee’s gross pay for the period
- the employee contribution amount
- the employer contribution amount
- details of what AEPN details were used
- the pay date
Only the current pay period values are reported (not year-to-date values).
How NAERSA uses the information
Once each AECS is received, NAERSA will:
- calculate the State top-up
- track accumulated contributions
- trigger collection of contributions by direct debit
Because the AECS reports each period separately, NAERSA does not require an annual return-contributions are calculated and recorded during the year automatically.
What counts as the ‘Pay Date’
The AECS must be submitted based on the actual date employees are paid.
This means:
- paying by cash = the date cash is handed to the employee
- paying by cheque = the date on the cheque
- paying by bank transfer = the date funds are available in the employee’s bank
If pay day falls on a non-bank working day, the previous bank working day is treated as the pay date, provided funds are available to employees on that day.
Key Takeaways
AECS is the Auto-Enrolment equivalent of the PSR
- submitted each time you process payroll
- must be submitted on or before the pay date
- reports only this period’s AE contribution values
- sent to NAERSA (not Revenue)
In simple terms
When you run payroll, you’ll now send two automatic submissions:
one to Revenue (PSR) and one to NAERSA (AECS).