I would have assumed the later.
You would have instructed payroll to make the AVC and they handle the tax side of things?
What do you mean by tax back? Your AVCs get fully invested at gross into your pension scheme.
My understanding is that your are entitled to tax relief on pension contributions which vary depending on your age.
For example, an employee who is aged 35 and earns €40,000 can get tax relief on annual pension contributions up to €8,000.
But are AVCs treated the same as company matched periodic pension contributions. So if I put a lump sum once or twice a year into the pension on top of the periodic is it treated the same as the periodic or could there be additional tax credit to be claimed?
Yes, yes and no.
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I’d asterisk that I made that up. I have no idea mate 
Is the lump sum from a bonus or something?
@Appendage will know more but as far as I’m aware you don’t get tax back on any of these things, rather the gross amount is invested.
So if your pretax earnings were €100 and you elect to make an AVC €100 is invested in your pension fund whereas if you didn’t make the AVC and you took that €100 as earnings you’d receive €48 (i.e. the after tax amount).
If it’s outside earnings then I don’t know as it would be unusual to be paying personal funds into a work pension scheme and I’m not sure it’s even possible.
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The general rule would be don’t put anything into a pension that you’ve already got in your hand.
Max out the AVCs through the salary and spend the money you have instead of your wages if that’s the options.
But we’d need a bit more info here @Big_Dan_Campbell
Any time I have done this I have made once off payments and sent receipt to revenue and they sent me the refund via normal way
Exact same until you reach your threshold
It is. But if you gave your pension provider a cheque or lump sum at end of year (vs payroll deduction) that is from already taxed income so you would be due a rebate
I ask the question as I overpayed tax and am due a refund. Was filing an online tax return and saw I could claim tax credit on AVC. I have thrown in my AVC contributions for this year and last to see what comes of it.
Check if your employer matches top ups. Some do, not the full amount generally but maybe a %. Also make sure you are paying whatever they will match monthly rather than saving and AVC’ing and missing out
Did you pay them through payroll? If you did. Prob OK unless they made a bags of it.
Your as entitled to tax relief on the avc as any other pension payment below the threshold is the bottom line
I have employee contributions which match plus put in 5k a year. So I put in €7500 for the year and they pay in €12500 (which is the max).
I also got two lump sums which I was able to partly take as a mix of shares. AVC and cash. Hence my query.
Are you saying you put in AVC over the threshold?
Not quite. I only paid in seven months worth last year, under 5k and topped it up to the threshold with AVCs. Hence why I am asking can I claim tax on those payments as part of 2019 tax return or has it already been taken into account
Did you put them in through payroll or pay them from after tax income… If the latter you are due a refund
I believe the latter but am unsure. I stuck it in the tax return. Assume the worst that will happen is they will tell me I’m not entitled to relief on them
I don’t think you could pay them from after tax income by accident tbh
Correct