#52 Retroactive 3a payments: What you need to bear in mind

Every year, most of us have to fill out a tax filing. And as you know, the more you earn, the more tax you pay. The easiest way to reduce your taxable income is to make contributions to a Pillar 3a.

Let's assume you are single, have no religious affiliation and earn 120'000 francs per year. If you pay the maximum amount into Pillar 3a, you will save around 1'600 francs per year.

Many Swiss people are keen to do this: over half make regular contributions and thus build up assets for their retirement.

Requirements for retroactive contributions

From 2026, it will be possible to make retroactive contributions, but only under certain conditions.

• You must have income subject to AHV (OASI, Old-Age and Survivors Insurance) contributions in the year in which you missed the payment and in the year in which you make the additional payment.
• You must always have paid the maximum amount for the current year first.
• Retroactive purchases are possible for a maximum of 10 years. However, you can only make additional payments for 2025 from 2026 onwards. Unfortunately, anything you missed before that is lost.

You can close several gaps per year. So if you only pay half the maximum amount in 2025 and 2026, you can make up for the gaps from both previous years in 2027. Please note that a retroactive purchase may not exceed CHF 7'258.

Is it worth making a retroactive purchase into Pillar 3a?

But is it worth postponing payments at all? The short answer is no, in most cases it is not worth it. If you make regular payments every year, you are invested for longer and benefit more from the compound interest effect. It is particularly advisable to pay in your money early if you invest your 3a funds in securities.

However, there is one situation in which making additional payments makes a lot of sense. For example, it can be advantageous to bundle payments if your income is set to rise significantly in the future. This may be the case if you are going to earn more next year or if you are planning to get married.

Incidentally, self-employed people without a pension fund can also make subsequent payments. However, the maximum amount is currently 7'258 francs per year, not the usual maximum for self-employed people of 36'288 francs.

Finally, one important point: you can start withdrawing your Pillar 3a savings five years before reaching the regular retirement age. However, you will then no longer be able to make retroactive contributions. You can find out more about the best way to withdraw your pension assets in our blog article «Everything about Pillar 3a withdrawals».

Do you have any questions about making additional contributions to Pillar 3a? Then send me an email.