Termination of the 2nd pillar of the pension savings scheme

Czech Republic: 1 January 2016 saw the coming into force of Act No. 376/2015 Coll., on the termination of the pension savings scheme, and Act No. 377/2015 Coll., on the amendment of certain laws in connection with the passage of the act on the termination of the pension savings scheme.

By 31 March 2016, pension fund companies must send participants in the second pillar a notice in which they explain how to proceed in connection with the wind-down of the pension savings scheme.

Specifically, the notice ought to contain information on the procedure and timeline for refunding the participant’s savings, and on the participant’s duty to inform the pension fund company in writing of their preferred payout method. The pension fund companies will also inform “their” savers of the option to make supplementary payments to the state and thus to compensate for the reduced amounts which they contributed to the government-mandated pension insurance during the existence of the second pillar. By 30 June 2016, participants must provide their pension fund company in writing with the information needed for the payout of the funds they saved up; the actual money transfer will take place between 15 October and 31 December 2016. Upon payout of the funds of all participants, the pension fund ceases to exist as at 31 December 2016. If the participant fails to tell the insurance company where to send the money, the administrator of the pension fund contributions will transfer the money to an account for unsettled contributions, which is the administrator’s personal account and must be managed in accordance with the General Fiscal Code.

Between 1 January 2017 and 30 June 2017, participants may ask the competent social security office to quantify the outstanding pension insurance contributions, and pay up the difference by 29 December 2017.

Those who don’t return the money to the state will later draw a somewhat smaller government pension – in that the missing insurance contributions which were used towards the private savings scheme (and which were not “returned” to the state after the wind-down of the second pillar) do not count towards their pension claim.

Source: Act No. 376/2015 Coll., on the termination of the pension savings scheme, and Act No. 377/2015 Coll., on the amendment of certain laws in connection with the passage of the act on the termination of the pension savings scheme; http://www.mfcr.cz/cs/soukromy-sektor/penzijni-sluzby-a-systemy/ii-pilir-duchodove-sporeni

 

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