Pillar 3a top-up payments: Now possible from 2026

What was that again? Pillar 3a top-up payments not possible? Yes, that is still the case. You have to pay in during the current year, otherwise it will no longer work. But this will no longer apply from January 1, 2025. Then you can also pay into pillar 3a retroactively. A purchase in pillar 3a! We show you the facts on how to do it.

Pillar 3a back payments – current legal situation 2024

As of 2024, you cannot pay any pillar 3a contributions in arrears. But that is about to change. In June 2019, the Ettlin motion¹ was introduced. This aims to make a pillar 3a purchase possible retrospectively. People with an AHV income who have not yet paid into pillar 3a, or have only paid partial amounts, should be able to do so later and deduct the full amount from their taxable income in the year of purchase.

Status of deliberations in Parliament: completed

The Federal Council didn’t think the Ettlin motion was so cool and quickly scuttled it in August 2019. But the Council of States adopted the motion in September 2019 and the National Council on June 2, 2020. Yay! 💪 So the Federal Council had to come up with a proposal for implementation. That took a while.

It then made a proposal that deviated significantly from the original idea. It is therefore not surprising that the responsible National Council Committee for Social Security and Health rebuked the Federal Council by a clear majority on August 16, 2024.² and called for the original proposal to be implemented. It thus went further than the Federal Council in its consultation draft.³ The Council of States Committee for Social Security and Health (SGK-S), on the other hand, supported the Federal Council’s proposal with a weak majority out of concern about the unquantifiable reduction in tax revenue.

For the first time from January 1, 2026 for the calendar year 2025, as the Federal Council approved the necessary amendments to the ordinance on November 6, 2024.⁴ on the tax deductibility of 3a contributions (BVV 3). The ordinance comes into force on January 1, 2025. Nevertheless, you will only be able to make retroactive additional payments into pillar 3a from January 1, 2026. This is because you can only close gaps for missed or incomplete payments that arise from 2025 onwards.

You have to meet quite a few conditions to be able to pay into pillar 3a retrospectively:

• You can only buy into 3a retrospectively after you have paid the regular annual contribution for the current year in full (“filling the gap in second priority”).
• you must have earned income subject to AHV contributions in Switzerland in the year of purchase
• you were unable to pay in the maximum 3a contribution permitted for you in one of the last 10 calendar years before the purchase
• you also had earned income subject to AHV contributions in the year for which you want to make a subsequent pillar 3a contribution
• you have not yet withdrawn any money from 3a for retirement
• and BAM ‼️: It does not work retroactively. It really doesn’t. The Pillar 3a purchase ONLY applies to gaps that arise from 2025 onwards. You can only close these with a purchase. Yo, bro 🤷

Find the best pillar 3a

Unbelievable – most people pay too much for their pillar 3a and get too little return. Are you one of them? Find out which pillar 3a is best suited to you with just a few clicks in our free comparison.

Find the best pillar 3a

In addition to the ordinary 3a contribution, a purchase into pillar 3a in the amount of the small maximum contribution is permitted each year. And hooray, bonus! 🥳 In the purchase year, you can make the usual annual contributions as a tax-effective payment. So from 2026, you can pay in the maximum contribution for 2026 and deduct it from your taxes AND – if you are entitled to make a subsequent purchase – you can also pay in the small maximum amount for 2026.

Important: the purchase amount is subordinate to the ordinary pillar 3a contribution. In technical terms, this is called “subsidiary”. The following therefore applies: first pay in the annual 3a contribution, only then make a purchase.

A buy-in gap can only arise from 2025 because you either do not pay in at all or do not pay in the maximum amount. You can close the gap that has arisen a maximum of 10 years later. Otherwise it expires. Example: you only pay in CHF 3,600 in 2025; there is a gap of CHF 3,658 for 2025. The last time to pay this amount is in 2035.

Yes. Self-employed persons will also be allowed to pay missed contributions into Pillar 3a retrospectively from 2025. For them, too, the Pillar 3a purchase is limited to the small maximum amount in accordance with BVV 3 Art. 8 para. 2, as is explicitly stated in the explanatory report.⁵ is explicit.

That depends on what you withdrew money for. If you have made an ordinary withdrawal due to retirement, no subsequent pillar 3a purchases are permitted. It doesn’t matter whether you closed one or more accounts. As a reminder, ordinary withdrawals are already possible up to 5 years before your reference age.

By paying out a 3a into your private assets for the first time, you waive the right to make further purchases into pillar 3a. The idea behind this is that you are not allowed to withdraw money on retirement and at the same time continue to build up your retirement provision through tax-reducing purchases.

However, the following procedure is possible: FIRST make an ordinary contribution in the same year, THEN pay into pillar 3a to close the gap and finally close a 3a account at the end of the year.

As the purchase is always linked to one person, planning staggered withdrawals becomes more important for married couples. This is because as long as only one spouse closes pillar 3a accounts, the other can continue to buy into pillar 3a.

Example of a pillar 3a purchase

Claudia (*1995) works in an architectural office. After her apprenticeship as a structural draughtswoman, she didn’t earn that much at first and wasn’t able to pay much into pillar 3a. She then did further training and received more pay at the new company. After Noemi was born, she didn’t work for two years, but then found a well-paid job nearby. She and her partner are renting and dream of having their own apartment. That’s why she has saved in her savings account.

She currently has 36,500 francs in her pillar 3a. Even in 2025, it will not be enough for the full maximum amount. She can save CHF 300 per month in her 3a, i.e. CHF 3,600 per year. But this is no longer a problem: Claudia can close her 3a gap until 2035 with a purchase. She can then pay up to CHF 3,658 (maximum amount 2025 minus actual payment) into pillar 3a, provided that she works in the year of purchase and first pays in the maximum amount applicable at that time in full.

Pillar 3a top-up payments – who benefits?

Many women and other groups of people will benefit from being able to make subsequent contributions to pillar 3a in future. Are you one of them, like Claudia?

• Didn’t pay into 3a when you were young because you didn’t have enough money? ✅
• Are you self-employed and just didn’t have enough money for the full pillar 3a contribution in the first few years? ✅
• Do you work part-time and don’t currently have enough money to pay the full pillar 3a contribution? ✅
• Do you currently need the money to pay off your mortgage? ✅

Pillar 3a purchase or purchase into the pension fund? Why paying into pillar 3a is better

For Claudia, buying into pillar 3a, as opposed to buying into her pension fund, is exciting for other reasons too.

• no redistribution: she saves for herself in pillar 3a. Only for herself. In the pension fund, there are various redistributions that are not intended by the legislator, but are in fact unfavorable for her: from young to old, from people with higher incomes to people with lower incomes.
• no blocking period for purchases: she can pay into pillar 3a every year and, once she has found her home, can also withdraw the money paid in during the current year to support home ownership. This is not possible with the pension fund: what you pay in is blocked there for 3 years.
• No repayment obligation for WEF withdrawalsWhen Claudia buys her apartment, she can take money out of pillar 3a to finance it. And she can pay back into pillar 3a the following year and claim this contribution against her taxes. The situation is different with the pension fund: if she withdraws money to finance her home, she can only deduct purchases into the pension fund from her taxes once she has repaid the amount she withdrew from her pension fund in full.
• No minimum withdrawal for WEF: if Claudia needs money for her home later on, she must choose at least CHF 20,000 as the minimum withdrawal from the pension fund. The situation is different with pillar 3a: here she can withdraw less than CHF 20,000 later on, for example to pay for minor renovations, as there is no minimum withdrawal in pillar 3a.

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This is probably because a few requirements have to be met first. If you want to buy into pillar 3a, you have to provide your 3a provider with certain details and information before making the purchase so that they can check and approve your purchase. Pillar 3a providers must first provide forms for this purpose. Among other things, you must state

• how high your total purchase is,
• for which contribution year(s) you want to close a contribution gap and in what amount with your purchase.
• whether you have already made a regular contribution to the tied pension plan in the gap years and, if so, how much
• that you have already paid the regular maximum contribution in full in the current contribution year

In addition, 3a providers will have to make system adjustments due to the new 3a purchase option. This is because they are obliged to store pension-relevant information on purchases and to transfer this when transferring the pillar 3a to another provider.

Pillar 3a top-up payments – what you can do now

The amended BVV3 ordinance comes into force on January 1, 2025, and purchases are possible for gaps that arise from then on . It is best to avoid gaps arising in the first place. Until the new regulation comes into force, you could use up your annual pillar 3a contribution. Pillar 3a with securities is a sensible solution if you have a longer investment period.

Summary of pillar 3a additional payments

The purchase into pillar 3a is here. The implementation of pillar 3a top-up payments deviates significantly from the mandate of the Ettlin motion. This is because it is not possible to pay into pillar 3a retroactively. Rather, 3a purchasing will only be possible for gaps that arise from 2025 onwards. The amount of the purchase is also capped at the respective 3a maximum amount for the year and you must first have paid in the maximum amount in the purchase year. And on top of that, you must have an income subject to AHV contributions both in the year of purchase and in the year of the gap you want to close.

What was supposed to be a big step has now become a small step. The Federal Council has acted under pressure from the councils and introduced a time-limited additional payment instead of a genuine purchase into pillar 3a, as we know it from pension fund purchases. Nevertheless, the change offers opportunities for you if your budget is currently still too tight to pay in the maximum amount. Then you can at least make additional contributions for the next 10 years.

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Rentenrechner starten

1. Motion Ettlin Link ↩︎
2. Media release 16.08.2024, Commissions for Social Security and Health, Link ↩︎
3. Media release 23.11.2023, Federal Council wants to enable retrospective purchases into pillar 3a, Link ↩︎
4. Media release 06.11.2024, Federal Council introduces retroactive purchase option for pillar 3a, link to BVV3 Ordinance ↩︎
5. Explanatory report on the amendment to the Ordinance on the tax deductibility of contributions to recognized forms of pension provision (BVV 3) for the introduction of purchases into pillar 3a, 6.11.2024, Link ↩︎

Last update: 02.12.2024 20:38