Although St Nicholas and his helpers had been out of the country for a while, our hearts were beating with anticipation just before Christmas. Even before the Christmas recess of the Lower House, State Secretary Wiebes would explain in a letter how things would proceed with the self-administered pension of the director-major shareholder (dga).
Chamber letter
Of course, the Chamber letter on self-administered pensions just before the recess (on Thursday, 17 December 2015). But the content is downright disappointing. In fact, two lines from the State Secretary could have sufficed. Namely stating that he is not out of it yet. Or in the words of the Secretary of State: he is at a crossroads and is still too scared to cross.
Own management from 2017
Incidentally, the timeframe has not changed. The Secretary of State still intends for the changes for self-administered pensions to take effect on 1 January 2017. But then the zebra crossing must be in place by early 2016.
That will be tricky enough, by the way. After all, the Secretary of State does not just have to see the intersection safely. He also has to consider whether he might not need to keep (a little) to the left or right in the process. A hot issue concerns the entitlements of the pensioner's partner, which are almost always part of a self-administered pension.
Phasing out
Is there no signal in the letter then? Of course there is. In the earlier communication, the State Secretary seemed to opt for converting the self-administered pension into a retirement income reserve (OBR). That option remains, but will probably be combined with the possibility of buying out the self-administered pension with tax relief. With this measure, Wiebes wants to encourage the phasing out of self-administered pensions, which is already under way. The tax-facilitated commutation obviously means that wage tax, but not revision interest, is due on the commuted sum. In addition, only 80% of the commutation sum is taxed. This scheme is similar to the recent possibility of facilitated surrender of life-course credits and salary stamps. It will be temporary arrangement.