2024-08-20 02:14:24
A fairer distribution of the Pensioners’ Solidarity Contribution (EAS), but without reducing the income resulting from it, is what the Ministry of Labor seeks to achieve and implement in the new year.
Without excluding the relevant announcements about the EAS even from the TIF stage by the prime minister at the beginning of September, the efforts of competent officials have been focused on solving this difficult equation. The measure, which has been in place for 14 years, has been deemed to have to be amended to avoid a repeat of last year’s phenomena, with pensioners complaining that, while they were supposed to receive an increase in their monthly earnings, they ended up seeing a decrease! The reason was the fact that with the 3% increase given at the beginning of this year, pensioners in this category automatically moved up the solidarity levy scale. Thus, the amount that should be withheld from them increased proportionally. The end result, in some cases, was negative for the pensioners and so the paradox happened that they got a raise, which led them to… a reduction in their real earnings.
With today’s data, the solidarity levy is imposed on those whose sum of main pensions exceeds 1,400 euros in gross earnings. At the same time, a separate charge is imposed on supplementary pensions greater than 300 euros. The levy rate ranges from 3% to 14% at the highest level, on a staggered basis. The change in scale is a first measure being considered for implementation. But such a process, in the middle of the year, should be done without incurring a financial burden. The annual income of the solidarity levy is determined at 480 million euros. So any change of scale must be noted without reducing the above amount as revenue that will flow into the public coffers.
Charge
It is estimated that the solidarity levy burdens over 500,000 pensioners. Their number is increasing year by year, as increases of 10% have already been given to 2/3 of the country’s pensioners. This means that there are pensioners who now receive more than 1,400 euros gross, so they are also subject to a solidarity levy (3% for the first tier up to 1,700 euros). Given that new increases in pensions are foreseen from 1.1.2025, this means that the number of pensioners who will be subject to EAS is expected to increase even more.
A fairer distribution of the EAS “translates”, in addition to a change in the percentage on the various scales, to a corresponding change also in terms of the amount based on which the reservation will be made henceforth. The intentions of the political leadership of the Ministry of Labor is to impose the levy, not from the first euro, but from the amount that will be set as a new initial limit (currently 1,400 euros).
Among the scenarios that exist and are being examined is the one that wants to “freeze” the amounts that will result as a solidarity contribution if the beneficiary changes the scale due to an increase and finally finds a decrease in the net amount of pension he receives.
There is also the possibility that the contribution rates will change, depending on whether they are main or supplementary pensions. Thus, it cannot be ruled out that the EAS for the main ones will decrease and for the auxiliary ones to increase.
In the scenarios that the competent services are working on, the scale of the EAS is to be identified with the one that applies to taxation, so that any deduction is more proportional. In such a scenario, perhaps the idea of completely abolishing the contribution, but only for supplementary pensions, could be advanced in combination.