Political journalist Sophie van Leeuwen dares to talk about a historic retirement day. ‘The €1.5 trillion deal has been finalized between the coalition parties – including the rather critical VVD – and the opposition PvdA and GroenLinks. Then the new system will come.’
The conditions that the left opposition parties had are now supported, according to Van Leeuwen. Then the law was slightly changed. There will be a roll-call vote on Thursday, after which all MPs will have to vote for or against. Then the whole law crosses the room, then D-Day.’
Thrilling
And this creates tension for VVD deputy Bart Smals. “It’s a huge system change,” he says. “At a graduation ceremony you also know that everything will be fine, but it remains exciting.”
The VVD has accepted the amendments proposed by PvdA and GroenLinks, but has nevertheless created space in the law for the self-employed, who number more than 1.2 million. “One of the most important things in the law for us, which is why we also provided the support, is that there will be room for the self-employed to build up a pension,” he continues. ‘There will be room for experimentation in the second pillar, so with pension funds as they are now there will be room to make it easier for the self-employed to join. And above all: in the third pillar – the pension that people accrue independently – is fiscally equivalent to the second pillar. So, if you accrue your pension yourself, you have the same tax margin to accrue your pension as people with a regular job.’
30 percent
The bottom line is that the self-employed should be able to save 30 percent of their gross income, which is also deductible. Smals: ‘It’s just like a regular job. In this you also pay a part of the pension premium, and you can do this as a self-employed person. Up until now, that tax space was a lot less, but you have to do it as a self-employed person.’
By this, Smals means that the money must actually be put into a fund. Leaving money in the savings account doesn’t count. “So you lost it, but you get it back as a pension. Until now, the chances for this were less than for employees, but the new system will make it easier to accrue the pension.’