News

The Federal Council’s approval of the Bureaucracy Relief Act IV marks a significant step in reducing bureaucracy. Starting January 1, 2025, occupational pension schemes will benefit from simplified documentation processes. Discover the key changes and their impact on employers in our latest update.

Learn about the planned increase in the contribution assessment ceiling in pension insurance from 2025 and its impact on occupational pensions. Discover how changes affect salary conversions, employer-funded commitments, and social security. Stay informed about the current legislative process and possible actions for employers.

In the course of drafting the Bureaucracy Relief Act IV (BEG IV), significant changes were proposed to the Evidence Act with the aim of reducing the administrative burden on companies and modernizing communication with employees.

The draft bill for the second law to strengthen occupational pension provision (2nd Occupational Pension Act) and to amend other laws has been presented. It is to be submitted to the cabinet at the end of August and then to the parliamentary procedure. The law requires the approval of the Federal Council (Bundesrat).

Practical experience since the abolition of the supplementary income limits in the statutory pension insurance (gRV) – strategic realignment in personnel planning necessary and new challenges in occupational pension schemes.

The legislature has published new guideline figures for taxes and social security for the year 2024.

On January 17, 2023, the German Federal Labor Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) dealt with employers’ capital option rights in two rulings when paying out company benefits. Until now, a tried and tested means of limiting risk on the employer side was the choice of a lump-sum payment. From now on, this will be significantly restricted in its application.

Due to a decision of the European Court of Justice of 22.09.2022 it is in principle possible that policyholders of a group insurance contract (group head) can also be considered insurance intermediaries at the same time.

The legislature has published new guideline figures for taxes and social security for the year 2023.

Determinations only on employment status With the change in the law as of 01.04.2022, § 7a SGB IV has been reformed. One of the consequences of this is that the clearing office of the German statutory pension entity (hereinafter: “DRV Bund”) will only make determinations regarding employment status, i.e. whether dependent employment or self-employment exists. […]

Changes in the Verification Act as of August 1, 2022 The new version of the Verification Act has been in force since August 1, 2022. It is based on the transposition of EU Directive 2019/1152 on transparent and predictable working conditions into German law. Employers were already required to notify their employees in writing – […]

This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules. This document should not be seen as exhaustive and any action should be taken in conjunction with your Global Benefit Consultant.

This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules. This document should not be seen as exhaustive and any action should be taken in conjunction with your Global Benefit Consultant.

This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules. This document should not be seen as exhaustive and any action should be taken in conjunction with your Global Benefit Consultant.

 This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules. This document should not be seen as exhaustive and any action should be taken in conjunction with your Global Benefit Consultant.  About TPC Employee […]

This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules. This document should not be seen as exhaustive and any action should be taken in conjunction with your Global Benefit Consultant.  About TPC Employee […]

This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules. This document should not be seen as exhaustive and any action should be taken in conjunction with your Global Benefit Consultant.   About TPC Employee […]

This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules.

This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules.

This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules.

This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules.

This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules.

This document summarises recent legislative developments and trends related to employee benefits and highlights recently passed and pending legislation that may require employers to take action to comply with new rules.

The future benefits payable by the state pension continue to shrink. Which is why the Government is subsidising private initiatives such as company pension plans.
An occupational pension scheme can be used to reserve part of your salary for financing your later retirement. One key benefit: lower tax/social security contributions during the accumulation phase.
What many in employment don’t realise is that Government will cut the guaranteed interest rate for pension/life assurance plans from 1 Jan. 2015 from 1.75% to 1.25%, on account of persistently low capital market rates. Accordingly, customers will only get the lower guaranteed interest rate when taking out a new policy after the close of 2014. This change not only places a long-term cap on guaranteed old age pension payments but also directly impacts the calculation of disability insurance premiums.

The long-awaited regulatory intervention will presumably be passed into law in late February. The erosion of rates has caused pension provisions to skyrocket since 2014, which places an enormous burden on company balance sheets, as they cause reported earnings to shrink. The steep rise in pension provisions is mainly a result of the regulation in force which requires rates to be calculated on a 7-year average.

The Cologne-based German Pension Insurance Association (PSVaG), which assumes occupational pension payment obligations for insolvent employers, has set its 2013 premium rate at 1.7 (2012: 3.0 per 1,000). This year, German businesses must therefore pay a significantly lower sum to secure pension insurance for insolvent firms than was the case last year.

In its ruling dated 15/05/2012 (3AZR 11/10), the BAG decreed that retirement benefits from a company pension scheme are not payable until the person attains the statutory retirement age (67 years) — despite the explicit specification of 65 years as the age at which the person qualifies for a pension. Contrary to the majority opinion in trade literature, the Court reached its interpretation by considering the fact that the employer, in specifying an age limit of 65 years, had typically assumed that company pension payments would be honoured at the same point in time at which the employee could also claim his or her full state pension. Notwithstanding the explicit specification of 65 as the pensionable age, the statutory age of eligibility from the state pension scheme must therefore be viewed as the age agreed.

On 16 June 2011, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published a revised version of IFRS Standards IAS 19 (2011), which governs the recognition of benefits paid to employees.