Henceforth, occupational pensions are possible for self-employed persons who are natural persons

On Wednesday, 20th July, the Council of Ministers – at the proposal of Minister Daniel BACQUELAINE and Minister Willy BORSUS - has adopted the draft bill giving self-employed persons who are natural persons, assisting spouses and additional assisting freelancers the opportunity to build up occupational pensions.

Self-employed persons – natural persons or company managers – already have the possibility to build up a supplementary retirement scheme for the self-employed, but nowadays only self-employed company managers can receive an occupational pension via the legal entity they lead. Self-employed persons performing a professional activity as a natural person, bakers for instance, do not have the possibility to benefit from an occupational pension in addition to the payments permitted by the supplementary retirement scheme. Henceforth, self-employed persons who are natural persons can build up a second pillar pension scheme the advantages and limitations of which correspond to those reserved for self-employed company managers.

The draft text was drawn up to guarantee coherence with the legislation in force on occupational pensions for self-employed persons and employees. In doing so, it was safeguarded that the names and structures used are the same as those used in other regulations pertaining to occupational pensions.
 

Daniel Bacquelaine, Minister for Pensions: “The possibility for self-employed persons who are natural persons to build up a second pillar pension scheme is a nice step towards the generalization of the second pillar pension scheme. The agreement on the yield guarantee imposed by law constituted a condition to safeguard its development. I intend to even step up my actions by permitting contractual personnel in the public sector to build up a second pillar pension scheme and employees in the private sector to build up a supplementary retirement scheme. I want to reinforce this second pillar pension scheme, enabling everyone to benefit from, whereby it is our aim to reach a level of contribution equalling at least 3% of wages, in every sector of activity. This constitutes indeed one of the best guarantees to increase the purchasing power of pensioners in the future.”