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- Not to lose your own: pre-retirees were offered to take advantage of tax benefits under the PDS
Not to lose your own: pre-retirees were offered to take advantage of tax benefits under the PDS
The State Duma is preparing to consider amendments in the second reading, including the provision of opportunities for citizens to conclude contracts under the long-term savings program through the Gosuslug portal. This will make it easier for citizens to join the long-term savings program, which will also increase its attractiveness, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Finance told Izvestia. The amendments also suggest that in the event of termination of the PDS agreement, under which co-financing was not previously carried out, the right to support under other agreements will remain. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.
How do they want to improve the PDS
The Bank of Russia, together with the Ministry of Finance of Russia, is working to increase the attractiveness of the CDS. The option of concluding a long-term savings agreement (DDS) through Gosuslugi with the help of UKEP (enhanced qualified electronic signature) is being considered or UNEP (enhanced unqualified electronic signature).
According to statistics from the Central Bank and the Ministry of Finance, the vast majority of DDS (99%) are issued electronically. Concluding agreements through Gosuslugi will attract more Russians to the program, and will also provide them with the opportunity to sign a VDS with a non-governmental pension fund (NPF), which either does not have its own convenient application, or does not have agency agreements with large banks that can place the fund's products on their "electronic shelf."
In addition, amendments to the law on NPFs have been prepared. They provide for the retention of the depositor's right to co-financing in the event of termination of the DDS, the press service of the Central Bank told Izvestia.
According to current legislation, a participant in a long—term savings program can terminate the contract ahead of schedule without losing all benefits - co-financing and tax deduction. This is possible if he needs expensive treatment.
If a depositor has made a contribution under a long-term savings agreement, and then changed his mind and decided to withdraw from the program, then he loses the right to receive support, including when concluding such agreements in the future. The same principle applies if a person has several DDS and decides to close at least one of them.
According to the prepared amendments, a participant in the program can terminate a long-term savings agreement under which he did not receive support, and at the same time retain the right to co-financing if he managed to do so before April 1 of that year, when funds from the state are due, the Central Bank said.
Oleg Savchenko, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on the Financial Market, explained that now the main difficulties in raising funds in the PDS can be called the lack of extra money for investment, low level of financial literacy and lack of trust in such programs. It is also important that to participate in the PDS, you must personally come to a non-governmental pension fund. Since more than 103 million Russians have a verified account on Gosuslugi, the opportunity to conclude a contract through the portal will make the process more convenient and allow citizens to save their time, the parliamentarian explained.
According to the expert, a number of NPFs reported a return of about 18% per annum on investments of the participants of the PDS by the end of 2024.
Alexander Zaretsky, CEO of Sberbank, sees several directions for the development of the program. He believes that its parameters should be indexed now. It is worth increasing the current limit of state support to 36 thousand rubles per year, taking into account the economic situation. A similar measure can be applied to a tax deduction. Finally, it would be useful to simplify the transfer of funded pension funds to the program. According to Zaretsky, they should be made direct and lossless, and it doesn't matter where the money is currently stored.
Family options for PDS and program development
The National Association of Non-Governmental Pension Funds (NAPF) notes that the program has great potential for growth and improvement. Many people sign contracts not only for themselves, but also for their relatives and friends. So far, no more than three personal accounts with tax benefits can be opened. Currently, according to the instructions of the President of Russia, the development of family options for personal income tax is underway, which will expand this restriction and increase the amount of tax deduction.
Amendments to the Tax Code that have not been approved before may also be approved this year. In particular, it is about providing tax benefits to employers who can make contributions for their employees, the association said.
Business is interested in the development of corporate programs, and PDS can be an excellent way to motivate and retain employees in conditions of personnel shortage, according to the NAPF.
— Changes to the payment rules for people who have signed contracts in favor of their loved ones are also being discussed today. Now such participants can receive up to 36 thousand rubles a year for all their contracts, including those issued to relatives. It is planned to make payments separately for them and their children," the National Association of Non—Governmental Pension Funds concluded.
Galina Morozova, Chairman of the Board of Directors of NPF Future, believes that there are gaps now, the refinement of which would help to further popularize the program. For example, to remove legislative conflicts that prevent pre—retirees participating in the PDS from taking advantage of tax benefits.
— Today, a significant share of contributions to the SDS are previously frozen pension savings under compulsory pension insurance, which we propose to automatically convert into SDS savings and thus focus the attention of both funds and Russians themselves on making new contributions, "new money" to the program, — said the interlocutor.
Expert of the NIFI project of the Ministry of Finance of Russia "My Finances.Russian Federation" Nikolay Dmitriev points out possible options for the development of the program: involving employers in participation in the pension Fund, its integration with corporate pension programs, as is often practiced abroad. This option is currently being actively discussed by the government's financial unit and the regulator, Dmitriev noted.
Tatyana Esaulkova, General Director of SDK Garant LLC, in turn, suggests simplifying the transfer of OPS to PDS or allowing such a transfer to another fund. To do this, she said, the Tax Code needs to be finalized. In addition, Esaulkova suggests separate co-financing under contracts in favor of children, an increase in the limit on the tax deduction for spouses, as well as indexation of co-financing, for example, by the inflation rate.
What difficulties are associated with PDS
The main problem now is inflation, says Marina Kolosnitsyna, professor at the HSE Department of Applied Economics.
— It devalues any savings by itself, and it is almost impossible to predict its dynamics for the future. In principle, it is impossible to understand how much money will remain from invested today, say, in 10 years," the expert pointed out.
Chief Personal Income Tax expert.ru Olga Gukova calls the disadvantages of the DS program. Among the non-obvious disadvantages, in her opinion, are the harsh conditions for pre-retirees. Those who joined the PDS at the age of 50+ (women) and 55+ (men) will not receive a tax deduction, she explains. Since the grounds for assigning periodic and lump-sum payments under the agreement must occur no earlier than five years after the date of the agreement when it is concluded in 2024-2026. At the same time, citizens may have additional income that would allow them to take advantage of the deduction.
There are also difficulties in obtaining documents, Gukova notes. Since 2024, a unified certificate for social deduction and long-term savings has been introduced. However, NPFs are delaying its issuance until the end of March, referring to the automatic sending of data to the Federal Tax Service. As a result, taxpayers cannot receive a deduction, whereas in other categories it is already being paid.
Other problems, in her opinion, are the limited deduction limit for IIS and SDS, the loss of tax deductions and co-financing in case of early closure of the account.
"If the government really wants to encourage citizens to invest in long—term savings, it is necessary to increase the deduction limits and make the program more flexible and understandable for most citizens," the tax expert believes, "as well as develop a mechanism for maintaining deductions and co—financing in case of partial closure of accounts.
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