The Voluntary Supplementary Pension Scheme for the Self-Employed (VSPSS) is aimed primarily at self-employed people who pay social security contributions and, therefore, accrue entitlement to a state pension. It is also available to regulated salaried healthcare providers, such as doctors, pharmacists and physiotherapists.
Who can build up a supplementary pension with a VSPSS?
The Voluntary Supplementary Pension Scheme for the Self-Employed (VSPSS) is available to any self-employed person who pays social security contributions and, therefore, accrues entitlement to a state pension, namely:
- Full-time self-employed
- Assisting spouses with ‘maxi status’
- Part-time self-employed (under certain conditions)
- Regulated salaried healthcare providers
Full-time self-employed
When you are full-time self-employed, you pay social security contributions that are always calculated on the basis of your annual income. While waiting for the tax authorities to determine the level of that year’s income and calculate the final contributions (usually two years later), you have to pay ‘provisional social security contributions’ based on either the indexed, net taxable earned income from three years earlier or a higher estimated income. Your VSPSS contributions are tax-deductible, which means you end up paying less in social security contributions and taxes.
For VSPSS contributions to be tax-deductible when you work as full-time self-employed, you must have paid at least the social security contributions for someone with that employment status. If you were only liable for contributions for part of the year, your VSPSS contribution will be reduced pro rata based on the number of quarters that you actually paid your social security contributions.
Assisting spouse with ‘maxi status’
Even as an assisting spouse, you must join a social insurance fund. Paying social security contributions enables you to accrue social security entitlements, i.e. an assisting spouse with ‘maxi status’ builds up state pension rights too. Therefore, you can supplement that state pension by paying into the VSPSS.
At 7 407.24 euros instead of 16 861.46 euros, the income threshold for an assisting spouse is a lot lower than for a full-time self-employed person.
Part-time self-employed
If you are part-time self-employed, you are only eligible for the Voluntary Supplementary Pension Scheme for the Self-employed (VSPSS) if you have reached at least the reference income level of a self-employed person in a main occupation (16 409.20 euros). In that case, you pay the same social security contributions as a full-time self-employed person and accrue pension rights as a result. However, if you have social security entitlements from another social security system and exercise your self-employed activity in a secondary occupation, you pay only limited social security contributions or none at all, meaning that you are not eligible for the VSPSS.
Because the income of three years earlier is always taken into account, a part-time self-employed person can only join a VSPSS after having worked as self-employed for three full calendar years.
Regulated salaried healthcare provider
Contrary to what the name implies, a regulated healthcare provider (doctor, dentist, pharmacist, physiotherapist) can also sign up to a VSPSS as a salaried employee or public-sector employee. What is different, however, is that it has to be a social VSPSS.
To get tailored advice as a self-employed medical professional, contact KBC Mediservice.
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