(this is what i got from hotela)


Dear Mister m
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As soon as you leave Switzerland you have to give me your living address so that I can send you all the formulars.
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Italy belongs to the European Union*and therefor you have to send one formular to the Sicherheitsfonds in Bern.
They will decide if we can give you the money or not! This decision takes 6 - 8 months.
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Otherwise you could open a Freizügigkeitskonto. Please take notice that it has
to be open in a Swiss bank.
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Best regards
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Isabelle Borer

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HOTELA
Rue de la Gare 18
1820 Montreux
Tél. 021 962 48 25
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www.hotela.ch
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De*: CuRmBoX
Objet*: Inquiry

Dear Hotela,

I have worked a summer season in the kitchen in st.mortiz and now is working the winter season as well for 2009-2010 . I would like to find out if there is any possibility to request for my pension money to be reimbursed to me as i will be leaving Switzerland and Europe for good. Im Italian nationality.

Rgds,

M

Hi,
Thanks for all the posting but in the given information there was a conflict....
..........
http://www.texashealthinsurancenow.com

Hi, it sounds obvious but maybe it's best to contact your pension company or your HR department.

BR Michelle

As far as I am aware, you will HAVE TO take the money from Pilar II out of the company fund and pay 6% tax on it if you move outside CH and to a non-EU country. After tax the money will be put in a bank account specified by you. Once you have the cash, you can either invest it abroad ot leave it in a life insurance etc in CH there are old posts from Richard that detail the options. You can call insurance companies and see what they offer.
Compare the option leaving the money in CH (love return but high security ? is that still valid today?) to the retun on investment of your new home country.
There is a currency risk component inbedded in the decision as well. Do you know the country where you will retire? Then maybe you invest in that curreny? This is the FX roulette of modern times.
Boris is right : pilar I will be payed out once you reach reitrement age (CH legal) and can't me moved out of CH.

As I understand it when you leave your employer your vested pension money gets transferred to a Foundation (Stiftung I think). If you take the money out while living in Switzerland you pay tax based on the Canton where you live. If you leave Switzerland, and have all the paperwork to show you have left, then the tax is based on the Canton of the Foundation. You can transfer your money to a different Foundation while still in Switzerland. e.g to one in a low tax Canton like Schwyz. Then after you leave Switzerland you can take it out at the lower tax rate. I don't think you can transfer between Foundations after you leave. We transferred our pension money to a company in Schwyz called Liberty. www.liberty-stiftung.ch. There is info on their website on leaving Switzerland. It worth doing as much research as you can before leaving.

Yes you generally have to move it out if you are under retirement age and not taking early retirement. This can be changed by the Trustees of the Fund.

You don't pay tax if you put it in a Swiss based free-standing vested benefits account. Most banks and the post office offer this. Rates can be compared on comparis.ch.

You pay local withholding tax if you are eligible to withdraw it. Eligibility is usually one of:

1. You are not of EU/EEA/CH/ nationality moving outside EU/EEA/CH
2. You are of retirement age
3. You are becoming self employed
4. You wish to pledge/withdraw 25% to buy property (pledging is tax-free but has additional notary costs)
5. You are getting divorced and your spouse has a claim/lien on your pension/(part of it).
6. You are being sued for non-payment of a debt and the court agrees to free-up your pension
7. You have become Swiss and wish to leave Switzerland *for good*

these criteria may be affected by other criteria depending on your personal circumstances (marriage status, children/dependents etc.)

I'm also sweating about the question of whether to try to get a better interest rate on my pension outside CH rather than leaving it to stagnate here. On the other hand, since I'm moving to the Eurozone, I wonder if it might make more sence to do a bit of currency hedging by keeping some franks!

If moving to the EU, then you cannot take the mandatory pension with you.

Thanks Goldtop!

a bit old but you should have done it before leaving. You can cash it now but the pension will be treated as income and taxed in Canada. The exit taxes are lower if you had cashed it out before you left Switzerland.

Is there a rule, that for non-EUs if they work more than 10 years in CH, even if they move abroad, they can get pension (pro rata of course) from Switz. ?

Here is the issue about the 2nd pillar clarified pretty clearly in english when moving to EU or EFTA area: http://www.sfbvg.ch/xml_3/internet/E...on/d50/f57.cfm
(click the links on the left)
cashing out: http://www.verbindungsstelle.ch/docu..._infoDruck.pdf

Just found this site and it helped me a lot..

I suggest asking the authorities in your country. The should know the rules provided there is a deal between your country and CH.

Does anyone know the rules of pension moving from Switzerland to Sweden?

I am a little confused about pillars, etc.
From what I gather I have my company pension and my state pension here.
It's clear that I can release/transfer my company pension but what happens to the state pension? I've been told that stays here and is paid out when I retire?? is there no way to transfer the state pension to another fund in my EU country when I leave Switzerland?

Um, I think you're than a little confused Your company pension cannot be touched until retirement (unless you start your own business or use it for a mortgage)

Your State pension I don't think you can do anything with (e.g. transfer or payout) if you leave Switzerland to go to another country with a reciprocal agreement - i.e. all EU countries (I think)

I am certainly NOT an expert, just did a little digging - don't ask here - get a professional advisor

guys this is wrong what he said...this is how it works...we all want to know whether we can take the money out of the system when we leave switzerland right...so here is what happens as im doing it right now...

there are 3 pilars in the pension, 1 and 2 you do compulsary and 3rd pillar is by choice whetrher uve done it or not depends on you.

1st pillar is the state pension which you cannot take out at all, doesnt matter whether its a EU or non EU country you are leaving to...u can only take this out when ur 65, probably will be 70 by the time u reach that kinda age as swiss are increasing the age of retirement.

2nd pillar is the prevoyance that u pay every month....now u can take this out but some of it will be capped....its between 2% to 9%...so it depends on ur company too...for instance i pay 6% of my salary every month for this and my company pays double that for me...maybe ur company pays 3 x that or whatever, that depends on the company but this is how it works...when u do leave switzerland u get it all with a cap like i said above...they ask you whether you want to transfer the penbsion to your new country and carry on the pension there or take it out...if you are moving outside of EU and ur an EU citizen in my case, then u can take it out as cash...literally....they give u the whole amount after capping it...if ur moving to an EU country, then it gets complicated which isnmy my case so anyone with that experience should write here...but as far as i know moving to EU country, you have to get it transferred etc..not sure tho.

3rd pillar...again same as 2nd pillar, you can take it out but pay 6% or something like that. if anyone says otherwise let me know and inform me please as this is what ive been told by my HR and this is what im doing. im taking it all out.

Thanks

OK, as I said not an expert BUT (leaving aside the voluntary third pillar) about 3-4 years back I was told by my employer after a certain date you could NOT take the 2nd pillar out as cash when you left (can't remember if this was just for moving back to an EU country or not) - it was possible to do so before, you had to pay a reduced rate of tax on the amount withdrawn, but the rest was free and clear. Not any more, you can use it as I said for a deposit on a house or if you go self-employed as business capital, otherwise it's frozen (i.e. you can't take it out) until retirement age.

But instead of us non-experts stating what we've heard phone your pension company and find out the rules - insist on them finding somebody who speaks english if language is a barrier - DON'T take financial advice on a bulletin board (i.e. don't listen to me, I'm just saying what I've heard) - ultimately it's they who will have the final decision on whether you get the money or not. Maybe you can transfer it to another pension fund in your home country but you CAN'T take it as cash (so I was told)

If you are non-EU and/or moving to a non-EU country (e.g. Canada and Australia) I THINK you can take out your second pillar. But if (for example) you're a UK citizen and are moving back to the UK, then, AFAIK - no chance. Emigrate to Australia or North America, then maybe yes.

The reasoning behind this (again from what I heard) is that with the reciprocal pension arrangements with the EU, you could end up with a tidy sum working here over the years, draw it out when you left and then potentially just p*ss it away, and then turning to your home country and asking for destitute payments off the social welfare pot - NOT the idea pensions were designed for.

To repeat, ask experts. (tongue-in-cheek - experts who can spell for a start :-) )

BTW, I see lots of ads for ex-pats saying pull out your UK pension and get the cash - they charge wopping fees and with the pound so low it's not worth it at all. They set up some dummy fund in a not-too-picky country and then promptly declare you as retired, or some such. After taking their 10-20 percent (min £5k.

Depending on what you put in, you may be able to take some 2nd pillar money out even if you are EU/EFTA - I posted some info about this on another thread

2nd Pillar - move to UK

exactly like i said if ur going to non eu country u can take it out...i said in my case im taking mine out...and i also said if ur going to a EU country i think u can get it transferred...but im going to a middle eastern country and im taking mine out...all of 2nd pillar and 3rd pillar....but with a cap...only the AVS i cant take out until retirement.....