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Date: Sat, 04 Oct 2003 00:45:39 -0400
Sven, Judit
three issues that are worth expanding on:
1) please note that you only get PARTIAL credit for what you have
contributed in the other country which is part of the agreement. I.e. if
you live in the US for ten years and pay SS and return to CH and retire in
CH, only a part of the 10 years SS is counted for the AHV, last I checked it
was 50%. So, for those who are now starting to calculate, here is what the
person from BSV (bundesamt fuer Sozialversicherungen) once explained to me:
If you contribute 42 years to AHV, you get a 100% of the maximum monthly
payment, for each year you do not contribute, the monthly payment gets
reduced by 1/42 from the maximum. For each year you contribute in the US,
and you want to have credited, payments get reduced by 1/84 only.
I do not know what happens the other way around, i.e. a US person moving to
CH and paying AHV. I do not know what the SS counts or does not count.
2) Eligibility to (re)join AHV
Judit, and all others who are considering not paying AHV while abroad have
to keep one thing in mind: There is the possibility that you can not join
the AHV anymore when returning to CH. basically two conditions:
1: in order to be able to join AHV again, you have to have had contributed
at least 5 years before not paying in anymore (e.g. leaving CH and not
paying voluntary AHV)
2: There is a certain cutoff age that they will not let you join anymore.
Unfortunately, I can't remember the detail of that regulation, I think it
was 50 or 55.
3) Act of solidarity
I am not sure how much more we can act on the basis of solidarity looking at
the fact that in my lifetime (if I ever return to CH) I will have the
pleasure of financing about 1 AHV recipient with my contributions (instead
of about a 1:7 or so ratio when the AHV was put in place). Obviously that
can't be done anymore with 5% of my salary out of my pocket and 5% out of my
employers pocket.
Two possibilities: either the Swiss have more children (very unlikely to
bring relief in time), or we finally adopt an immigration policy that makes
sense and does not ignore the fact that CH has been a large scale
immigration country for about 100 years.
Lastly, again the BSV (federal office of Social security or something) has
very nice people and if you take the time to call them they will be more
than happy to provide you with all details and accurate information that you
can get - and they are highly competent.
Ralf Kubli
__________________________________________
Ralf Kubli
275 West 96th Street Apt 6G
New York, NY 10025
Home: +1 212 678 6488
Office: +1 201 933 8800 Ext. 4307
Cell: +1 646 286 3411
Email: ralf_at_kubli.us
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Received on Sat Oct 04 2003 - 00:31:13 PDT
