Drowned by bills, Renaud “buys back his pension savings” to find money: good or bad idea?

To pay his energy bills, a person who contacted us via the orange Alert us button had the idea of ​​using his pension savings. Is it a good idea to withdraw part of the capital built up over the years before turning 60?

Renaud contacted the editorial staff of RTL info via the orange Alert us button to inform us of an alarming observation. With a salary that he considers normal (€2,075 net per month), he is not getting by, like many Belgians today. “The price of food, gasoline and energy costs have exploded in recent months. I can no longer make ends meet without making transfers from my savings account“, he confided to us. But this account is soon empty… However, “I receive today a regularization of more than 4500€ for gas and electricity”, he continues, worried. His only solution: “buy back my pension savings… and I don’t want to!”. And there, bad surprise… “33% of the amount will still be given to the State in the form of taxes!”, Said his banker to him. We investigated.

Pension savings allow taxpayers to set aside 990 euros per year, and to benefit from a tax reduction of 30% on this amount, i.e. 297 euros per year, on one condition: not to touch this money. before the age of 60.

If you still want to recover this savings immediately, there will be heavy taxes to pay. The State will recover the 30% tax benefits, the municipalities will levy a tax on this tax (between 5 and 8.5% depending on the municipality), the bank will keep 5% for early exit costs. At age 60, the samples are much lower.

“It’s quite another thing since there, we are at 8% of the entire reserve and therefore 8% or 38-40%, the calculation is quickly done”explains Raphaël Da Cas, chartered accountant.

Pension savings are very successful. In this accounting firm, it appears on 90% of tax returns completed. “It’s true that so far, I had never had so many people asking to be able to take out this reserve. And so we start from an initial system where we say to ourselves ‘we will save for later’, we is really on a long-term perspective, and we see people who come urgently and who opt for this crisis solution”explains this accountant.

Bankers, insurance brokers, accountants… All strongly advise once morest drawing on pension savings before age 60. Current energy prices may make this advice increasingly difficult to follow.