AHV contributions for the non-employed: the underestimated cost of early retirement

Stop working and you still pay AHV — based on wealth. For wealthy early retirees that can be up to CHF 26,500 per person per year.

A widespread misconception: “Once I stop working, I no longer pay AHV.” The opposite is true. Anyone who stops working before the reference age counts as non-employed — and must keep paying AHV, IV and EO contributions until the reference age.

Assessed on wealth

The contributions of the non-employed are based on wealth plus twenty times annual pension income. For someone living purely off a securities portfolio, it is therefore wealth that counts — withdrawals from the account are not “pension income”.

• Minimum: CHF 530 per year.
• Maximum: CHF 26,500 per year (reached at around CHF 8.4 million of relevant wealth).
• In between, the contribution rises with wealth.

For married couples each spouse is assessed individually on half of the joint wealth — both pay, in the extreme up to CHF 53,000 together.

The exception: “sufficiently employed”

There is an important lever: anyone who remains employed and thereby pays AHV contributions of at least half the otherwise-due non-employed contribution is exempt from it. Even a part-time role or regular mandates can therefore avoid the “AHV on wealth”.

For couples it is enough if one partner is sufficiently employed — that also exempts the non-employed partner.

Don't forget it — and use it well

The contributions continue to secure contribution years and thus your later AHV pension; gaps would reduce it. So it is not lost money — but a cost factor that the bridge calculation has to account for. The Pillar Zero calculator models the non-employed contributions including the employment exception.