Pension (BVG) deductions
Pension fund deductions follow not the law alone but the rules of the particular fund: entry threshold, coordination deduction, age-based scaling of savings contributions, and the split between employer and employee are set there.
Definition
The law sets the minimum frame; everything above it belongs to the pension plan. That is why two businesses with identical salaries calculate different deductions, and why it is not enough for software to «do BVG» — it must reproduce the specific plan.
Several funds and several plans in the same business are the normal case as soon as there are executive and base plans, or the business came out of a merger. A program with a single contribution rate fails at this.
With part-time pay the coordination deduction is added: if the fund reduces it pro rata, the insured salary changes considerably. That is a question of the fund’s rules which the software has to know.
The wording
The part of the annual salary from CHF 26,460 up to and including CHF 90,720 is insured. This part is called the coordinated salary.
Where to read it
What the software must be able to do
With BVG what decides is not whether the program «does BVG» but whether it calculates the specific plan of the specific fund — and usually several at once.
- Several funds and several pension plans in parallel, assigned per employee — an executive plan alongside a base plan is the normal case, not the exception.
- Age-based scaling of savings contributions automatically, with the change of age band in the right month.
- Coordination deduction pro rata for part-timers where the fund’s rules provide for it — otherwise the insured salary is wrong.
- Joiners and leavers mid-month, including pro-rata contributions and the filing to the fund.
- Salaries above the mandatory maximum in the extra-mandatory part, with their own rates.
- Data exchange with the fund via Swissdec, not as a list to retype — and the fund’s return leg back into the program.
Checked Aug 2026
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