idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft

Nachrichten, Termine, Experten

Grafik: idw-Logo
Grafik: idw-Logo

idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft

Science Video Project
idw-Abo

idw-News App:

AppStore

Google Play Store



Instance:
Share on: 
12/14/2020 11:39

An obligation for self-employed people to make provisions for old age is not necessary

Dr. Jutta Gröschl Presse- und Öffentlichkeitsarbeit
Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (IfM) Bonn

    IfM Bonn recommends instead better integration of existing pension insurance systems

    Approx. six out of ten self-employed persons generate a profit income of less than 10,000 euros per year. Their profits thus remain below the basic tax-free allowance and are not sufficient to build up an adequate pension plan. In the last days, the Federal Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs has therefore given concrete form to its plans to introduce an obligatory retirement provision for all self-employed persons.

    However, the researchers at the IfM Bonn do not consider this as necessary: Even if many self-employed persons only had a low income from profits at the moment, it could not necessarily be concluded that they would not be able to build up sufficient pension provision for themselves in the long term. In fact, periods with low income would often be compensated by periods with higher income.

    "Moreover, 40% of all self-employed people we studied had earned gross wages from dependent employment in addition to their income from self-employment. For this part of their income, they are obliged to take out pension insurance. A third group of self-employed people are taxed together with a partner and thus have additional income," reports Hans-Jürgen Wolter, head of the IfM study "The income situation of the self-employed and their capability of retirement provision".

    Nevertheless, some self-employed people find themselves in precarious financial circumstances over a longer period of time. However, this group was relatively small, according to the analysis done by the IfM researchers. Besides, in their view, it is questionable whether these self-employed people would even have the financial resources to fulfil their obligation to provide for old age.

    In addition, the introduction of such a pension obligation would involve considerable administrative problems. In Germany, for example, there is no proper register for self-employed persons. If the data from the income tax survey were to be used, the problem of defining the self-employed groups properly would arise: due to the increasing spread of hybrid forms of employment, it is difficult to distinguish between primary income on the one hand and additional (secondary) income on the other. The IfM researchers, therefore, recommend that existing pension insurance systems should be interlinked better. This would facilitate the build-up and transfer of old-age provision in the case of hybrid or changing employment models.

    The study "The income situation of the self-employed and their capability of retirement provision" is available on the homepage of the Institut für Mittelstandsforschung (www.ifm-bonn.org).


    More information:

    https://www.ifm-bonn.org/en/publikationen/ifm-materialien/detailansicht/article/...


    Images

    Criteria of this press release:
    Business and commerce, Journalists, Scientists and scholars, Students, Teachers and pupils, all interested persons
    Economics / business administration
    transregional, national
    Research results
    English


     

    Help

    Search / advanced search of the idw archives
    Combination of search terms

    You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.

    Brackets

    You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).

    Phrases

    Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.

    Selection criteria

    You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).

    If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).