Less taxes on supplementary pensions, simplification of the tax levy e concessions for pension funds investing in the real economy. These are the requests to the government of Assofondipensione, which held its annual meeting in Rome on Thursday.
Giovanni Maggi, president of the Association, underlined the “need for a no longer deferable strengthening of the complementary pensions. From the challenges that we find ourselves having to face today and in the near future, also in view of the arrival of the Peeps, come new growth opportunities that the negotiated funds in primis and the Association must be able to seize in order to make supplementary pensions an increasingly strong in support of the public pension system and the wider social system”.
In her report, Maggi asked about cut taxes on pension fund returns (currently 20%), to encourage "retirement saving rather than pure financial investment".
The Chairman of Assofondipensione insisted precisely on the need to to encourage access to supplementary pension schemes: “In a context of economic and social difficulties – said Maggi – the risk is not only that young people do not enter, but also that new unemployed people are forced out and that workers with income drops reduce their participation. It is necessary to strengthen the second pension pillar in our country for help a welfare system that will have to be increasingly sustainable in the long run, especially for the younger generation, already penalized by often discontinuous careers and delayed entry into the labor market".
The Association underlines that strengthening supplementary pensions is urgent because the public pension system will be increasingly under stress due not only to the economic crises, but also (if not above all) to the demographic one.
For seven consecutive years, the Italian population has been declining (from 60,3 million in 2014 to 59,3 million at the end of 2020) and the pandemic has further aggravated the situation. Between decline in births, increase in life expectancy and reduction of the active population, the ratio between those aged 65 and over and those aged between 15 and 64 is already close to 35%.
“Demographic pressure puts the sustainability of the first pillar of the Italian social system at serious risk”, concluded Maggi.
