Pillar 3a catch-up: retroactive contributions explained (2026)
Didn’t pay the full amount into pillar 3a in 2025? Since 2026, you can make up that gap. Banks call it a “pillar 3a buy-in” or retroactive contribution. On top of the full contribution for the current year, you can pay in up to CHF 7,258 for earlier years in 2026 and deduct it from your taxable income.
The catch: simply transferring more money isn’t enough. You have to apply to your provider before you pay, and only one catch-up is allowed per gap year. If you fill only part of a gap, the rest is lost. Let’s look at who qualifies, how much you can pay, how the main providers handle it and how much tax you save.
In short:
- Who: You had earned income or replacement income subject to AHV both in the gap year and in the year you catch up, and you haven’t drawn any retirement benefits from pillar 3a.
- How much: First the full ordinary contribution for the current year, then at most the lower maximum on top, so CHF 7,258 in 2026. Only gaps from 2025 onwards count, going back at most ten years.
- Tax: Deducted in the year you pay, not in the gap year. In the city of Zurich, a single person with CHF 100,000 taxable income saves CHF 1,888 with a CHF 7,258 catch-up.
- My recommendation: If you have a gap from 2025 and the money is ready, catch up this year. Apply in November, because some providers have early deadlines.
Who can make pillar 3a catch-up contributions?
You can fill a gap if all of these conditions are met:
- The gap is from 2025 or later. There’s no catch-up for 2024 or earlier. The first catch-up is possible in 2026, for 2025.
- You were entitled to contribute in the gap year. That requires earned income subject to AHV contributions. Replacement income such as unemployment benefits also counts. A year without such income isn’t a gap, even if you lived in Switzerland.
- You’re also entitled to contribute in the catch-up year. The same condition applies as for the gap year.
- You’ve paid the full ordinary contribution for the current year. That’s your personal maximum, not simply CHF 7,258.
- You haven’t drawn retirement benefits from pillar 3a. As soon as you draw retirement benefits from any 3a account for the first time, catch-ups are over, including for your other 3a accounts. Any withdrawal in the five years before the AHV reference age counts as a retirement benefit.
You didn’t need a 3a account in the gap year. What matters is that you were entitled to contribute back then. For married couples, each spouse counts separately: each has their own gaps, income and 3a accounts. An early withdrawal for home ownership doesn’t create a gap you can fill again. If you keep working past the reference age, you can still catch up for at most five more years while you’re working, employed or self-employed.
The basics of the third pillar, from the maximum contribution to withdrawals, are in my third pillar guide.
How much can you catch up?
Two limits work together: how big your gap is and how much you can catch up per year.
The gap is the difference between your personal maximum in the gap year and what you paid into all your 3a accounts that year. In 2025 and 2026 the maximum was:
| Maximum 2025 and 2026 | |
|---|---|
| With a pension fund | CHF 7,258 |
| Without a pension fund | 20% of net earned income, up to CHF 36,288 |
“Without a pension fund” doesn’t only mean self-employed people. It also covers employees who aren’t in a pension fund. For employees, net earned income means gross salary minus AHV, IV, EO and unemployment insurance contributions.
The annual cap is the lower maximum of the year in which you catch up: CHF 7,258 in 2026 and CHF 7,373 in 2027. It applies to all catch-ups together, not per account or provider, and also if you don’t have a pension fund.
Ten years: You can fill gaps from the ten years before the year of payment. A gap from 2025 can therefore be filled between 2026 and 2035. From 2036 it expires. You can choose which gap to fill first. I’d start with the oldest, because it expires first.
Only one catch-up per gap year
Know this rule before you pay: only one catch-up is allowed for each gap year. An example: your gap from 2025 is CHF 5,000, but you only catch up CHF 3,000. You can never pay in the remaining CHF 2,000 later.
On the other hand, one catch-up can cover several gap years at once, as long as you stay under that year’s cap. So fill a gap completely in one go if you can.
Without a pension fund, a gap can be larger than the lower maximum. Someone who earned CHF 80,000 net in 2025 and paid in nothing has a gap of CHF 16,000. Because a catch-up can’t exceed the lower maximum and only one is allowed per gap year, you can recover at most CHF 7,258 of it in 2026 or CHF 7,373 in 2027. The rest can’t be caught up later.
Example with a pension fund
Assumptions: you’re employed, have a pension fund and paid CHF 3,000 instead of CHF 7,258 in 2025.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| Gap from 2025 | CHF 4,258 |
| Ordinary contribution 2026, first | CHF 7,258 |
| Catch-up in 2026 for 2025 | CHF 4,258 |
| Deduction in the 2026 tax return | CHF 11,516 |
The catch-up stays below the CHF 7,258 cap, so you can close the whole gap in 2026. Your 2025 tax return doesn’t change.
How to apply for a catch-up
Every provider has its own process, but the steps are similar everywhere:
- Pay the ordinary contribution. First you pay the full amount for the current year. At Raiffeisen you can confirm in the application that you’ll pay it by the end of the year.
- Apply for the catch-up. In the application you state the amount, how it’s split across the gap years and what you already paid in those years with the payment dates, including at other providers. You also confirm in a self-declaration that you meet the conditions: income in the gap year, no earlier catch-up for those years, no retirement benefits drawn.
- Wait for approval. The provider checks the application and sends you a confirmation with payment details, a QR bill or a separate IBAN depending on the provider.
- Pay exactly the approved amount. The money must be credited to your 3a account by 31 December to count for this tax year.
- Add the certificate to your tax return. The provider certifies the catch-up, and you deduct it in the tax return for the year you paid.
Whether the deduction is allowed is ultimately decided by the tax office during the assessment, not by the provider. So keep your 3a certificates, salary statements and tax assessments for the gap years. You also don’t have to make the catch-up at the same provider where you pay your ordinary contribution.
Catch-up contributions at finpension, VIAC, UBS, PostFinance and other providers
With all the major providers you apply first and pay afterwards. They differ in how you apply: in an app, with an online form or with a signed form by post.
| Provider | Where you apply | How you pay |
|---|---|---|
| finpension | App or web: Pillar 3a, Deposit, “Retroactive payments for previous years” | After applying in the app |
| VIAC | App: Deposit/Transfer, “Retroactive payment into 3a”, then answer a few questions | Personal payment slip, exactly the approved amount |
| True Wealth | Payments, “Retroactive purchase into pillar 3a” | After applying |
| UBS | Signed self-declaration, checked by the foundation | Separate IBAN, not the one for ordinary contributions |
| PostFinance | Signed form, one per gap year | Separate IBAN with a payment reference |
| Zürcher Kantonalbank | E-banking: pillar 3a, “Einkauf prüfen” (check buy-in) | Only via the QR bill generated there |
| Raiffeisen | Online form or at your Raiffeisen bank | QR bill sent with the confirmation |
At finpension you start the catch-up directly in the app under retroactive payments for previous years. Here too, the ordinary maximum for the current year must be paid first. The money has to reach finpension by 31 December.
At VIAC you answer a few questions in the app and then get a personal payment slip. Transfer exactly the approved amount: VIAC rejects a payment with a different amount. The catch-up shows up in the tax certificate you receive in January.
At True Wealth you find the catch-up under Payments. True Wealth doesn’t guarantee that payments made just before the turn of the year are booked in the old year. So don’t leave it until the last week of December.
At UBS you submit a signed self-declaration, the foundation checks it and sends you the payment details. According to UBS, the deadline for the application is 15 December 2026. The catch-up goes to a different IBAN than your ordinary contribution.
At PostFinance you fill in a separate form for each gap year and pay to a separate IBAN with a payment reference. To be sure the catch-up is booked in 2026, it has to arrive by the end of November 2026, according to the pillar 3a forms.
At Zürcher Kantonalbank you check the catch-up in e-banking: the bank shows your data, you add contributions made at other providers and confirm the self-declaration. You can only pay with the QR bill generated there. The money can go to an existing or a new 3a account.
At Raiffeisen you apply online or at your bank and get a confirmation with a QR bill once it’s been checked.
Many cantonal and regional banks work the same way, with a form and a QR bill. If you use the catch-up as a reason to pick a new provider, my pillar 3a comparison shows which options are cheap.
Worked example: how much tax you save
Assumptions: tax year 2026, living in the city of Zurich, single, no children, no church affiliation, no wealth. The ordinary 3a contribution is already deducted. The catch-up is CHF 7,258. Calculated with the ESTV tax calculator, federal, cantonal and municipal tax combined.
| Taxable income without catch-up | Tax without catch-up | Tax with catch-up | Saving |
|---|---|---|---|
| CHF 60,000 | CHF 6,545 | CHF 5,227 | CHF 1,318 |
| CHF 100,000 | CHF 15,912 | CHF 14,024 | CHF 1,888 |
| CHF 140,000 | CHF 27,575 | CHF 25,369 | CHF 2,206 |
At CHF 100,000, the catch-up saves about 26% of the amount paid in, at CHF 60,000 about 18%. The higher your income in the year you pay, the more the deduction is worth.
It isn’t free money. When you withdraw, you pay a capital benefit tax on the whole 3a balance including returns. It’s taxed separately from your other income at a reduced rate, at federal level at one fifth of the ordinary tariff. In the canton of Zurich, pension capital withdrawals in the same year are added together. Whether a catch-up pays off therefore depends on three things: the saving today, the additional tax on withdrawal and the returns in between. How to spread withdrawals over several years is covered in my third pillar guide.
Catch up this December or later?
If you have a gap from 2025, the money is ready and your income will stay similar in the next few years: catch up in 2026. Three reasons:
- The annual cap is tight. You can never catch up more than the lower maximum in one year. If you keep waiting and build up more gaps, you’ll need several years to close them later. Whatever you don’t use in 2026 can’t be added on top in 2027.
- The money works longer. If you invest the catch-up in a securities solution, it has more time until withdrawal.
- The tax deduction comes sooner. You see the saving with your 2026 tax bill.
The case for waiting is an income that will clearly rise soon. If you’re studying, working part-time or on a low income now, the deduction saves more tax in a later year with a higher income, as the table above shows. In return, the money loses investment time. The 2025 gap stays open until 2035. Waiting is also right if the money is your emergency reserve. In pillar 3a it’s tied up: you can withdraw it at the earliest five years before the reference age, and before that only in exceptional cases such as buying a home.
If you catch up in 2026, apply by mid-November and pay as soon as you have the confirmation. At PostFinance the money has to arrive by the end of November, so apply even earlier there.
Common mistakes
- Simply transferring more to your 3a account. Without an application, that isn’t a catch-up. Anything above the maximum isn’t deductible.
- Filling a gap only partly. The rest is lost, because only one catch-up is allowed per gap year.
- Forgetting the ordinary contribution. The full amount for the current year has to be paid first.
- Expecting the deduction in the gap year. You can only deduct the catch-up in the year you pay. Your 2025 tax return isn’t recalculated.
- Paying a different amount than approved. Some providers then reject the payment.
- Applying too late. Application and approval take time, and some provider deadlines are at the end of November or mid-December.
- Trying to fill gaps from before 2025. That isn’t possible.
Difference from a pension fund buy-in
A pension fund buy-in fills gaps in the second pillar. How much you can pay in is calculated by your pension fund according to its regulations. There’s no fixed annual cap like in pillar 3a. In return, benefits resulting from a buy-in can’t be withdrawn as a lump sum in the following three years.
In pillar 3a, catch-ups are capped at the lower maximum per year, but you choose the provider and the investments yourself.
Can I make a pillar 3a catch-up for 2024?
No. Only gaps from 2025 onwards can be filled. What you didn’t pay in 2024 or earlier stays a gap.
Can I catch up if I didn’t have a 3a account in 2025?
Yes. What matters is that you had income subject to AHV in 2025 and were therefore entitled to contribute. You only need an account for the catch-up itself.
Does a year on unemployment benefits count?
Yes, unemployment benefits count as replacement income and entitle you to contribute. A year without any earned or replacement income doesn’t count as a gap.
Can I pay a catch-up in instalments?
Not across several years. Only one catch-up is allowed per gap year, so you can’t split a gap across catch-ups in different years. How you transfer the approved catch-up is set by your provider. VIAC, for example, requires exactly the approved amount.
What happens if I paid in too much?
You can’t deduct the excess. The tax office asks for a correction, and you reclaim the amount from your provider. It doesn’t automatically count as a contribution for a later year.
Conclusion: pillar 3a catch-up contributions
A catch-up is one of the few ways to recover missed tax deductions later. Three things matter: the full ordinary contribution first, then an application to your provider, and fill each gap completely in one go. My recommendations:
- You have a gap from 2025 and a stable income: Apply for the catch-up in November and pay as soon as it’s approved.
- You were in a pension fund in 2025: Your 2025 gap is at most CHF 7,258, so you can close it completely with one catch-up in 2026.
- You don’t have a pension fund: Gaps above the lower maximum can’t be filled completely. So pay the full amount every year if you can.
- Your income will rise significantly soon: Wait for the year with the higher income, but not longer than ten years.
- You need the money as a reserve: Don’t catch up. Tied-up money only comes back at the earliest five years before the reference age or in exceptional cases.