The number of pensioners for whom the pension was incorrectly recalculated in January, because the State Revenue Service (VID) has not sent to the State Social Insurance Agency (VSAA) the payroll tax books of pensioners, has reached a few hundred, LETA reports.
VSAA confirmed to LETA that the number of affected pensioners continues going up. Regarding the initially identified 60 persons, in cooperation with VID, the situation has been resolved and they will be paid the difference in January in a separate payment or together with their February pension.
VSAA emphasises that each individual case is analysed in order to clarify the location of the payroll tax book as quickly as possible and resolve the situation.
VID informed LETA that pensioners in question do not have to do anything on their own.
VID indicates that the institution is actively working in cooperation with VSAA to ensure the submission of all non-working pensioners’ payroll tax books to the VSAA and, consequently, the agency could carry out the most expeditious recalculation of pensions.
In order to automatically apply the full double pensioner tax-free minimum of EUR 1 000 to the pension of a non-working pensioner, the VID Electronic Declaration System (EDS) must indicate the VSAA as the main place of income, which for the most part appears in the system by default, explains VID.
However, if the tax book is not submitted to the EDS system, the non-taxable minimum of EUR 1 000 is not applied to the pension automatically, and this may affect the amount of the pension to be paid, the service admits.
When starting the payment of January pensions and receiving questions from pensioners, it was found that VSAA does not have all the tax books of non-working pensioners, which affected the amount of the pension to be paid to persons whose pension is more than EUR 500.
The pensions paid by these pensioners in January are subject to the previous non-taxable minimum of EUR 500, not EUR 1 000, as provided for by the legislation. This means that 25.5% personal income tax has been withheld from the amount of the pension in excess of EUR 500.
Both institutions have apologised to pensioners for this unpleasant experience.