Apply for certification of pension and basic pension contracts ("Riester" or "Rürup")

Source: BUS Rheinland-Pfalz

The Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) is responsible for the certification of old-age provision contracts ("Riester") and basic pension contracts ("Rürup"). For contributions paid into certified contracts, a special expense deduction can be claimed in the income tax return and, in the case of old-age provision contracts, the old-age provision allowance can be applied for.

Applications for certification can be submitted by providers of old-age provision and basic pension contracts and umbrella organizations of the providers named in Section 1 (2) of the Retirement Provision Contracts Certification Act (AltZertG).

You submit your application for certification of the retirement provision or basic pension contract in writing to the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt).
The certification body checks whether

the application is from a provider in accordance with Section 1 (2) or Section 2 (2) of the Retirement Provision Contracts Certification Act (AltZertG) or
an umbrella organization of the providers named in § 1 (2) and whether
the sample contracts submitted meet the certification criteria.

Each certifiable sample contract shall receive a certificate with a certification number. The certification body does not check whether

the product is economically viable,
the commitments made by the provider can be fulfilled and
the terms of the contract are valid under civil law.

You must submit the application for certification in writing to the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt).

Call up the appropriate certification application for your purposes on the BZSt website. Also call up the annex to the application for certification (checklist).
Complete the application electronically, print it out and sign it. Enter the data required for processing electronically in the checklist and then print out the document.
Send the application and all documents by post to the office of the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) in Berlin.
After receipt of your application, the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) will set the fee by written notification, which must be paid within one month of notification of the decision.
The Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) will review your application. If your application does not meet the requirements, the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) will request missing information, documents or contract amendments (supplementary notification) within 3 months. If your application still does not meet the requirements after the deadline, the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) will reject the application. If your application meets the requirements for certification, the Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) will issue the certification and assign a certification number for the sample contract. The Federal Central Tax Office (BZSt) will inform you by post about the outcome of the examination.

You must submit the following when applying

Application for certification by authorized representative
Annex to the application for certification (checklist)
Documents proving that the contractual conditions are certifiable in accordance with Section 1 (3) or Section 2 (3) of the Retirement Provision Contracts Certification Act (AltZertG)
a certificate from the competent supervisory authority on the scope of the license and, in the case of companies within the meaning of § 1 (2) sentence 2, additionally on the scope of supervision and the amount of initial capital (§ 1 (2) sentence 2 numbers 1 and 2 AltZertG); in the case of a provider within the meaning of § 1 (2) sentence 1 number 4 AltZertG, an extract from the register, the articles of association and the expert opinion of the auditing association pursuant to § 1 (2) sentence 1 number 4 AltZertG must be attached instead of the certificate

The cost of processing an application to certify a retirement provision or basic pension contract is EUR 5,000.

If an application is based on a certified application from an umbrella organization and the other requirements of Section 12 (1) sentence 2 of the Retirement Provision Contracts Certification Act (AltZertG) are met, the fee is EUR 500.00.

For applications submitted by an umbrella association as the authorized representative of its member companies, the fee is EUR 250.00 per member willing to be certified.

The fee for adding a loan option to a contract if the contract was certified in accordance with the AltZertG in the version valid on 31.12.2007 is EUR 250.00.

Forms: yes
Online procedure possible: no
Written form required: yes
Personal appearance required: no

Apply for certification of pension and basic pension contracts ("Riester" or "Rürup")

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What are the fees?

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