■ On the morning of April 21, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Opinions on Promoting the Development of Individual Pensions" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions"). The "Opinions" stated that those who participate in the basic endowment insurance for urban employees or basic endowment insurance for urban and rural residents in China Workers can participate in the personal pension system.
■ How is a personal pension different from our pension insurance?
Why are we pushing for a personal pension system?
What kind of benefits will individual pensions bring us?
Hu Jiye, a core member of the "China Pension Finance 50 Forum", professor and doctoral supervisor of the Department of Capital Finance of the Business School of China University of Political Science and Law, told reporters that through the personal pension system, my country can transition from "saving pension" to "investment pension".
Point 1
Personal pensions are "supplements", not "substitutes"
What is a personal pension?
In short, personal pension is the "third pillar" of my country's pension system.
"The first pillar is the state's basic endowment insurance, the second pillar is the enterprise annuity and occupational annuity of the unit, and the third pillar is the personal pension."
At present, the first pillar of my country's pension insurance system has covered more than 1 billion people, and the second pillar has also covered more than 58 million people.
The third pillar has previously been in the "blank" of the system.
The "Opinions" stipulate that workers who participate in the basic endowment insurance for urban employees or the basic endowment insurance for urban and rural residents in China can participate in the individual pension system.
The individual pension system adopts the personal account system, and the contributions are entirely borne by the participants and are fully accumulated.
After the introduction of the personal pension, the current pension insurance will be replaced, and the pension will depend on yourself in the future?
Hu Jiye said that this was actually a misunderstanding.
"Individual pensions are not necessarily related to our current basic pension insurance, and the basic pension insurance of the first pillar is mandatory. As long as you have a work unit, you must pay. But the pension insurance of the third pillar is voluntary." Hu Jiye It is pointed out that the personal pension will not affect the existing basic old-age insurance system and is a supplement rather than a substitute.
"The launch of the third pillar actually creates a new space for the in-depth integration of our pension and capital markets. We have no right to choose the first pillar and the second pillar. We personally have the right to choose the third pillar. "Hu Jiye pointed out that the core problem is to establish a transition from the existing savings pension to the investment pension concept.
Why does my country need to establish a personal pension system?
Hu Jiye pointed out that at present, the basic old-age insurance reserves in many provinces are already "extremely beyond their means".
He took a prefecture-level city in Heilongjiang as an example, "There are only more than 220,000 employees who pay endowment insurance in the city, and each pays a few hundred yuan per month; while there are more than 270,000 retirees who receive pensions, and each person receives an average monthly payment. 2,300 yuan." For the insufficient part, we can only rely on financial subsidies, and the financial pressure is very great.
This is not uncommon in provinces where there is a significant loss of young people.
With the rapid development of aging, only basic pension insurance is not enough.
The third pillar individual pension can alleviate the overall pension pressure to a certain extent.
Point 2
The biggest attraction is the tax benefits
The "Opinions" make it clear that the upper limit for participants to pay individual pensions is 12,000 yuan per year.
The Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the Ministry of Finance shall adjust the upper limit of contributions in a timely manner based on factors such as the level of economic and social development and the development of the multi-level and multi-pillar old-age insurance system.
At the same time, the state has formulated preferential tax policies to encourage qualified personnel to participate in the personal pension system and receive personal pensions in accordance with regulations.
The biggest attraction of individual pensions is the tax benefits.
According to the preferential tax policy in the pilot program in 2018, if the above limit is calculated at 12,000 yuan per year, a special additional deduction of 1,000 yuan per month can be enjoyed.
Hu Jiye believes that the tax incentives for personal pensions can be improved and expanded on the basis of tax-deferred pension insurance.
On the personal tax APP, in addition to the six well-known special additional deductions, "tax-deferred pension insurance" has been added.
To put it simply, taxpayers now increase the tax threshold by purchasing this insurance, and then supplement the tax when they retire and receive a pension.
The insurance is currently only available in Shanghai, Fujian and Suzhou Industrial Park.
According to the pilot policy in 2018, the maximum monthly personal tax deferred commercial insurance is not more than 1,000 yuan.
According to the previous pilot, individual tax-deferred commercial pension insurance can participate in individual tax deduction.
If you pay 12,000 yuan a year, if the personal income tax is at the 20% tax rate (that is, the annual taxable income exceeds 144,000 to 300,000 yuan), you can save 2,400 yuan a year.
Zhu Junsheng, research director of the China Insurance and Pension Research Center of the PBC School of Finance, suggested in an interview with China Business News that pre-tax deductions should be included in the special deduction items for personal income tax to simplify the pre-tax deduction process.
Increase the attractiveness of the system.
Zhu Junsheng also believes that the payment amount for enjoying tax incentives is relatively limited, and it will continue to increase in the future.
It is suggested that the pre-tax deduction standard of tax-deferred pension insurance should be appropriately increased under the background of raising the threshold for new personal tax and increasing special deductions.
For example, the monthly deduction amount can be increased to 2,000 yuan or 3,000 yuan.
Point 3
The advantage is "long-term gains"
After paying the personal pension, where can the money be spent?
The "Opinions" stipulate that personal pension account funds are used to purchase financial products such as bank wealth management, savings deposits, commercial pension insurance, and public funds that meet the regulations, and they can choose independently and bear the corresponding risks.
From the point of view of extraction, the "Opinions" stipulates that if a participant reaches the age of receiving the basic pension, has completely lost the ability to work, has gone abroad (territorial) to settle down, or has other circumstances that meet the state's regulations, he or she can receive personal benefits on a monthly, instalment or one-off basis. pension.
After a participant dies, the assets in his personal pension fund account can be inherited.
The "Opinions" also clarified that individual pension fund accounts are closed for operation, and their rights and interests belong to the participants. Unless otherwise stipulated, they cannot be withdrawn in advance.
This is also the biggest difference between personal pensions and wealth management products.
Hu Jiye pointed out, "If you buy general funds, you will not enjoy tax benefits, and redemption at any time is not conducive to long-term investment."
As long as it is an investment, ordinary people will pay attention to the benefits and risks.
Hu Jiye pointed out that time and risk are closely related.
"The basic principle of finance is that the longer the investment time span of equity products, the lower the relative risk."
Hu Jiye pointed out that once the personal pension is fully developed, the asset size of the personal pension in the future will be an "astronomical figure".
"Take investing in stocks as an example. From 1926 to 1996, the U.S. stock market had an average annualized return of 10.7% despite the Great Depression, Black Monday, oil crisis and stagflation in the 1970s. The annualization in 70 years is the 70th power of 1+0.107." Hu Jiye emphasized that if the long-term investment fund does not insist on redemption, the income will be considerable.
"If we conduct a long-term follow-up study of all the data for more than 20 years, we will find that China and the United States are in a similar situation, that is, the yield of equity products is higher than that of fixed income products, and of course the risks are also higher; but as time goes by If it exceeds 5 years, the risk level of the two will decrease rapidly, and if it exceeds 11 years, there is not much difference between the two.”
Point 4
It is expected to send long-term stable funds into the market
Hu Jiye put forward the concept of "pension finance" in his article in 2012, emphasizing that personal retirement must rely on "finance". The traditional basic endowment insurance can only ensure that you have enough vegetables and white rice when you are old. If you want to eat seafood dinner, and personal pensions.
Demographic issues will also exacerbate the "pension gap" situation.
How is the foreign country doing in terms of pensions?
The reporter checked the information and found that the retirement benefits in the United States also adopted a "three-pillar" model. The first pillar is the Federal Social Security Fund (OASDI), which is a compulsory pension plan initiated by the US federal government; the second pillar is the occupation shared by the individual enterprises. Pension plan, 401K is the most representative plan in the second pillar; the third pillar is the personal investment pension account IRA (Individual Retirement Account).
Some experts pointed out that the currently announced personal pension system is similar to the US IRA.
"Whether it is from the perspective of institutional investors or from the perspective of retail investors, long-term investment in pensions should be supported, because long-term investment will generate an exponential return." Hu Jiye pointed out.
At the same time, the personal pension system is also conducive to the de-retailization of my country's capital market.
Hu Jiye said that the insurance asset management industry and the fund industry will usher in good news.
The Everbright Securities Research Report proposed that the potential pension fund is of considerable size and is expected to provide long-term stable funds for the development of the capital market.
Vigorously developing personal pensions will accelerate the transformation of residents' savings into investment, and provide more long-term funds to the capital market through various financial products and financial institutions, which will help promote the vigorous development of my country's capital market.
On the one hand, as a natural requirement for wealth management business, personal pensions can expand investment channels and increase medium and long-term investment returns; investment options.
According to industry analysts, because personal pensions are mainly oriented towards investment needs with relatively low risk appetite and pursue long-term absolute returns, they have higher requirements for safety and robustness.
The vigorous development of personal pensions is expected to drive products with relatively stable long-term incremental capital allocation.
Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter Wang Tian
How to stimulate the willingness of individuals to participate?
Wang Zengwen, professor of the Department of Public Economics and Social Security of Wuhan University, director of the China Social Security Society, and director of the Pension Branch, said in an interview with reporters: Individual pensions are voluntary participation, and some people will definitely be motivated, but if he finds out that the pension insurance fund If the tax incentives are not sufficient, the procedures are too complicated, and the investment rate of return is not high in the process, then this demonstration effect will be negative, and even cause everyone's resistance.
There is a precedent for personal tax-deferred commercial pension insurance, and there has been a very low initiative to participate.
For example, if I participate, I have to verify my monthly salary, which must be very accurate, possibly accurate to two decimal places.
My salary is different every month, so I have to verify it once a month. I may be exempted from tax of 20 to 30 yuan, but a lot of formalities are required. The incentive effect is not obvious in this process, and the enthusiasm for participating will be very high. weak.
If we can see a comparison, some people use personal savings to protect their life after retirement, and some people get more generous benefits through the personal pension account model, this demonstration effect will be very good, it is possible More people came in overnight.
Because the personal pension is different from the basic pension insurance, the basic pension insurance rate of urban and rural residents can be very high overnight, but not everyone can spend 1,200 yuan a month on the personal pension, and some young people may be the moonlight clan.
Therefore, in this process, we must actively guide saving for the future, and the premise of saving is that our investment must be prepared, our profit methods and profit tools must be prepared, and our tax benefits must have incentive effects, etc.
Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter Pan Junwen
Intern reporter Zhou Weihao