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Pillar 3a maximum calculator
Find your personal Pillar 3a maximum for the tax year and the amount you could still pay in, with an estimated tax-saving band.
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Answer the pension-fund question and calculate. We do not store your inputs and no email is required.
Educational model, not financial or tax advice and not a filing figure. Decisive is the assessment issued by your cantonal tax administration.
How high is the Pillar 3a maximum 2026?
For the tax year 2026, the Pillar 3a maximum is CHF 7'258 for people with a pension fund; without a pension fund it is 20% of net earned income, up to at most CHF 36'288. Both values come from the officially published parameters, and the calculator above applies them to your situation.
How the Pillar 3a maximum works
Two limits, one deciding question: pension fund or not
The ordinance governing Pillar 3a (BVV 3, SR 831.461.3) does not know one single maximum. It knows two, and which one applies to you depends on a single question: are you affiliated to a 2nd-pillar pension fund in the tax year? Employees with a pension fund, and also self-employed people who joined one voluntarily, may deduct up to the small annual maximum. People without any pension fund, typically the self-employed, may deduct up to 20% of their net earned income, capped at the large annual maximum.
Both franc amounts are set by the federal authorities and republished periodically; the calculator above always shows the values from the official parameters for the tax year you select.
With a pension fund: the small maximum
If you are insured in a pension fund at any point of the tax year through your employment, the small maximum is your personal ceiling. It is a flat amount: it does not grow with your salary and it is not reduced for part-time work, provided your earned income is subject to AHV contributions. Paying into Pillar 3a at all still requires AHV-liable earned income in that year.
Without a pension fund: 20% of net earned income
Without a pension fund, your ceiling is personal: 20% of your net earned income, at most the large maximum. Net earned income for the self-employed is broadly the business result after the deductions of social contributions, so the figure from your AHV settlement or tax return is the sound starting point. Because of the 20% rule, a lower income year automatically means a lower Pillar 3a ceiling, and above a certain income the fixed cap takes over: from that point, extra income no longer raises the ceiling.
Deadlines, and what happens to unused room
A contribution counts for the tax year in which it arrives at your 3a foundation, so the payment must be credited by the end of December. Many providers publish a cut-off date a few days before year end; a transfer initiated on 31 December can land in January and count for the next year.