You have been granted a survivors’ pension. We have sent you the pension decision and a pension calculation showing the amount of your pension, the start date, the payment method and the information on which your pension is based. Below you will find important information about your pension.
Contents
Review the pension decision and calculation
Request for appeal
Pension taxation
Apply for a pension tax card as soon as you get your pension decision
Pensions beginning at the end of the year
Automated index adjustments at the turn of the year and tax information
Other changes in the pension amount – order a new tax card
General information about survivors’ pension
Starting date of pension
Orphan’s pension for children
Surviving spouse’s pension
Effect of accident and motor liability insurance on your pension
New marriage of widow(er)
If your contact information or bank account number changes
Information for pension recipients living abroad
Taxation of pension recipients living abroad
Annual residence report
Additional information and contact information
Review the pension decision and calculation
Check that the information in the pension decision and calculation is correct. If you notice anything missing from the information, please contact us.
Request for appeal
If you think the pension decision is incorrect, you can request an appeal. The appeal procedure is attached to the decision. You can also find the appeal instructions and appeal application form on our online service at www.veritas.fi.
Pension taxation
Earnings-related pension is considered taxable income. Veritas withholds the tax payable on the pension in accordance with your pension tax card. If we do not have your pension tax card, we will withhold tax at a rate of 40%.
Apply for a pension tax card as soon as you get your pension decision
Order a tax card for earnings-related pension as soon as possible after receiving your pension decision. A pension tax card can be ordered in two ways:
- from the Tax Administration’s online service at https://www.vero.fi/en/e-file/mytax/
- by calling the Tax Administration’s service number +358 (0)29 497 000.
Ask the Tax Administration to send your tax card directly to Veritas.
If the tax card is valid from the same date on which your pension begins and we have already made pension payments to you at a 40% withholding rate, we will refund the excess portion of the tax. The refund will automatically be made after we have received your tax card.
Pension companies cannot obtain tax cards on behalf of their customers, rather the tax card must be ordered by each individual taxpayer at the start of their pension. We are not able to use the tax card issued for the payment of wages or other income for the purpose of withholding your pension tax.
Pensions beginning at the end of the year
If your pension begins 1 November or later, order your pension tax card for both the current and following year. The tax amount can only be corrected during the year in which the pension has been paid.
Index adjustments and tax information at the turn of the year
Pensions in payment are adjusted annually, at the beginning of January, with the earnings-related pension index. You can find the index-adjusted amount of your pension in the online service from the end of November. We will notify the tax authorities of the indexed amount of your pension, and we receive directly from them the tax rate to be used for your pension payments the following year. You will also receive information about your updated pension tax rate from the tax authorities.
In the online service you can find information about the pension that has been paid to you and the tax that has been withheld from it each year. We report the paid pensions and the related withholding amounts also to the Incomes Register. You can check the information in the Incomes Register at any time at www.vero.fi/en/incomes-register.
Other changes in the pension amount – order a new tax card
If the amount of your pension is subject to changes other than an index adjustment, you will have to independently order a new pension tax card.
General information about survivors’ pension
Starting date of pension
Survivors’ pension begins at the beginning of the month following the death of a family provider. Survivors’ pension may be paid as a surviving spouse’s pension to a widow(er) on the grounds of being married, common-law or registered spouses. Orphan’s pension can be paid to the children of the deceased family provider who are under the age of 20 and to children of the surviving spouse who are under the age of 20 and lived in the same household with the deceased family provider.
Orphan’s pension for children
A child has the right to an orphan’s pension until the end of the month in which they turn 20 years of age. If there is no surviving spouse who is entitled to the surviving spouse’s pension, the children may receive a supplemented pension that is equivalent to the surviving spouse’s pension.
Surviving spouse’s pension
A spouse’s own earnings-related pension is taken into account when calculating the surviving spouse’s pension. This calculation is known as the surviving spouse’s pension deduction. If you do not receive an earnings-related pension yourself or are under the age of 65 and do not have dependent children under the age of 18, you will receive the survivors’ pension without any deductions for six months.
If you have dependent children under the age of 18, the deduction to the surviving spouse’s pension will be made from the beginning of the month following the month in which the youngest child living in the same household turns 18.
The surviving spouse’s pension deduction is applied
- immediately upon the start of the pension if you have reached the age of 65 or you receive your own earnings-related pension other than part-time pension, partial early old-age pension or farm-closure pension.
- after 6 months from the start of the pension if you are under the age of 65 years and are not receiving your own earnings-related pension
- when you begin receiving your own earnings-related pension other than as partial early old-age pension.
If you are not yet retired, we will determine a computational pension for you for the purpose of reducing your surviving spouse’s pension. If the computational pension does not correspond to your actual income, you can ask us to check whether the deduction can be made based on your actual income. You can also apply later for a deduction based on actual income if your circumstances change substantially, but not later than 5 years after the death of your spouse or the end of your youngest child’s right to an orphan’s pension.
Your own or computational earnings-related pension is compared to the reduction criterion for surviving spouse’s pension as specified by law. If your own pension is higher than the criterion limit for reduction, the amount of the surviving spouse’s pension payable to you will be reduced. The reduction is half the difference between the amount of your own pension or your computational pension and the reduction criterion as specified by law. If your own earnings-related pension is less than the criterion limit for reduction, the amount of your surviving spouse’s pension will not be reduced.
No reduction is made to pensions of common-law spouses.
Effect of accident and motor liability insurance on your pension
Any continuing compensation under accident and motor liability insurance legislation will be deducted from the earnings-related pension. If the amount of continuous compensation for statutory accident or motor liability insurance changes or you are granted a new continuous compensation, please inform us immediately so that we can adjust the amount of your pension. If the amount of your pension changes due to compensation, we will issue a new decision on your earnings-related pension.
New marriage of widow(er)
If the surviving spouse remarries after the age of 50, the survivors’ pension will continue to be paid as before. If the surviving spouse remarries before the age of 50, the survivors’ pension will be discontinued and the widow(er) may be paid a lump sum equal to a maximum of three years of pension. The lump sum will not be paid if, at the time of the discontinuation of the surviving spouse’s pension, the recipient of the survivors’ pension is a child who will be entitled to a supplemented pension as a result of the discontinuation.
Entering into a common-law marriage will not affect or discontinue the payment of surviving spouse’s pension.
If your contact information or bank account number changes
If your address changes, submit a move notification to the Digital and Population Data Services Agency. We will then automatically receive your new contact information. A pensioner living abroad must independently provide their new address to Veritas.
You can report a changed bank account number through the online service for private customers at www.veritas.fi. Log in to the service using your Finnish online banking codes, a mobile certificate or a certificate card.
For security reasons, we cannot receive bank account information by phone or e-mail.
Information for pension recipients living abroad
Taxation of pension recipients living abroad
If you live abroad permanently, we will, on your behalf, ask the tax authorities to issue a pension tax card applicable to your Finnish pension. At the end of the year, we will send you a certificate showing the amount of tax collected and the pensions paid for you to attach to the tax return in your country of residence.
Finnish citizens who have moved abroad are generally tax-liable in Finland during the year in which they moved and the following three years. A fully tax-liable pensioner pays tax to Finland on the same grounds as pensioners living in Finland. Pensioners living permanently outside Finland are considered to have limited tax liability in Finland. Even a person with limited tax liability primarily pays Finland taxes on the pension they receive from Finland.
More detailed information on the taxation of non-residents is provided by:
Helsinki Area Tax Office
P.O. Box 400
FI-00052 VERO
Tel. +358 (0)20 697 024
Annual residence report
We send our pension recipients living abroad an annual request to fill out a residence report as a means of providing us with their latest contact information. The residence report will be sent by post in December and must be returned to us by the end of April. You can also provide us with the information requested in the residence report through the online service at www.veritas.fi.
If you move while living abroad, please inform us of your new address.
Additional information and contact information
Information on your pension can be found in the online service for private customers at www.veritas.fi/log in. You can log in to the service using your Finnish online banking codes, a mobile certificate or a certificate card. If you have any questions, you can send us a message through our data secure system. You can also call us at the phone number stated in your pension decision. Our other contact information can be found on our website at www.veritas.fi/en/contact/.