Spain: Law encouraging occupational pension plans published

On July 1, the Official State Gazette published  Law 12/2022 of June 30, 2022 to encourage occupational pension plans, which amends the revised Pension Plans and Pension Funds Law, approved by Legislative Royal Decree 1/2002 of November 29, 2002. The law adds two new chapters, the first on public open occupational pension funds and the second on simplified occupational pension plans. The intention behind these two mechanisms is to simplify the arrangement and management processes for occupational pension plans.

The new simplified pension plans, along with the defined-contribution occupational pension plans for retirement will be accepted as co-sponsored pension funds, which will be arranged by the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, although they will be able to provide cover for other contingencies if they are fully insured.

New “simplified” occupational pension plans are created, which may be:

• Occupational pension plans arranged by any companies included in industry collective agreements which make provision for pension obligations payable to their workers, with a particular focus on encouraging them to be implemented at small and medium enterprises.
• Public sector occupational pension plans sponsored by any government institutions, including local government corporations, entities and their attached agencies to cover the pension obligations of employees in their service.
• Pension plans for the self-employed or independent contractors, arranged by associations, federations, confederations or joint self-employed worker or independent contractor associations, by unions, by professional associations or by welfare mutual insurance societies, to which only self-employed workers or independent contractors are able to subscribe.
• Pension plans for worker partners and for work partners at cooperatives and worker-owned companies, arranged by cooperatives and worker-owned companies and their representative organizations.

Any companies included in an industry Workers’ Statute-based collective labor agreement that makes provision for pension obligations with their workers to be covered through a simplified industry occupational pension plan will have to subscribe to the plan if the agreement so requires.

The rules on employers’ contributions will be as specified in the agreement, although employers may improve on those amounts. Also, industry collective labor agreements may give companies in the industry the option not to subscribe to the simplified industry plan on condition that they agree to arrange their own occupational pension plan which cannot in any case have inferior conditions to the industry plan.

Simplified occupational pension plans will have to be defined-contribution retirement plans, although if they include defined benefits for death, permanent incapacity and dependence of the subscriber, as well as those guaranteed to beneficiaries following the occurrence of any contingency and their reversions, they must be fully articulated in the necessary insurance contracts required by the plan, which will not under any circumstances accept the risks inherent to those benefits.

The new provisions expressly define the process for arranging and formalizing simplified occupational pension plans, as well as the necessary contents of their specifications and the rules on their modification, as well as on their oversight committees and governance bodies.

Lastly, the law introduces a number of modifications, notably:

• Occupational pension plans will not be able to determine grace periods over one month for access by worker subscribers.
• A further modification is made to the limits on employers’ contributions to pension plans, and takes effect on January 1, 2023.

See here for the new tax legislation introduced by Law 12/2022 .