13th AHV Pension Estimator 2026 | Switzerland

One extra month, not a bonus formula

The 13th AHV payment deliberately copies the mechanics of the Swiss 13th salary: whatever your December pension is, it arrives twice. A full-career maximum pensioner gets CHF 2,520 extra; someone on a half-scale pension gets exactly half that. There is no separate eligibility test, no income threshold, and no application form, if you receive an AHV old-age pension in December 2026, the payment comes with it.

The proportionality cuts both ways and is worth saying plainly: the referendum did not raise anyone's monthly pension, and it did not help those on supplementary benefits (EL) disproportionately, it added one month of the existing entitlement. For budgeting, treat it as an 8.3% annual raise delivered in one December lump rather than a new monthly baseline, and if your finances run month to month, plan the lump deliberately, December is also the month the bills pile up, and a windfall without a job assigned to it tends to evaporate.

Your contribution record sets the size, the Plafonierung sets the ceiling

Two mechanisms decide the December amount. Scale 44 first: each missing contribution year shaves roughly 2.3% off the pension, and the 13th payment shrinks in exact proportion. Immigrants and returning expats with gap years feel this hardest, which is also why checking your individual contribution account (IK-Auszug) BEFORE retirement, while gaps can sometimes still be repaired, is worth an afternoon.

Then the marriage cap: a couple whose individual pensions would sum above 150% of the single maximum is capped at CHF 3,780 a month, and their 13th payment is capped at the same combined figure. Two maximum earners married to each other receive less than they would as cohabiting singles, the referendum changed nothing about that long-standing arithmetic, it just extended it to one more payment a year. The calculator applies whichever cap your marital status selects, which is why toggling that input can move the December figure by hundreds of francs.

The December cheque is taxable, and the funding debate is not over

The 13th payment is ordinary taxable pension income. For most retirees the extra CHF 1,500-2,500 nudges the tax bill modestly, but pensioners near cantonal tax thresholds or drawing large Pillar 2 pensions alongside should expect the marginal franc of the 13th payment to be taxed at their top rate, worth pricing before mentally spending the whole windfall.

Honesty about the other side of the ledger: the referendum approved the benefit without settling its long-term financing, and the political debate over VAT or payroll contributions to fund roughly CHF 4-5 billion a year continues. Nothing about the December 2026 payment is at risk, it is law, but younger readers should read this calculator as a statement about current retirees' entitlements, not a guarantee about the system's shape in 2050.

Practical notes for the first December: the payment covers old-age pensions (survivors' pensions follow their own rules), it arrives through the same channel as your normal pension, and pensioners abroad receive it under the same conditions as their regular payments. If your December deposit is not roughly double the usual amount, the compensation office that pays your pension, not the bank, is the first call to make.

For households still planning retirement, the 13th payment slightly reshapes two old decisions. Deferring the AHV pension (possible up to five years, with a lifetime supplement) now defers thirteen payments a year rather than twelve, making deferral marginally more attractive for healthy pensioners with other income. And couples running the marriage-cap arithmetic should note the 13th payment widens the gap between married and cohabiting maximum-pension couples by one more month of the difference each year, roughly CHF 1,260 annually for two full-scale pensions, a figure worth knowing even if nobody organises their marriage around it. None of this is a reason to change a retirement date, but all of it belongs in the spreadsheet when you model the years around 65.