Workers have to catch up with their pension contributions – Sectors – Economy

Workers have to catch up with their pension contributions – Sectors – Economy

If your company or you, as an independent, accepted Decree Law 558 of 2020, which could voluntarily reduce the pension contributions in April and May 2020, at the beginning of the pandemicyou should know that you need to catch up.

And it is that during the health emergency decreed by the covid-19, the Government issued this decree that allowed companies, employees and independents to make a partial payment to the pension system, going from 16 to 3 percent of the contribution, with the goal of easing your finances.

(You can also read: Colombia’s external debt: growth rate tripled in December)

And it is that during the health emergency decreed by the covid-19, the Government issued this decree that allowed companies, employees and independents to make a partial payment to the pension system, going from 16 to 3 percent of the contribution, with the goal of easing your finances.

However, one year after the Constitutional court declared this measure unenforceable for going against fundamental rights. Consequently, the National Government issued a new decree (376 of 2021) with which it gave a period of 36 months, counted from June 1, 2021, to contribute that remaining 13 percent. This means that the companies and independents that did not make that payment have until May 2024 to catch up, with no late payment interest.

The Pension and Parafiscal Management Unit (UGPP) it will monitor that companies, employees and independents catch up with the pending payment of social security; otherwise, not only will the default interest be paid, but administrative sanctions may also be applied.

In total, according to the UGPP reports, between April and May 2020, 7,143,410 contributors (including dependents and independents) took this benefit, of which 2,653,024, that is, 37.14 percent, already they have made the payment of the missing contributions for 1.2 trillion pesos.

To the date, 4,490,386 contributors are pending, worth 1.3 trillion pesos.

When making the payment, it must be taken into account that today this contribution is 16 percent, where 12 percent is assumed by the employers and 4 percent by the workers. And what they did in the middle of the pandemic was to allow the contribution to drop to 3 percent, in which the worker contributed 75 percent and the worker contributed 25 percent of that total.

At this time, companies can deduct the amount without having to request authorization or inform the workers. These can establish payment alternatives with their collaborators to make the contribution, either in a single deduction from their salary or periodically until completing that 25 percent that the employee must pay.

According to Juan Pablo López, managing partner of the firm López & AsociadosSome companies have done it automatically and others through periodic discounts so as not to directly affect the flow of their collaborators, making the contribution through the Integrated Contribution Settlement Form (Pila).

In the case of workers who are independent, they have to pay 100 percent of the contribution of the missing contribution to the general pension system.

What happens in resignations

If a periodic payment is agreed with your collaborator, companies must take into account that if the employment relationship is terminated, the value that is necessary to complete the total contribution that corresponds to you must be deducted from your final settlement and you can, later, make the payment. Payment to the Stack.

And in the event that they have already left, it is important that as a worker you communicate with your former employee and give them clarity on the subject, because in the event that the person retired from the company does not make this contribution, they will only be will account for 75 percent of the contribution on his history of pension contributions.

“In the event that people retired or are removed from their position, the employing entity must withhold from the wages or emoluments pending payment, the value of the contribution that corresponds to the worker,” said the managing partner of the firm López & associates.

Subsequently, the pension fund will make the adjustment to the person’s work history to make the full accounting of the contribution and, therefore, the eight weeks that correspond to those contribution periods are added.

By Mitchell G. Patton

You May Also Like