Facts
The case concerns the question of how pension income from a fixed-term annuity contract should be taken into account in determining the AHV contributions of a non-employed person. The Compensation Fund of the Canton of St. Gallen had capitalized the pension income of the opposing party M. and added it to the assets to determine the contributions for the years 1985-1991. M. objected to this practice and demanded that only the original capital of CHF 200,000 used for the annuity contract be added to the other assets.
The Insurance Court of the Canton of St. Gallen partially upheld the appeal and referred the matter back to the Compensation Fund to determine the relevant assets and recalculate the contributions. The Compensation Fund then filed an administrative court appeal with the aim of confirming the supplementary decisions of October 26, 1990 and November 2, 1990.
Considerations
The Federal Insurance Court confirmed the previous case law, according to which pension income of a non-employed person must generally be capitalized and added to the assets. This also applies to fixed-term annuities, as they do not represent realizable assets and the maximum amount of the pension benefits cannot be determined, especially if they are linked to a variable profit share.
The court explained…