Pensioner

Pension payment dates

• Earnings-related pensions are paid in advance on the first banking day of each month.
• If the first day of the month is a Saturday, Sunday or holiday, you can withdraw your pension on the next business day.

Varma sends pension information to banks several days before the pension payment date. The exact time when the pension is visible in your account on the payment date depends on the bank’s payment processes. For more information, contact your bank.

In accordance with Finnish pension legislation, earnings-related pensions can only be paid once during each calendar month. The payment day cannot be moved to the preceding month, because the right to receive a pension exists on a monthly basis.

• Next pension to be paid
• Pensions paid (12 previous months)
• Changing your account number
• Changing your contact details
• Printing out pension certificates

You can change the bank account into which your pension is paid on our eServices, if you have Finnish banking codes or a mobile certificate required for logging in. If you do not have Finnish banking codes, please print out the form below and mail it, completed and signed.

You can also inform us of your new bank account number in a free-form letter sent to us either by post or by fax. We cannot change your bank account number over the phone or via e-mail, because the notification of a changed bank account must contain the pensioner’s signature.

Print out the notification of a changed bank account form (pdf)

If you move, we usually receive information about your new address in Finland directly from the Finnish Population Register Authority. If you live outside of Finland, however, we do not automatically receive information about changed addresses. For that reason, it is important that you notify our pension payments department if you live outside of Finland and your address changes.

You can change your address yourself by logging in to our eServices if you have Finnish banking codes or a mobile certificate. You can also notify Varma of a changed address  by using the secure electronic form. 

Obtain a tax card for your pension income as soon as possible after receiving your pension decision from 

• the MyTax service www.vero.fi, or from
• the Finnish Tax Administration at the number 029 497 050 (calls from outside Finland +358 29 497 050) or from
• a Finnish tax office.

The Tax Administration recommends that its customers primarily use the online service.

Earnings-related pension is subject to withholding tax. The taxation of pension income is based on the Tax Administration’s instructions and tax legislation.

If the tax rate for pension income is not known by us at the time when the payment of pension begins, we are required, under the tax legislation, to withhold 40% tax for both future and retroactive pension. Similarly if your pension income rises by over 20 euro we are required to withhold 40% tax on the increase.

We will refund any overpaid tax as soon as we receive your tax card for pension income from the tax authority.

• Once your pension begins, we request a new tax rate from the tax authorities every year.
• We annually inform the tax authorities directly about the pension payments you have received and the taxes that have been withheld on them.
• If you live outside of Finland permanently and it has been 3 years since you left Finland, we will request a tax card for limited tax liability from the Finnish tax authorities for your pension. 
  Read more about taxation for pensioners living abroad 

• If the amount of your pension changes for some reason other than the annual index adjustment, contact your local tax office to verify your tax rate.
• Apply for pension income spreading from the tax authorities if you are receiving pension retroactively for years preceding the year of payment. Read more about income spreading on the Finnish Tax Administration’s website: www.vero.fi.
• If you would like to pay a higher withholding tax rate than the tax authorities have informed you of, you can raise your tax rate on our eServices. Go to your personal pension details on our eServices.

If you log in to our eServices, you can print out a certificate

• of the amount of the monthly pension
• of the pensions paid during the current year
• of the pensions paid during the previous year.
  
  

When dealing with the tax office, the social insurance institution (Kela) or social service offices, you may be required to provide proof of your pension.

Other languages

If you require a pension certificate in a language other than English or Finnish,

• send a message through our eServices or
• contact: pensionpayments@varma.fi.

The trilingual employee pension card serves as proof of retirement also outside of Finland. We will send the employee pension card, which entitles the holder to pensioner discounts, by post to your home address roughly two weeks after the pension decision has been granted. You can obtain the pension card from Varma if we have granted you:

• old-age pension
• early old-age pension
• permanent, full disability pension or
• unemployment pension.

The card can only be granted to persons who receive a permanent full pension, so partial early old-age pension, part-time pension, partial disability pension, cash rehabilitation benefit or survivors’ pension do not entitle you to the employee pension card.

If you wish, you can also save your electronic employee pension card on your smart phone or tablet when you log in to our eServices using your personal Finnish banking codes or a mobile certificate. You can, of course, also order a new card from our customer service if your old card has been lost or damaged.

How to obtain an electronic employee pension card

• Why can’t I see the Employee pension card page on Varma’s eServices?
• Why can’t I save the electronic employee pension card on my smart phone or tablet?
• Why can’t I see the employee pension card saving instructions on my Nokia Lumia phone?
• Why can’t I access the employee pension card saving instructions again?
• Why can’t I access the employee pension card that I saved on my phone or tablet?