Help I overcontributed to my pilar 3a

Ok I hope this is not too embarrassing or the solution too obvious but last year I followed the mustachianpost suggestion and opened not one but two new 3a accounts in addition to my sufficiently filled first one. Now I know the maximum contribution of CHF 6883 but when splitting it between the two accounts at different banks I contributed CHF 3443 twice, effectively going over the allowed maximum by CHF 3. I noticed this only now when preparing my taxes.
My question: easytax will automatically only deduct the allowed maximum. But will there be any other implications? Anything I have to do to correct this mistake?

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Overcontributing to pillar 3a is not allowed as it could be used to evade wealth taxes. In your case, I don‘t think that anybody will suspect a criminal intent though :wink:
I see 2 possibilities how you could proceed:

  1. contact one of the two pillar 3a providers (best the one where you paid later), and explain your situation and ask them to refund 3 francs. That would be the correct procedure.

  2. Wait and see. Chances are, nobody is going to notice and even if they do, that they will not bother to do anything for just 3 francs. Worst case is that they will make you do procedure 1). Wealth tax on these 3 francs is so little that they won’t even be able to collect it.

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I don’t think pillar 3a foundations are allowed to refund anything unless instructed by tax authorities. Especially after having issued a statement on how much you’ve contributed. And for CHF 3 it’s anyway not worth it.

The normal procedure when contributing more than allowed is to declare the full contributed amount in your taxes (only CHF 6’883 can be deducted but the full contributed amount can and must still be declared) and then you get a letter from the tax authorities requesting you to withdraw the extra amount from your pillar 3a. With this letter, pillar 3a foundations can and will issue a refund.

However, I have no idea whether they bother with such a letter for CHF 3. The letter typically arrives together with your final tax assessment, i.e. well after filing your taxes.

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  1. Declare it as it is.
  2. Receive a letter from the tax office which you can forward to one your 3rd pillar institutions. They will refund those CHF 3 to your private account.

Happens all the time. Sometimes people contribute twice the maximum amount, no harm done.

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it happen to me in a different way. My wife was unemployed for a few months and I contribute to the maximum for her. during the tax submission I’ve received a letter that I should ask to withdrawal the money.

So for 3 CHF I do not think they will do it, but …

Thanks a lot! I will implement your suggestions.