The Welfare Foundation pays retirement pensions and provides emergency assistance. Based on the Copyright Act (URG) and the statutes, the Welfare Foundation receives 9% of the revenues of ProLitteris. The social benefits depend on the degree of financial hardship. While the pension follows fixed rules defined in the regulations of the Welfare Foundation, the foundation board assesses applications for emergency assistance at its discretion according to the financial situation of the person concerned.
Authors are entitled to a pension if they have a 10-year membership and became members no later than at the age of 60, and if the cumulative royalties from ProLitteris during the membership reach or exceed the level set annually by the foundation board. To calculate the retirement pension, the sum of all royalties from ProLitteris and the annual income reported for direct federal tax are used. If the taxable income (or, if higher, the income determining the tax rate) for direct federal tax exceeds CHF 50’000 for a person taxed individually or CHF 66’667 for a person taxed jointly, there is no entitlement to a pension.
Persons who can assert an entitlement to a pension are contacted annually in October by ProLitteris so that they can send the latest federal tax assessment to ProLitteris by 31 December. ProLitteris calculates the pensions in the following January of the pension year and then pays them out. The deadline is binding – those who are late forfeit the pension.
In order not to forfeit the entitlement to a pension, a member must therefore, within the deadline communicated by ProLitteris in the pension letter, send a correct assessment of the direct federal tax to our Social team. For the next pension year 2027, the deadline will be 31.12.2026. Only those members who reach the minimum royalty amount only at the end of the year (the year before the pension year) will receive a notification from ProLitteris in the following January to provide proof of taxable income. For these persons there is a shortened deadline for submitting the tax document.
These steps are defined in such a way that as many retirement pensions as possible are already paid out in January. This is stipulated in the regulations of the Welfare Foundation, and this is appreciated by the recipients of the payments.