When and how to withdraw money from Czech pension savings

You can withdraw money from supplementary pension savings (doplňkové penzijní spoření, DPS) without losing the state contributions from the age of 60, provided you have saved for at least 60 months under a contract concluded by the end of 2023, or at least 120 months under a contract concluded later (Section 20 of Act No. 427/2011 Coll.). You can then take the whole account at once, spread it into a regular pension, or transfer it to an insurance company for a lifetime annuity. With the old supplementary pension insurance (penzijní připojištění), the pension plan decides, and the law sets a minimum of age 60 and 60 months of payments.

You can get the money earlier without a penalty only in exceptional cases, through the pre-retirement pension (předdůchod), with third-degree disability, or as a pensioner with an older contract. Otherwise, the only option is the surrender value (odbytné), which costs you the state contributions and often your tax deductions too. How much you end up with also depends on the contract date and the form of payout. The rules in this article are current as of 2 October 2026.

You can withdraw without losing state contributions from age 60

With supplementary pension savings, you must meet two conditions at the same time. You must reach 60 and have a long enough savings period behind you. Act No. 462/2023 Coll. extended the required period from 60 to 120 months, but only for new contracts. Older contracts kept the original 60 months (Article XIII, point 2).

The savings period does not mean years since you signed the contract. It counts the months for which you or your employer paid a contribution (Section 3(b)), and months with suspended payments do not count (Section 11(4)). If you transferred money from the old pension insurance, the time spent in it counts too (Section 191(3)). You will find the exact number of months in your statement.

The old pension insurance follows its pension plan

Pension insurance is a product from before 2013. The money sits in a transformed fund (transformovaný fond) that no new members can join, and your rights are still governed by Act No. 42/1994 Coll. and by the pension plan that forms part of your contract (Section 190(4) of Act No. 427/2011 Coll.). The law only sets the limits.

• old-age pension from the age set in the plan, no earlier than 60, after paying contributions for at least 60 months (the plan may require at most 120)
• long-service pension (výsluhová penze) after paying contributions for at least 180 months, the law sets no age for it
• disability pension for third-degree disability
• lump-sum settlement (jednorázové vyrovnání) instead of a pension, if the pension plan allows it (Sections 21 and 22)

Under the law, a pension from pension insurance is paid for life (Section 20(1) of Act No. 42/1994 Coll.), and you get the money at once only as a lump-sum settlement instead of it. For the long-service pension this is possible regardless of age, if the plan allows it. The fund returns the state contributions to the ministry only when the surrender value is paid out (Section 23(3)). Contracts from before August 1999 may be governed by even older rules (explanatory memorandum to parliamentary print 285).

Pensioners with an older contract can exit without a penalty from August

Since 1 July 2024, people who have been granted a state old-age pension (starobní důchod), regular or early, no longer receive the state contribution (Section 13(1) of Act No. 427/2011 Coll.). Those who had not yet saved for five years either kept saving without the contribution, or exited and lost the state contributions, and if they had saved for less than 2 years, their own deposits too. According to the Ministry of Finance (Ministerstvo financí), this affected about 200,000 people, around 16,000 of whom ended their savings.

Amendment No. 128/2026 Coll., effective from 1 August 2026, changes this. If you concluded your contract by 29 December 2023, have been granted a state old-age pension and do not yet meet the conditions for a standard lump-sum settlement, you can withdraw all the money, including previously credited state contributions, regardless of how long you have saved (Section 28a, for pension insurance Section 191a). You can only withdraw the whole account at once.

Only the investment return is taxed on this payout. The rule under which employer contributions are also taxed for older contracts does not apply to it (Article IV, point 1 of Act No. 128/2026 Coll.). Tax deductions are not clawed back, because this is not a payout of the surrender value. That follows from Section 15(5) of the Income Tax Act (zákon o daních z příjmů) in the version in force until 31 December 2023.

A pensioner with a contract concluded by 29 December 2023 who ended it between 1 January 2024 and 31 July 2026 and returned the state contributions can ask for them in writing from the pension company (penzijní společnost) they saved with. The deadline is 1 February 2027 and nothing is refunded automatically. If you also lost your own deposits because of a short savings period, you get those back too (Article II of the amendment).

You can draw a pre-retirement pension up to 5 years before retirement age

The pre-retirement pension is a regular payout from your pension savings that lets you stop working before you become entitled to the state pension. Only supplementary pension savings pays it, so money from the old pension insurance must first be transferred (Section 20 and Section 22(4) of Act No. 427/2011 Coll.).

• payouts start no earlier than 5 years before your retirement age, end no earlier than 3 years before it and last at least 2 years
• the monthly instalment is at least 30% of the average wage announced for the previous year
• instalments are paid monthly, must not decrease, and the payout cannot be interrupted
• the savings period is the same as for the old-age pension, 60 or 120 months depending on the contract date

For payouts starting in 2026, the basis is the average wage of 48,171 CZK (about 2,200 USD) announced by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (Ministerstvo práce a sociálních věcí) in Communication No. 537/2025 Coll. The instalment must therefore be at least 14,451.30 CZK (about 660 USD) a month, and for the shortest two-year pre-retirement pension you need 346,831 CZK (about 16,000 USD), not counting any further returns. If your employer paid a statutory mandatory contribution into your savings, the time limits are shorter and you do not have to meet the savings period (Section 20(1), Section 22(2) and (4)).

While you draw the pre-retirement pension, the state pays your health insurance, and the period counts as an excluded period (vyloučená doba) when your state pension is calculated (Ministry of Finance). Do not confuse it with the state early retirement pension, which the Czech Social Security Administration (Česká správa sociálního zabezpečení, ČSSZ) reduces permanently.

With third-degree disability, 36 months of saving is enough

If you receive a state disability pension (invalidní důchod) for third-degree disability, you can draw a disability pension from supplementary pension savings regardless of age. A savings period of 36 months is enough, and the contract may require at most 60 (Section 20(2) of Act No. 427/2011 Coll.). You keep the state contributions and the deductions are not clawed back, because this is neither a payout of the surrender value nor a withdrawal without meeting the conditions.

The disability pension is paid in instalments for at least 3 years and cannot be withdrawn as a lump sum (Section 22(2)). It is exempt from tax (Section 4(1)(k) of the Income Tax Act). In the old pension insurance it is governed by the pension plan, and third-degree disability is also a condition.

As a lump sum, a pension or a lifetime annuity

Once you are entitled, you choose from four options. You keep the state contributions in all of them, and you only lose them when the surrender value is paid out (Sections 19 to 25 of Act No. 427/2011 Coll.).

• lump-sum settlement, meaning the whole account at once
• old-age pension for a period you choose yourself, at least 3 years, paid at least four times a year if the instalment reaches 500 CZK (about 23 USD)
• lifetime pension or a pension for a fixed period from an insurance company, to which the pension company sends your money as a single premium
• a lump-sum settlement combined with one of the pensions, but you can split the money only once

A pension from the pension company ends when the money runs out, and if you die earlier, the remainder goes to your designated beneficiary or your heirs (Section 24(1)). A lifetime annuity from an insurance company pays out for as long as you live. The insurer tells you the guaranteed amount in advance and is bound by its offer for 6 months (Section 23(5)).

You then manage a lump-sum payout yourself. On a current account, inflation erodes its value, so it pays to compare a term deposit or savings account and government bonds.

How the payout is taxed by form and contract date

The pension company withholds a 15% tax from the payout and you do not include it in your tax return (Section 8(1)(e) and Section 36(2)(k) of the Income Tax Act). Neither your deposits nor the state contributions are taxed, only the return is. For contracts concluded by the end of 2023, however, the wording of the act as at 31 December 2023 applies, and tax is also paid on employer contributions (transitional provisions of Act No. 462/2023 Coll.).

The difference matters if your employer contributed. With an older contract, you pay 15% on its contributions too from a lump-sum settlement, and nothing from a pension for at least 10 years (Section 4(1)(k)). Pensions from the old pension insurance are always exempt.

Taking the surrender value costs you state contributions and deductions

You get the surrender value when you terminate your savings by notice or by agreement before you are entitled to a benefit. With supplementary pension savings, the savings period must be at least 24 months, the notice period is at most 1 month and the money arrives within 1 month of your request (Sections 6 and 25 of Act No. 427/2011 Coll.). The pension company deducts all credited state contributions.

Before 24 months you get no surrender value at all. You can only transfer the money to another pension company, and if you do not do so within 3 years, it goes to the fund (Sections 27 and 28). In the old pension insurance, 12 months of payments are enough, but you only get your own contributions and the return on them, and the payout takes up to 3 months (Section 23 of Act No. 42/1994 Coll.).

The second loss comes in your tax return. For contracts concluded by the end of 2023, the amounts you deducted from your tax base over the last 10 years become other income in the year of termination (Section 15(5) as in force until 31 December 2023). An employee who otherwise has only a salary files a tax return when other income exceeds 20,000 CZK (about 920 USD) (Section 38g(2)).

For contracts from 2024, the deductions are joined by employer contributions that were tax-exempt in the year of withdrawal and the 10 years before. They are taxed back as employment income and filing a tax return is mandatory (Section 15b(5) and Section 38g(5)). An early withdrawal from a long-term investment product (dlouhodobý investiční produkt, DIP) is taxed back the same way.

The exception is the partial surrender value for young people. If you have saved for at least 120 months, you can withdraw up to a third of the money, excluding state and employer contributions, within 2 years of your 18th birthday and keep saving (Section 25(5)). For unexpected expenses, it pays to have an emergency fund outside your pension savings.

Worked example, what the same account pays out three ways

Our model saver took out supplementary pension savings in October 2014 and has been paying 1,500 CZK (about 69 USD) for 144 months. She received a state contribution of 230 CZK (about 11 USD) a month until June 2024 and 300 CZK (about 14 USD) from July 2024, which is 20% of her deposit. Her employer contributed 48,000 CZK (about 2,200 USD) and the funds earned 50,000 CZK (about 2,300 USD), and both figures are assumptions. She deducted the part of her deposit above 1,000 CZK (about 46 USD) from her tax base, which is 6,000 CZK (about 280 USD) a year. Since July 2024, only the part above 1,700 CZK (about 78 USD) can be deducted, so in 2024 it was 3,000 CZK (about 140 USD) and from 2025 nothing. For the years 2016 to 2025, which fall within the last 10 years, that makes 51,000 CZK (about 2,300 USD).

The tax on the lump-sum settlement is 15% of 98,000 CZK (about 4,500 USD), that is, of the return and the employer contributions. For a contract concluded from 2024 it would apply only to the return, 7,500 CZK (about 340 USD). Compared with the lump-sum settlement, taking the surrender value costs the saver 42,660 CZK (about 2,000 USD), of which 35,010 CZK (about 1,600 USD) is the returned state contributions.

The 10-year pension comes out best because it is tax-exempt. The tax clawback is calculated at the 15% rate, and with a tax base above 1,762,812 CZK (about 81,000 USD) a year, part of it would fall into the 23% band.

What the Better Pension Savings amendment would change

The government has sent the Chamber of Deputies an amendment called Better Pension Savings (Lepší penzijko, parliamentary print 285). The first reading took place on 24 September 2026, further debate is possible from 25 October 2026 and the proposed effective date is 1 January 2027. For now it is only a proposal.

• the partial surrender value, a third of your own deposits including returns, could be withdrawn once at any time before your 36th birthday, after at least 120 months of saving and without any tax clawback
• the transformed funds of the old pension insurance would cease to exist on 31 December 2036, the money would move to the mandatory conservative fund and the entitlement to a long-service pension would change into a lump-sum settlement
• once you become entitled to a lump-sum settlement, you could transfer the money to another pension company, which is not possible today (Section 27(2))

An application filed today follows the rules described above. The changes would mainly affect young people and people in the old pension insurance.

How to apply for a payout, step by step

Every benefit is applied for in writing, at any time after you become entitled (Section 21(1) of Act No. 427/2011 Coll.). The pension company has the application form on its website or in its client portal.

1. Check the contract date and the number of months in your savings period on your statement. They decide between 60 and 120 months and also the taxation.
2. Once you meet the conditions, give notice that you are suspending contributions. The suspension takes effect from the following month.
3. Submit the application for a lump-sum settlement once the suspension is in effect. The pension company then pays within 1 month of receiving the application. Otherwise it has until the end of the quarter following the month of your last contribution (Section 11(4), Section 24(4) and (6)).
4. Want a pension? The company starts paying it by the end of the month after you apply at the latest, and verifying your entitlement may extend this by 2 months (Section 22(2)). For a lifetime annuity, first ask the insurance company for a binding offer.
5. Are you a pensioner who ended your contract between 1 January 2024 and 31 July 2026? Send your request for the return of state contributions by 1 February 2027.

Do not suspend payments before you meet the conditions, because suspended months do not count towards the savings period. Thinking of taking the surrender value? Add up the credited state contributions from your annual statement plus 15% of the deductions claimed over the last 10 years, and that is roughly how much you will lose.

USD amounts are approximate, converted at the Czech National Bank rate of 21.80 CZK per USD on 2 October 2026.