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Guide · As of October 2026

Checking AHV contribution gaps: how to order your account statement

Missing contribution years usually reduce your AHV pension for life. Whether you have gaps is shown by your individual account with the AHV. You can order a statement of it for free, and you can still pay contributions for the last five years. Here is how it works, step by step, each with its official source.

Written by Nikola Marković, the developer of FinanzPilot, not by an AHV professional. That is why every rule comes with its source. The official sources are in German, French and Italian; the German terms are given in brackets.

· 10 min read

In short

  • Every compensation office (Ausgleichskasse) that has handled your contributions keeps an individual account (IK) for you.
  • You order the account statement (IK-Auszug) for free, online at ahv-iv.ch or in writing from a compensation office. A single office can collect the statements of all your accounts for you.
  • If an entry is wrong, you can ask for a correction within 30 days of receiving the statement.
  • Missing contributions can only be paid for the last five calendar years. Older gaps are time-barred.
  • One missing contribution year usually reduces the pension by at least 1/44.

1. Why gaps matter

You get a full AHV pension if you have as many contribution years as your age cohort. That means you always met your duty to contribute from 1 January after your 20th birthday until the end of the year before the reference age. For a reference age of 65, that is 44 years.

If a contribution year is missing, you get a partial pension. One missing year usually means a reduction of at least 1/44, a little over 2 percent, and it applies for as long as you receive the pension.

Gaps arise, for example, when you had no earned income and did not pay contributions as a non-employed person: while studying, on a long trip, after early retirement. And if you moved to Switzerland after turning 20, you have no Swiss contributions for the years before; the FSIO calls this an insurance gap.

Sources: AHV/IV leaflet 3.01, sections 12 and 13 (as of 1 January 2026); leaflet 2.03, overview and section 1; FSIO, "Versicherungs- und Beitragslücken in der AHV" (28 May 2025); statement order page on ahv-iv.ch.

2. The individual account (IK)

Your AHV contributions are booked to an individual account, together with the income they were levied on. If your contributions were handled by different compensation offices, for example because you changed jobs, each of them keeps its own IK.

  • Which offices keep an account for you is shown by the InfoRegister of the Central Compensation Office. You need your 13-digit AHV number and your date of birth.
  • Your AHV number always starts with 756.
  • The current year is always missing: income from one year only appears on the statement of the following year.

Sources: AHV/IV leaflet 1.01 "Auszug aus dem Individuellen Konto (IK)", introduction and section 1; ZAS, "AHV-Nummer als Identifikator"; InfoRegister on ahv-iv.ch.

3. How to order the statement

  1. Have your AHV number ready. 13 digits, starting with 756. Plus your postal address.
  2. Open the order form. If you live in Switzerland: on ahv-iv.ch under Bestellung Kontoauszug. If you live abroad, the same page leads to the form of the Central Compensation Office. You can also ask a compensation office in writing.
  3. All accounts at once. You can order from each office that keeps an account for you, or ask a single compensation office to obtain all statements for you. Choose the statements of all accounts kept for you in the form, and you get the full picture.
  4. Send it and wait. The statement comes by post, and only to a postal address, not to a PO box. It is free of charge.

The statement is only given to you, your legal representative or a lawyer you have authorised. If someone else orders it, it is sent to you for data protection reasons. The AHV/IV also has an explainer video on ordering.

Sources: AHV/IV leaflet 1.01, sections 1–3; statement order page and form on ahv-iv.ch.

4. Reading the statement

The first statement contains all entries, later ones at least the entries since the last statement. Employers' names are listed for at least the four previous years. Leaflet 1.04 explains every column. What to check:

  • Every year from the year after your 20th birthday should have an entry, except the current year.
  • Every employer should appear. The statement shows whether your salary was really reported to the compensation office.
  • Minimum income: if the income entered for a year is below the minimum income, you have a gap in your contributions. Since 2025 that is CHF 5,000 for employees and non-employed people and CHF 10,000 for the self-employed. The table for earlier years is in leaflet 1.04.
  • Non-employed years: the entry is an income that corresponds to the contributions paid.
  • Married and not working yourself? You don't have to pay your own contributions if your spouse works and has paid at least twice the minimum contribution, CHF 1,060 in 2026.

Sources: AHV/IV leaflet 1.01, section 4; leaflet 1.04 "Erläuterungen zum Auszug aus dem Individuellen Konto (IK)", sections 4, 5 and 8 (as of 1 January 2025); leaflet 2.03, section 3.

5. Found a mistake or a gap: what now

An entry is wrong or missing

You can ask the compensation office that keeps the account concerned for a correction within 30 days of receiving the statement. It decides by formal ruling (Verfügung). If you miss the deadline, an entry can only be corrected when your pension is calculated, and then only if it is obviously wrong or you provide full proof.

Contributions are missing

  • The last five calendar years: if you did not reach the minimum income in those years, you can still pay the contributions. Contact your compensation office.
  • Older gaps: contributions that were not claimed within five years after the end of the calendar year can no longer be paid.
  • What can still count towards the pension: contributions from before your 20th birthday (from 18, the so-called youth years) or from the months before retirement, so-called additional years for gaps before 1979, and since 2024 contributions from work after the reference age. The compensation office checks this when it processes your pension application.

Sources: AHV/IV leaflet 1.01, sections 5 and 6; leaflet 1.04, sections 8–10; leaflet 3.01, section 15; FSIO, "Versicherungs- und Beitragslücken in der AHV"; AHVG Art. 16 para. 1; AHVV Art. 141.

6. How much will my pension be?

The account statement shows your contributions, not a pension amount. There are two official ways to get one:

ESCAL online estimate

The ESCAL online calculator of the Swiss Compensation Office gives an immediate, non-binding estimate from the details you enter.

Pension forecast

Ask your compensation office in writing, with form 318.282. Usually free. A fee of at most CHF 300 is possible if you are under 40 or ask for several within five years, unless there is a special reason such as marriage, divorce, the birth of a child, losing your job or emigrating.

Neither is binding. If your reference age is still far away, the leaflet says a forecast is of little value. The pension is only calculated bindingly when you retire. For scale: a full old-age pension is between CHF 1,260 and CHF 2,520 a month in 2026.

Sources: AHV/IV leaflet 3.06 "Rentenvorausberechnung", introduction, sections 1, 14 and 17 (as of 1 January 2026); leaflet 3.01, section 21.

7. Common misconceptions

  • "I've always been employed, so I have no gaps." That is exactly what the statement shows: whether every employer reported your salary and whether every year is recorded.
  • "I'll pay missing years just before I retire." Paying later is only possible for the last five calendar years.
  • "Students don't pay AHV." Students without earned income pay as non-employed people, from 1 January after their 20th birthday.
  • "The statement costs money." No, it is free.
  • "Last year is missing, something is wrong." Income from the current year only appears on the following year's statement.
  • "I'll report a mistake when I retire." Then it only works for obvious mistakes or with full proof. Better within 30 days of receiving the statement.

Sources: AHV/IV leaflets 1.01, 1.04 and 2.03 (see below).

8. How FinanzPilot helps

FinanzPilot is our app for your money in Switzerland, for iPhone and iPad. For the AHV it does the following:

  • Gaps in your FIRE plan: when you set up your FIRE plan, you enter your missing AHV contribution years. FinanzPilot then cuts the estimated AHV pension by 1/44 per missing year.
  • Your own figure: FinanzPilot estimates the AHV pension from your income (pension scale 44, 2026: CHF 1,260 to 2,520 a month, plus the 13th pension from December 2026). If you know your relevant average income, for example from a pension forecast, enter it under Settings → Swiss Tax Constants.
  • Contributions after early retirement: the FIRE plan works out AHV contributions as a non-employed person from the official table on your wealth and adds them to your spending until 65 (in 2026 at least CHF 530 a year). If your spouse keeps working, your contributions may count as paid; you set that in the same place.

What FinanzPilot does not do: it doesn't order, read or check your account statement. All figures are estimates for planning, not advice.

FinanzPilot Schweiz On the App Store

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9. Sources

All retrieved on 27 October 2026. The federal offices publish in German, French and Italian.

  1. AHV/IV information centre: leaflet 1.01 "Auszug aus dem Individuellen Konto (IK)" (PDF, German, as of 1 January 2015, reprinted November 2024, current edition). Ordering, cost, corrections.
  2. AHV/IV information centre: leaflet 1.04 "Erläuterungen zum Auszug aus dem Individuellen Konto (IK)" (PDF, German, as of 1 January 2025). Entries, minimum incomes, paying later, time limits.
  3. AHV/IV information centre: statement order page with the forms for residents of Switzerland and abroad, and the InfoRegister of account-keeping offices.
  4. AHV/IV information centre: leaflet 3.01 "Altersrenten und Hilflosenentschädigungen der AHV" (PDF, German, as of 1 January 2026). Full pension, 1/44 reduction, youth years, 2026 pensions.
  5. AHV/IV information centre: leaflet 2.03 "Beiträge der Nichterwerbstätigen an die AHV, die IV und die EO" (PDF, German, as of 1 January 2026). Contributions from 21, students, married couples.
  6. AHV/IV information centre: leaflet 3.06 "Rentenvorausberechnung" (PDF, German, as of 1 January 2026). ESCAL, application, cost.
  7. Federal Social Insurance Office (FSIO, BSV): "Versicherungs- und Beitragslücken in der AHV" (28 May 2025). Kinds of gaps and how they can be closed.
  8. Central Compensation Office (ZAS): "AHV-Nummer als Identifikator". All AHV numbers start with 756.
  9. Fedlex: AHVG, SR 831.10, Art. 16 (time limits); AHVV, SR 831.101, Art. 141 (account statement, corrections).

General information, not advice

This page explains the rules in general terms and without guarantee. It is not pension, legal or investment advice. Your compensation office and the law are binding for your situation.

As of October 2026. Amounts and rules can change. Found a mistake? Write to us: support@komovi.ch.

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