How the Spanish pension system works
The contributory retirement pension of the Seguridad Social starts from the base reguladora: the sum of your contribution bases over the last 25 years (300 months) divided by 350, because the pension is paid in 14 instalments a year. Bases older than two years are revalued with consumer prices, and no base counts above the maximum contribution base (€5,101.20 a month in 2026). Fifteen contribution years give 50 % of the base reguladora, rising to 100 % with 36 years and 6 months (37 years from 2027). The pension never exceeds the maximum pension of €3,359.60 a month; the calculator assumes the maximum grows 0.115 points a year above inflation, i.e. more slowly than wages.
The ordinary retirement age is 66 years and 10 months in 2026 and 67 from 2027, or 65 if by then you have contributed for 38 years and 3 months (38 years and 6 months from 2027). Voluntary early retirement is possible up to 2 years earlier with at least 35 contribution years and a reduction for each month early: up to 21% with less than 38 years and 6 months of contributions, up to 13% with 44 years and 6 months or more. The reduced pension must also exceed the minimum pension (€936.20 a month for a single person). Each full year worked past the ordinary age adds 4%. The calculator uses the 25-year rule (the 2026–2040 dual calculation can only raise the base) and leaves out minimum-pension supplements; for exact figures enter the pension from the “Tu Seguridad Social” simulator and your contribution years from your informe de vida laboral, the official record of your working life.
Company pension plans (planes de pensiones de empleo) depend on the employer, so the calculator only counts one if you say your employer offers it; then enter the monthly contributions (including the employer’s share) and today’s balance, or the annual pension from your plan statement. It adds the state pension, the company plan and your savings, compares the total with your target share of your last salary and works out the monthly saving that closes the gap. That saving goes first into an individual pension plan, deductible from the IRPF (income tax) base up to €1,500 a year (and 30 % of net work income), then, if you have one, into the company plan, which has its own extra limit of €8,500 a year, mainly for employer contributions. Payouts are taxed as work income; anything above these limits is unrestricted saving.
Pensions are taxed under IRPF as work income, with a state and a regional share; no social-security contributions are due, and the personal allowance rises from age 65 and again from 75.