The taxation support of occupational pensions: a long-term view

<p>Taxation support is provided for occupational pension schemes throughout the world in a variety of ways. For many years, the level and distribution of this support was unquestioned. However, with the arrival of the concept of taxation expenditures (Surrey, 1973; Willis and Hardwick, 1978) and the annual quantifying of these costs for pension funds in the 1980s, there is now a greater interest in the size of the concessions provided. Yet, the costing of the taxation relief provided to pension funds presents special and significant problems and no satisfactory method has yet been used to estimate these costs.</p>