Does the tax treatment of retirement savings provide an advantage when people save for retirement?

This chapter assesses whether the tax treatment of retirement savings vehicles in different OECD countries provides an advantage when people save for retirement. It then calculates the tax advantage that individuals saving into private pension plans may enjoy over their lifetime. This overall tax advantage is the amount that an individual would save in taxes paid by contributing to a private pension plan instead of putting the same amount into an alternative, benchmark savings vehicle. It also includes the effect of state financial incentives, such as flat-rate subsidies and matching contributions, and it is calculated for different types of private pension plans across all OECD countries.