Special levy

Special levy also refereed as Crisis levy or Solidarity levy is an additional tax of EU civil servants. It was introduced in 1974 and since then its rate keeps increasing (in 2014 it was 6% resp. 7% depending a type of carrier).

01.01.2014 - 31.12.2023
From 1 January 2014 (until 31 December 2023), the solidarity levy applies to all staff members. The rate applied is 6% for staff in grades up to AD 15, step 1, and 7% for staff in grade AD 15, step 2 and above. This levy appears under the heading 'Special levy - PSP' in your payslip, and is applied to the portion of basic wage that remains after deduction of: Using this calculation, the levy thus does not affect all salaries.
 * social security and pension contributions,
 * the tax payable by an official in the same grade and step without dependants, and
 * an amount equal to the basic salary of an official in grade AST 1, step 1.

History
The original purpose was to fund training schemes for the unemployed in Europe due the Oil Crisis (in 1973). The Crisis levy had been included in 1981 into the Staff regulations as a counter part of fixing the Method. In 2004, with a "new" Method, this levy had be renamed to "Special levy" and declared to be a temporary measure to finance the transitional period, where new recruitments were made with wages 30% lower then before the 2004, while the pension were to paid still to staff at the rates before the Reform 2004. This measure should expired about 2010-2014. With the Reform 2014, this levy was renamed to a Solidarity levy at higher rate (while wages were still a little lowered).