On 30 September 2025, the European Commission (Commission) published a Recommendation targeted at Member States on increasing the availability of savings and investment accounts (SIAs) with simplified and advantageous tax treatment (the Recommendation).

A key component of the SIU

The Recommendation outlines a strategy to encourage Member States to promote retail investment through SIAs. The Recommendation is one of several initiatives that form the Savings and Investments Union (SIU), which seeks to further integrate the EU’s capital markets and to channel more savings towards investments thereby funding the EU’s climate transition and strategic autonomy. The main purpose of the Recommendation is to increase retail investor participation in capital markets by encouraging Member States to establish or enhance SIAs with simplified processes and favourable tax treatment.

SIAs

SIAs are investment platforms provided by authorised financial intermediaries and enable individuals to invest in financial instruments such as shares, bonds, and investment funds. SIA schemes often come with fiscal benefits (or other monetary benefits). Unlike retirement accounts, SIAs do not generally restrict the withdrawal of savings until retirement. The Commission considers SIAs to be easy-to-use vehicles for citizens to use their savings for investments. At present, several Member States have introduced SIAs abeit in different ways. For example, there is Investeringssparkonto in Sweden and the Plan d’épargne en actions in France. Other Member States, including Poland, are preparing to introduce SIAs within their respective jurisdictions.

Recommendation

The Recommendation is not binding but rather encourages Member States to take the same approach in setting up their respective SIA framework. In particular, the Commission makes the following recommendations:

1. Creation of SIAs

  • Member States should establish SIA frameworks with preferably the characteristics outlined in the Recommendation.
  • Member States with established SIA frameworks should review them with the Recommendation in mind.
  • A financial intermediary should not impose a minimum amount for opening an SIA.

2. Provision of SIAs

  • Member States should permit the cross-border provision of SIAs by authorised financial services providers.
  • Member States should ensure that no additional requirements for providers from other Member States are in place.
  • SIAs should be offered with or without the provision of financial advice.

3. Cost and Portability

  • SIAs should be subject to transparent and fair fees.
  • Any costs for transferring assets between providers of SIAs should be minimised.
  • Member States should avoid creating taxable events for portfolio transfers.

4. Eligible Assets

  • Member States should ensure that SIAs should provide access, as a minimum, to shares, bonds or UNITS in UCITS. The scope of assets can be extended under the condition that the assets are suitable for retail investors.
  • Contrastingly, Member States should exclude for the scope of SIA eligible assets high-risk or complex instruments, such as highly risky and complex derivatives, and crypto-assets other than those that qualify as a financial instrument eligible to be held in an SIA.
  • Member States should encourage portfolio diversification and investment support for EU strategic priorities.

5. User Experience

  • Member States should ensure that SIAs are simple, secure, and accessible for citizens, both online and offline.

6. Tax treatment

  • The Commission recommends a favourable tax treatment of assets held in SIAs and ensure that there are simple and easy tax compliance structures in place.
  • Suggested options proposed by the Commission include:
    • deductions from the taxable base, including allowing an amount invested in an SIA to be deducted from the taxable income;
    • tax exemptions, including providing an exemption from tax on the taxable income generated by the assets in an SIA;
    • tax deferrals, including deferring the taxation of the income generated through an SIA until it is withdrawn from the SIA; or
    • applying a uniform tax rate to the income generated by or the value of assets held in an SIA.

Next steps

 The Commission is expected to further engage with Member States on the recommendations listed above. It will also monitor the implementation of the Recommendation through the European Semester process. Member States are encouraged to regularly report to the Commission on the measures they have taken to implement the Recommendation.