contribution

money placed in an individual retirement account ( IRA), an employer-sponsored retirement plan, or other retirement plan for a particular tax year. Contributions may be deductible or nondeductible, depending on the type of account. Bloomberg Financial Dictionary

* * *

contribution con‧tri‧bu‧tion [ˌkɒntrˈbjuːʆn ǁ ˌkɑːn-] noun

1. [countable usually plural] a regular payment made to the government by an employee and their employer so that the employee has the right to receive money from the government when they are ill or unemployed:

• To qualify for the full basic pension, someone would need to have paid national insurance contributions for most of their working life.

• In many pension schemes, you're allowed to pay additional voluntary contributions to buy a bigger pension.

2. [countable] an amount given to charity:

• His contributions this year include gifts to the San Francisco library and Museum of Modern Art.

3. [countable usually singular] ACCOUNTING the amount a particular product or activity pays to a company's overhead S:

• the contribution the business makes to corporate overheads and the way it is linked to the company's other operations

4. [countable] INSURANCE an amount that each co-insurer pays to the insurer who actually pays a claim:

• If the claim exceeds $100 then a contribution should be obtained from the Home Insurer on an independent liability basis.

ˌgeneral ˌaverage contriˈbution [countable]

INSURANCE an amount payable by one person or organization involved in a contract to the others involved in the same contract when there is loss or damage to a ship or its cargo:

• While your car is being transported by sea, general average contributions, salvage charges and labour charges will be covered.

* * *

contribution UK US /ˌkɒntrɪˈbjuːʃ^ən/ noun

► [usually plural] HR payments from a company or employee to pay for an employee's benefits such as medical insurance or a pension: »

He should be investing at least 10% of his salary (including his employer's contributions).

»

Her plan automatically increases her pension contributions each year.

► [C] FINANCE money given to a person or organization in order to help them achieve a particular goal: »

Funding would come from the state budget, but it could include private contributions and insurance money from contractors.

»

He raised $1.2 million in campaign contributions.

► [C or U] ACCOUNTING the amount of money earned from a product, service, or activity which is used to pay for its overheads (= regular and necessary costs of operating a business): »

Earnings from operations were up 19% year over year, largely driven by increased contributions from the company's graphics business.

► [C or U] INSURANCE the part of the total insurance payment that one insurance company pays to a customer, when more than one insurance company provides insurance for the same injury, accident, loss, etc.

→ See also DEFINED CONTRIBUTION(Cf. ↑defined contribution), GENERAL AVERAGE LOSS(Cf. ↑general average loss)