Employee savings are a great tool to help employees build up savings and to retain them.. During a webinar organized in partnership with Factorielles, company specializing in social protection advice for business leaders, Absolute experts explained how it works, the advantages, and presented recent developments in this area.
So that the employee can benefit from the company’s results, several measures have been put in place. When he receives sums for profit-sharing or participation, the employee can choose either to have them paid, either to place them in an employee savings plan or a retirement savings plan. Both the employer and the employee can make voluntary additional payments, we then speak of abundance. A recent Opinionway survey (January 2023) highlights a number of trends. The majority of employees, 64 %, place the sums received for profit-sharing and participation in an employee savings plan. Employees who have this type of plan believe that it allows them to save effortlessly., since the amounts come directly from the company. They consider this savings as security savings which will be useful to them in the future. For 37% of them, these sums will be useful to them for their retirement. Pour 53 %, they can be used in the event of an exceptional expense or life accident. The amounts held are relatively modest, since 31% of the employees concerned have less than 2,500 euros in their plan. It should also be noted that holders make few voluntary payments : 41% say they do not have the necessary funds and also 41% prefer to invest these amounts in other supports.
Employee savings, motivation vector
Without surprise, the objectives of employee savings differ depending on the age of the employee. The proportion of those who consider it as long-term savings for their retirement increases from 13% for those under 35 to 45% for those over 55. Finally, the positive impact of these employee savings schemes on the attractiveness of companies is clearly seen : more than two thirds of employees consider them to be a good source of motivation, adapted to the needs of employees, and allowing them to be involved in the company’s strategy.
A system open to all companies
All companies can set up employee savings, whatever the nature of their activity, their legal form and size, as long as they employ at least one employee, even part-time. All employees can benefit from it as well as, in companies with 1 to 250 employees, individual business owners, corporate officers and the spouse of the business manager (collaborator or associate). Employees of employer groups can also benefit from it., and former employees or pre-retirees who have retained assets in their PEE (company savings plan).
An unparalleled tax and social framework
Employer side, the sums it distributes for participation, profit-sharing or matching contributions are deductible from taxable income and exempt from employer social charges with the exception of the social security package.. Employees or managers of companies with 1 to 250 employees, the amounts they benefit from (participation and/or profit-sharing invested, abundance, days of leave placed) are exempt from income tax and exempt from social security contributions (hors CSG-CRDS). Consequently, for exemple, for 1,000 euros paid by the company, the employee will receive 382 euros net if this sum is paid to him as salary, and a BNC manager (non-commercial profits) will receive 538 euros net in remuneration ; whereas if this sum is paid into employee savings, they will receive 903 euros net.
Soon the possibility of benefiting from it for a manager without an employee ?
Nowadays, the manager and his spouse can benefit from employee savings if the annual employee workforce is between 1 and 250 employees, and if there is an employee present at the time of payment to the manager. The spouse or PACS partner of the business manager, not holding an employment contract, having an unpaid activity in this company, can also benefit from the schemes provided they have the status of collaborating spouse or associated spouse ; and the company must employ a separate employee, other than the manager or his spouse. Excluding self-employed, according to INSEE, in France there are around a million companies that do not employ employees. There are therefore a million business leaders who cannot access employee savings schemes because they do not have an employee.. This situation may seem unfair in view of the situation of companies employing a part-time employee who is enough to make them eligible for employee savings.. In June 2019, the Lanxade and Perret report recommended allowing business managers without employees to implement profit-sharing and participation schemes. The Social Protection Institute (IPS) supports this measure.
A very good tool for financing your retirement needs
Pension reform seeks to rebalance the accounts of compulsory schemes, but to maintain their purchasing power, future retirees must have subscribed to a retirement savings contract : employee savings is one of the most effective ways to achieve this. In conclusion, employee savings is a flexible and modular mechanism over time, with particularly attractive tax and social benefits, which helps build employee loyalty, and complete his retirement. Companies that have not yet implemented it have every interest in quickly initiating the process., and those who have already adopted it can always improve the systems in place.
THE LATEST FIVE DEVELOPMENTS IN LEGISLATION
• The law of August 16, 2022 extends the possibility of implementing profit-sharing by unilateral decision of the employer, which already exists for companies with fewer than 11 employees, to companies with fewer than 50 employees not covered by an approved sector agreement, and it simplifies the process.
• So far, the duration of a profit-sharing scheme was between one and three years. She is now lying at five years old. otherwise, renewal by unilateral decision, subject to compliance with certain conditions, becomes possible.
• Paternity and childcare leave is now assimilated to a period of effective presence for the distribution of profit-sharing when this is partially or totally based on the time of presence.
• The tacit renewal of the incentive agreement for an initial duration of the agreement can now take place several times, against only once before. However, renegotiation takes precedence over tacit renewal since this tacit renewal is only possible if none of the parties authorized to negotiate or ratify it requests renegotiation in the three months preceding the expiry date of the agreement.
• Finally, it is now possible to draw up a standard incentive agreement, or a unilateral decision by the employer via an electronic procedure, which allows you to secure tax and social security exemptions, deemed acquired upon filing with the administration.
