Employee savings plans: what employers need to know in 2026

This page presents four employee savings tools: profit-sharing, employee share ownership, company savings plans (PEE), and group retirement savings plans (PER collectif), supplemented by employer matching contributions. The 2026 contribution limits are €36,045 per employee for profit-sharing and employee share ownership, and €3,844.80 for employer matching contributions to a PEE. The threshold of 50 employees makes profit-sharing mandatory and triggers the social security contribution on both profit-sharing and employer matching contributions. The threshold of 250 employees triggers the social security contribution on profit-sharing.

This page provides an overview. It does not cover social security contribution rates and the flat-rate levy on gains, transfers between plans, or the specific situation of the manager (see related pages).

Side-by-side devices

Profit-sharing: a bonus linked to objectives

Profit-sharing is a bonus whose amount depends on achieving pre-defined objectives. The agreement lasts from one to five years (economie.gouv.fr, 21/09/2026). It is filed on TéléAccords, which is a prerequisite for tax exemptions.

Two caps apply. The total bonuses cannot exceed 20% of gross salaries paid. An employee cannot receive more than 75% of the annual Social Security ceiling, i.e., €36,045 in 2026, based on an annual Social Security ceiling of €48,060.

The company must have at least one employee who is not also a manager. For the employee, the amounts are exempt from employee social security contributions, except for CSG and CRDS. Received immediately, they are subject to income tax. For employers, the employer's social security contribution is eliminated on profit-sharing bonuses in companies with fewer than 250 employees.

Participation: mandatory for companies with 50 or more employees

Profit-sharing is mandatory for companies that have employed at least 50 employees per month continuously over the past five years (economie.gouv.fr, 22/09/2026). The special reserve follows the legal formula RSP = [½(B – 5 % C)] × [S/V] (B net profit, C equity, S wages, V value added). An agreement may use a different formula, provided the result is at least equal.

The maximum amount per employee is €36,045 in 2026 (€35,325 for 2025, according to service-public.gouv.fr, verified on 21/07/2026). The profit-sharing payment is made no later than the last day of the fifth month following the close of the fiscal year: May 31 for a fiscal year ending on December 31.

Funds invested in a company savings plan (PEE) are unavailable for five years. In a group retirement savings plan (PER d’entreprise collectif), they remain unavailable until retirement, except in cases of early withdrawal permitted by law. Companies with 50 or more employees pay a social security contribution of 20% (%), with a reduced rate of 16% (%) under certain conditions for contributions to a company retirement savings plan. Companies with fewer than 50 employees are exempt from this contribution.

The PEE: a collective plan and a five-year lock-in

The PEE (Employee Savings Plan) is a collective savings scheme. It must be open to all employees, with a maximum seniority requirement of three months (service-public.gouv.fr, verified on 01/01/2026). The funds are locked in for a minimum of five years. Voluntary employee contributions are capped at 25% of their gross annual salary and are not deductible from their taxable income (economie.gouv.fr, 30/09/2026).

The employer's contribution cannot exceed three times the employee's contribution and is capped at €3,844.80. The limits related to company shares are detailed on the matching contribution page. According to service-public.gouv.fr, withdrawals from the PEE (Employee Savings Plan) are exempt from income tax; the portion corresponding to gains remains subject to social security contributions. Profit-sharing and employee shareholding bonuses paid into the PEE are exempt from income tax up to an annual limit of €36,045.

The company group retirement savings plan (PER): retirement, with the company's help

The company-sponsored group retirement savings plan (PER) allows employees to receive a lump sum or an annuity upon retirement. Its implementation by the company is optional. It replaces the PERCO, which can no longer be implemented since October 1, 2020 (service-public.gouv.fr, verified on October 12, 2026). Any company can offer it, even if it has not implemented a company savings plan.

The employer can receive voluntary contributions, profit-sharing, employee participation, all or part of the profit-sharing bonus, accrued time off, and, in the absence of a time savings account, sums corresponding to unused vacation days, up to a limit of 10 per year. The employer contribution cannot exceed three times the employee's contribution or 16% of the annual Social Security ceiling (economie.gouv.fr, 20/03/2026). The amount in euros for 2026 should be verified with the source.

The savings are locked until retirement. Early withdrawal is only possible in cases listed by law: death of a spouse or civil partner, disability, excessive debt, expiration of unemployment benefits, purchase of a primary residence, among others. For a PEE (Employee Savings Plan), the list is longer, and the request must generally be made within six months of the event, although in some cases, requests can be made at any time (service-public.gouv.fr, 12/10/2026).

Employer contribution: what the employer adds

No employee or category of employee can be excluded from the employer matching contribution. It cannot increase with profits or exceed 300 %. It is subject to CSG and CRDS social security contributions at a total rate of 9.7 %, directly deducted by the employer (economie.gouv.fr, 20/03/2026). The employer social security contribution is at the standard rate of 20 %, and 10 % for employer matching contributions paid into employee share ownership funds. It is waived for companies with fewer than 50 employees.

The value-sharing premium

Any company can pay this bonus, regardless of its size. The exemption is capped at €3,000 per beneficiary per calendar year. This amount can be increased to €6,000 if the employer implements a profit-sharing or employee shareholding scheme, depending on its situation (profit-sharing when the company is subject to mandatory employee shareholding). A maximum of two bonuses are possible per calendar year. For bonuses paid from 2024 to 2026 in companies with fewer than 50 employees, a salary requirement of less than three times the annual minimum wage applies (economie.gouv.fr, 28/04/2026). Details of these regulations are available on the dedicated page.

The case of companies with 11 to 49 employees

For fiscal years beginning on or after January 1, 2025, these companies must choose a value-sharing scheme if their net taxable profit reaches at least 1% of their turnover for three consecutive fiscal years. Sole proprietorships are excluded (service-public.gouv.fr, July 21, 2026).

Employee savings plans from the employer's perspective: a numerical example (fictitious profile)

Situation. A company with 60 employees, gross payroll of €3,000,000. Assumptions: profit-sharing of €100,000, distributed equally among the 60 employees, participation of €150,000, and 40 employees each contribute €1,000 to the PEE with a matching contribution of €200, i.e. €2,000 each.

Issue. The manager wants to situate these three flows in relation to the ceilings and quantify the social security contribution they entail.

Strategy. Compare each flow to its ceiling, then apply the social security contribution according to the workforce: 0 % on profit-sharing under 250 employees, 20 % on participation and matching contributions from 50 employees.

Result. The €100,000 profit-sharing bonus represents 3.33% of the payroll, well below the €600,000 cap of 20%, or an average of €1,666.67 per employee, below the €36,045 cap. The €2,000 employer contribution complies with the limit of three times the contribution (€3,000) and the €3,844.80 cap. The social security contributions are €30,000 on the profit-sharing bonus and €16,000 on the employer contribution (€80,000), totaling €46,000. On the employee side, the CSG-CRDS tax of 9.7% deducts €194 from the employer contribution: €1,806 net, meaning €2,806 is invested with the contribution. With identical amounts, but with a workforce of less than 50 employees (participation being optional), this social security contribution would be zero.

This profile is fictitious. The amounts are hypothetical; the example does not include contributions, taxes, or plan fees. Investments in unit-linked funds or equities carry a risk of capital loss.

Employee savings plans on the employer's side: what changes depending on your situation

• The number of employees: under 11, from 11 to 49, 50 and over, 250 and over.
• The employee's chosen investment vehicle: PEE (five years) or PER collective (retirement).
• The plan's regulations: matching contribution rates, applicable limits, possible automatic enrollment.

No results are promised. The rules are examined on a case-by-case basis.