In summary…
Yes, under certain conditions. A self-employed architect who has claimed all their basic and supplementary pensions at the full rate (required insurance period or age 67) retains their pension from the Interprofessional Pension and Old-Age Insurance Fund (Cipav) and combines it with their benefits. without an income ceiling. Without the full rate, his earned income is limited to €48,060 In 2026, the annual Social Security ceiling will be reached, and the pension will be reduced by the amount exceeding it. In a typical case (pension of €23,975, €40,000 profit, single), the activity leaves approximately €25,500 once paid €5,802 pension contributions and €8,739 of additional tax. This figure is before other contributions that Cipav does not detail for a retiree. The contributions are not lost, however: since January 1, 2023, they have opened a second pension, capped at €2,403 per year and per scheme (€4,806 (at most). For a pension that takes effect from January 1, 2027, before age 67, the 2026 Social Security financing law reduces the pension: with the expected threshold of €7,000, the gain in the typical case would fall to approximately €13,400.
1. Full or capped accumulation: what Cipav allows in 2026
A retired architect can continue or resume their freelance activity. The Cipav and the National Old-Age Insurance Fund for Liberal Professions (CNAVPL) distinguish between two situations.
| Total cumulative | Maximum accumulation (Cipav refers to partial accumulation) | |
|---|---|---|
| Terms | Having liquidated at full rate all his personal basic and supplementary pensions, French and foreign: required insurance period for his generation, or 67 years | Failure to accumulate the required number of quarters for a full pension rate will result in a reduced pension payment. |
| Authorized income | No income ceiling | Earned income limited to the annual Social Security ceiling (PASS): €48,060 in 2026 (€47,100 in 2025) |
| In case of exceeding | Not applicable | The Cipav first reports it; after the deadline, the pension is reduced to the extent of the excess |
| New pension rights | Yes, a second retirement (section 2) | None |
Two points of clarification. First, at age 67, the capped combined pension and income automatically becomes uncapped. Second, the cap applies only to earned income: the Cipav fact sheet does not calculate it on the sum of the pension and earnings, unlike the capped combined pension and income for salaried employees (service-public.gouv.fr). The CNAVPL refers to "net income from self-employment"; the fact sheet does not specify whether this income is before or after social security contributions, and the typical scenario assumes profit.
With a profit of €40,000, the ceiling is not reached, even without the full pension rate: a margin of €8,060. At €60,000, the excess would be €11,940: the pension of €23,975 would fall to €12,035, without any new entitlements in return. This is why the verification "are all pensions being paid out at the full rate?" precedes any resumption of payments.
2. Contributions are due; since 2023 they have opened a second pension.
The CNAVPL states that self-employed professionals with multiple jobs "remain liable for contributions." The amount of these contributions has changed twice.
| Period | Published rule | Source |
|---|---|---|
| From January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2022 | Contributions paid in combination do not entitle the holder to any additional pension benefits under any basic or supplementary schemes. | Cipav Fact Sheet 2022 |
| Since January 1, 2023 (full cumulative total) | Contributions "open up additional rights": a second basic pension and a second supplementary pension, which must be applied for online (allocation is not automatic). Contributions made before January 1, 2023 "are not affected."« | Cipav Fact Sheets 2024 and 2026 |
| Maximum cumulative amount, or conditions for the full rate not met | «"Continuing your activity while combining work and retirement will not generate any new entitlements."» | Cipav Fact Sheet 2024 |
The second retirement is limited to 5 % of the PASS by regime, i.e. €2,403 for the base and €2,403 for the supplementary coverage: €4,806 per year maximum According to form 2026 (form 2024 showed €2,318.40 per scheme, 5 % of €46,368). Once this second pension has been requested and granted, subsequent contributions "no longer allow for the accrual of new rights for a third pension." It does not affect the first pension.
Two points to note regarding the sources. The CNAVPL (National Old-Age Insurance Fund for the Liberal Professions) dates the opening of pension rights to pensions awarded since September 1, 2023, while the Cipav (Interprofessional Pension Fund for Liberal Professions) dates them to contributions paid since January 1, 2023: for a pension awarded before September 2023, the pension fund must confirm. Furthermore, the "Retirement Explained" page states that contributions to the supplementary pension scheme "do not generate any rights"; it provides 2024 rates, and the Cipav has since stated that it has "aligned" the supplementary scheme with the basic scheme: we are using the 2026 information sheet from the pension fund.
What the pages read do not show: The total amount of contributions for a retired architect. The calculation below applies the 2026 contribution schedule for a practicing architect to both pension schemes, as an example. Other contributions (disability and death benefits, health insurance, family allowances, general social contribution, and contribution to the repayment of the social debt) are not specified: CIPAV does not indicate which ones apply to a retiree. The benefit in this typical case is therefore a maximum.
3. Calculation based on €40,000 profit
Typical case
Situation. A 67-year-old self-employed architect, single, with one tax unit, registered in his own name. He has claimed all his pensions at the full rate: his gross annual pension is €23,975 (€12,989 basic pension and €10,986 supplementary pension), the result of our article on an architect's retirement with a €70,000 benefit, in 2026 values frozen. He continues to work on a reduced schedule and generates €40,000 in profit before personal social security contributions.
Issue. He wants to know what remains of these €40,000, knowing that his pension alone places him in the 11 % bracket and that his activity puts him in the 30 % bracket.
Strategy. It meets the conditions for full accumulation, without a ceiling. Social security base: €40,000 × (1 − 26 %) = €29,600. 2026 retirement contributions (assumption: scale for a practicing architect): basic scheme €3,138 (8.73 x % of €29,600 = €2,584, plus 1.87 x % = €554) and supplementary scheme €2,664 (9 x % of €29,600), i.e. €5,802, 14.5 % of the profit. Mandatory old-age insurance contributions are fully deductible from the profit of liberal professions (BOI-BNC-BASE-40-60-50-20, § 30): the taxable profit is €34,198. Taxable pension: €23,975 − 10 % allowance (€2,398) = €21,578. Total taxable income: €55,776.
Result. The tax goes from €1,098 à €9,837, That's an additional €8,739: the first €8,001 of activity is taxed at 11 %, the remainder at 30 % (2026 tax scale, Law No. 2026-103, Article 4). There remains €25,459 on €40,000 (€40,000 − €5,802 − €8,739). The deduction for pension contributions and income tax amounts to 36.4% of the activity, before unquantified contributions. A payment of €4,710 into a retirement savings plan (the minimum deduction limit for 2026) would reduce the tax by €1,413, or 30% of the payment.
| Position (in euros per year) | Boarding only | Full cumulation, current rules | Assumption: pension effective in 2027, before age 67, threshold of €7,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gross pension paid | 23,975 | 23,975 | 7,475 |
| Business profit | 0 | 40,000 | 40,000 |
| Pension contributions (basic and supplementary) | 0 | - 5802 | - 5802 |
| Taxable income (pension after deduction of 10 %, plus net profit after contributions) | 21,578 | 55,776 | 40,926 |
| Income tax 2026 | 1,098 | 9,837 | 5,382 |
| Available after pension contributions and tax | 22,878 | 48,337 | 36,292 |
| Profit related to the activity | 25,459 | 13,414 |
Hypotheses. Single taxpayer, one share, with no other income; 10% tax allowance on the pension (minimum €454, maximum €4,439 per household, service-public.gouv.fr). Retirement contributions according to the 2026 scale for a practicing architect; the 9% rate for the supplementary scheme is that of the 2026 Cipav fact sheet for the first bracket, and another published scale shows different rates. Disability-death, health insurance, family allowance, and CSG-CRDS contributions are not included: they would reduce the gain. The right-hand column applies the expected rule for 2027 to the same pension: a reduction of half the amount exceeding the threshold, (€40,000 − €7,000) ÷ 2 = €16,500. In this scenario, The €16,500 pension lost absorbs approximately 47% of the gain. : there is €13,414 left instead of €25,459.
4. What contributions yield: a modest second pension
Calculation assumption: points for the second pension are calculated as during the primary career (the information sheet does not detail the formula). For the basic pension, a contribution of €3,138 would yield 346.1 points, or €228 of pension per year of accumulation (€0.6599 per point). For the supplementary pension, a contribution of €2,664 purchases 56.2 points at €47.40, or €162 of pension (€2.89 per point). In total, €391 in additional pension benefits for €5,802 in contributions it takes approximately 15 years of second retirement to recover just one year's contributions.
The €2,403 ceiling per pension scheme would be reached after approximately 11 years of combining basic and supplementary pension contributions. Returning to work is therefore intended to earn an income, not to supplement one's retirement. The determining factor is the net income from section 3.
5. What changes for pensions taking effect from 1 January 2027
Article 102 of Law No. 2025-1403 of December 30, 2025, concerning the financing of Social Security for 2026, modifies the rules for combining employment and retirement benefits from January 1, 2027. According to service-public.gouv.fr, age is now a factor:
| Age on the effective date of the pension | Effect on pension |
|---|---|
| Before the legal minimum age | Earned income is deducted from the pension from the first euro |
| Between the legal minimum age and 67 years | Unrestricted accumulation of income below a threshold of gross annual earnings that the decree should set at €7,000 ; Beyond that, the pension is reduced by 50 % of the overrun |
| From age 67 | Full accumulation, without limit |
The implementing decree "has not yet been published," according to the service-public.gouv.fr website dated May 22, 2026, and we haven't seen any since: the €7,000 threshold remains hypothetical. The CNAVPL (National Old-Age Insurance Fund for the Liberal Professions) confirms that the rules will change on January 1, 2027, for those retiring after that date, without specifying the new procedures for the self-employed. The application to the CIPAV (Interprofessional Pension Fund for Liberal Professions), the role of the early retirement discount, and the rights available before age 67 are confirmed by the fund. An architect retiring before that date, as far as we understand, remains subject to the current rules; the service-public.gouv.fr website does not specify this for the self-employed.
6. Procedures and arbitration
- Liquidate all pensions before resuming, including foreign schemes and very short periods: this is what avoids the ceiling of €48,060 and opens a second pension.
- Check the full rate for the basic scheme and the supplementary scheme before re-registering.
- Choose the pension effective date compared to January 1, 2027 and the age of 67.
- Apply for a second pension online, from the Cipav personal space, upon cessation of activity: allocation is not automatic.
- Confirmation by the cashier the contributions actually owed by a retiree in total, because they affect the typical case gain.
- Invest net income : the individual retirement savings plan is deducted at a rate of 30 % in the typical case, within the limit of the ceiling detailed on our page PER deduction limit.
Frequently asked questions
Can an architect continue to work while receiving their Cipav pension in 2026?
Yes. If he has claimed all his basic and supplementary pensions, both French and foreign, at the full rate, the combined pension is unlimited and no income cap applies. Otherwise, his earned income is limited to the annual Social Security ceiling (€48,060 in 2026) and the pension is reduced by the amount exceeding this limit.
Do contributions paid in accumulation increase retirement benefits?
A little, and only when combined in full. Since January 1, 2023, they have generated a second basic pension and a second supplementary pension, each capped at 5% of the Social Security ceiling, or €2,403 per scheme. Before 2023, they did not generate any pension rights. In a typical case, a year of combined pensions at €40,000 would add approximately €391 to the pension (calculation assumption).
What is left of €40,000 in profit for a retired architect?
In a typical case, the figure is approximately €25,459: €40,000 less €5,802 in pension contributions and €8,739 in additional tax. This amount is before other contributions, which Cipav does not itemize for a retiree.
What happens if I don't have the full rate?
The combined income is capped: your earnings from employment must not exceed €48,060 in 2026. If this limit is exceeded, the CIPAV will notify you and then reduce your pension accordingly. This employment does not accrue any new pension rights. At age 67, the combined income automatically becomes unlimited.
What will change with the reform of combining employment and retirement in 2027?
For pensions taking effect from January 1, 2027, service-public.gouv.fr indicates a reduction starting from the first euro before the legal minimum retirement age, a 50% reduction for any amount exceeding a threshold of €7,000 gross between the legal retirement age and age 67, and unlimited accumulation of pensions from age 67 onwards. The decree had not been published by May 22, 2026.
Our position
We start with your Cipav pension statement, your pension effective date, and your projected earnings, not an average. We calculate your remaining income after contributions and taxes based on your chosen retirement date, then decide whether to invest the net income in a retirement savings plan or elsewhere. We do not draft any documents or provide legal or accounting advice: eligibility for combined benefits and contributions due are determined with Cipav and your accountant. We receive commissions on contracts taken out through our firm.
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Alexis Sagnier, financial and real estate investment advisor, insurance broker, AMF certified. ORIAS 13003497. Updated on 28/10/2026.
Official sources consulted
- Cipav, "Combining employment and retirement", practical guide 2026 (conditions, ceiling of €48,060, second pension, maximum of €4,806 per year): lacicav.fr
- Cipav, «Combining employment and retirement», practical guide 2024 (contributions before and after January 1, 2023, ceiling for the second pension): lacicav.fr
- Cipav, «Combining employment and retirement», fact sheet 2022 (contributions without rights since January 1, 2015): lacicav.fr
- National Old-Age Insurance Fund for the Liberal Professions, "Special Situations" (full and partial accumulation, ceiling of €48,060 in 2026, contributions still due, new rights, reform of January 1, 2027): cnavpl.fr
- Retirement explained clearly, "The Cipav supplementary pension scheme" (2024 rates, combined supplementary pension scheme): la-retraite-en-clair.fr
- Retirement insurance, 2025 update on combining employment and retirement benefits for self-employed workers (conditions for full combination, supplementary pension subject to the same rules): lassuranceretraite.fr
- Public Service, «Combining employment and retirement» (capped combination for employees, new pension limited to €2,403 per year, reform of January 1, 2027): service-public.gouv.fr
- Service-Public, "New rules for combining employment and retirement benefits from January 1, 2027" (article 102 of law no. 2025-1403, threshold of €7,000, decree not published as of May 22, 2026): service-public.gouv.fr
- Service-Public, «Declaring retirement pensions» (10% allowance, minimum €454, maximum €4,439 per household): service-public.gouv.fr
- Cipav, "Contributing to acquire pension rights", practical guide 2026 (rate, purchase value of the supplementary point): lacicav.fr
- BOFiP, BOI-BNC-BASE-40-60-50-20, § 30, deduction without limitation of mandatory old-age insurance contributions (article 154 bis of the General Tax Code): bofip.impots.gouv.fr
- BOFiP, BOI-IR-BASE-20-50-20, limits on deduction of retirement savings contributions (ceiling of €4,710 to €37,680 in 2026): bofip.impots.gouv.fr
- Law No. 2026-103 on finance for 2026, article 4 (income tax scale); annual ceiling of Social Security: €47,100 in 2025 and €48,060 in 2026.
