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Company savings plan (PEE) simulator: employer matching and tax-exempt capital
The value of the PEE (company savings plan) lies first in its employer matching contribution, not in its market return: for every euro you pay in, the employer can add up to 300%, up to a ceiling, and this matching contribution is exempt from income tax. A 100% matching contribution instantly gives you a 100% gain on the amount paid in, before any investment return.
Paid by the employer, exempt from income tax
With many early release cases (home purchase, marriage, etc.)
Only the 18.6% social charges remain payable
The simulator
Simulate your PEE and its employer matching
The simulator isolates the cumulative employer matching. Your data is neither stored nor transmitted.
PEE simulator
Measure the effect of employer matching on your company savings plan — free money.
Indicative calculation, based on 2026 rules and the assumptions entered above.
Why
Why the employer matching contribution changes the calculation
Most savers compare investments by their annual return: 3%, 5%, 7%. PEE matching contributions operate on a different scale. If your employer matches at 100%, you receive a 100% gain at the very moment of payment, before a single euro has been invested in the markets. No fund, no share, no structured product reproduces this immediate gain, paid by the company as soon as the deposit is made.
On top of this initial gain comes light taxation that extends the advantage. The employer matching contribution escapes income tax — it bears CSG/CRDS for the employee and the forfait social (employer levy) for the employer, but not income tax. And on exit, capital gains made within the plan are also exempt from income tax: only the 18.6% social charges apply to the gains.
The most costly mistake in employee savings is not paying in enough to capture the maximum matching. The employer can only match up to a legal ceiling, expressed as a percentage of the PASS (annual social security ceiling); below it, you leave free money on the table. Calibrating your payments to use up exactly the available matching is the first savings reflex — even before the PER or assurance-vie.
What the calculation shows
The 3 levers this simulator highlights
As long as your employer matches your payments, every euro you pay in is topped up before any market return. Before weighing up assurance-vie, a PER or property, the first question is: have I captured all the employer matching contribution available? The legal ceiling is set as a percentage of the PASS (annual social security ceiling); missing it means giving up part of your pay that is exempt from income tax. Many employees, never having run the numbers, pay in below the optimal threshold and forgo several hundred, or even several thousand, euros a year.
Received directly, incentive and profit-sharing bonuses are subject to income tax. Paid into the PEE, they are exempt — and can themselves trigger employer matching. This double advantage turns a taxed bonus into tax-free, matched savings. The choice made each time these bonuses are paid weighs heavily over several years of a career.
The PEE is not just a channel for matching: it is also an invested account whose performance depends on the funds chosen. Yet company plans often offer in-house funds with high fees and passive allocation. Once the matching is captured, the choice of fund and the lock-up horizon determine the real return. This is the classic blind spot: people optimise the entry and neglect what is invested for five years.
Case study
Case study: Karim, 39, senior engineer in Toulouse
Karim pays €3,768 a year into his PEE — exactly his employer's matching ceiling, with matching at 100%. The plan targets a 4% annual return over 10 years. Here is what the simulator isolates for the matching alone:
| Indicator | Without matching | With 100% matching | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cumulative employee payments (10 years) | ≈ €37,680 | ≈ €37,680 | — |
| Cumulative employer matching | €0 | ≈ €37,680 | +€37,680 |
| Total capital before returns | ≈ €37,680 | ≈ €75,360 | ×2 |
| Capital gains on exit | exempt from income tax | exempt from income tax | — |
In ten years, the employer matching contribution doubled Karim's savings before any market return: €37,680 paid in, the same again contributed by the employer, all exempt from income tax. On the whole amount, capital gains will come out exempt from income tax — only the 18.6% social charges will apply to the gains.
The lesson applies to every employee whose employer matches: paying in at least up to the matching ceiling comes before any other savings. By paying in half as much, Karim would have forgone €18,840 of matching contribution. The PEE (company savings plan) is maxed out first; the rest of the wealth strategy is built afterwards.
In practice
Free money first, strategy second
This simulator isolates employer matching to make it visible — because it is often underused. But the PEE is only one building block: once the matching is captured, you still have to decide on the funds invested, where incentive and profit-sharing bonuses go, when to release funds, and how it fits with your PER, your assurance-vie and your property. It is this whole that makes a wealth strategy, not the PEE alone.
Balmont Conseil is a wealth management consulting firm based in Lyon, a member of ANACOFI-CIF, with no capital ties to any bank. Open architecture allows us to look at your employee savings for what they are — an asset to be maximised — and to build them into an overall strategy, without pushing any in-house product. Let's book an appointment to review your company scheme and the rest of your wealth.
Frequently asked questions
What clients ask us.
What is employer matching and why is it so advantageous?
The employer matching contribution is the sum your employer adds to your own payments into the PEE, up to a legal ceiling (a percentage of the PASS). A 100% matching contribution gives you an immediate 100% gain on the amount paid in, before any market return, and this matching contribution is exempt from income tax. No financial investment reproduces this immediate gain paid by the company: this is why it is often wise to capture it as a priority.
Is my money really locked in for 5 years?
In principle yes, but the list of early release cases is long: marriage or PACS, birth or adoption of a 3rd child, purchase of the main residence, starting or taking over a business, divorce with custody of a child, termination of the employment contract, over-indebtedness, disability or death. For most major life projects, you can therefore recover your savings before the 5 years are up.
How are capital gains taxed on exit?
This is one of the great strengths of the PEE (company savings plan): capital gains made within the plan are exempt from income tax. Only the 18.6% social charges apply to the gains on exit. Combined with the income-tax-exempt matching contribution, the PEE pairs free money on the way in with light taxation on the way out.
Should I pay in the maximum or stop at the matching ceiling?
The reflex is to pay in at least up to the matching ceiling, to capture every euro offered by the employer. Beyond that, your payments are no longer matched: the advantage is then limited to the income tax exemption on capital gains and the 5-year lock-up. Depending on your situation, it may make more sense to direct surplus savings to a more flexible or more advantageous wrapper — a decision to make with an adviser.
What is the difference between Balmont Conseil and a bank adviser?
Balmont Conseil is a wealth management consulting firm, a member of ANACOFI-CIF, with no capital ties to any bank. We analyse your employee savings as part of an overall wealth strategy, with no interest in selling you a product. A bank adviser thinks in terms of their network's products; we think in terms of overall optimisation, starting by maximising the free money your employer already makes available to you.
