The Retirement Savings Plan (PER) is a savings product created in 2019 which has gradually replaced all other retirement savings products that previously existed such as the Popular Retirement Savings Plan (Perp), the Madelin contract (Contrat d savings plan for self-employed workers), the collective retirement savings plan (Perco), or the “article 83” contract (collective life insurance contract taken out by a company for the benefit of some of these employees) . The PER can take 3 different forms:the individual PER, the collective company PER and the mandatory company PER.
The individual Retirement Savings Plan (PER), which replaces the Perp and the Madelin contract, can be taken out by all individuals with a financial or insurance organization regardless of their situation (job seeker, employee, self-employed worker) and their age.
The individual PER designates a long-term savings product that allows you to put money aside throughout your working life and to benefit from these savings at the time of your retirement in the form of capital or an annuity.
There are 2 ways to build up savings thanks to the individual PER. The first consists of subscribing to an individual investment PER which takes the form of opening a securities account, i.e. an account in which the holder can deposit financial securities such as shares, bonds or investment companies with variable capital (Sicav). This type of individual PER must be opened with specialized companies such as credit institutions, investment companies, or financial investment advisers.
The second version of the individual PER is the individual insurance PER. In this case, it is a question of saving for retirement by taking out a group insurance contract (contract which brings together people who meet the same criteria). The individual insurance PER can be opened with companies authorized to take out group life insurance contracts such as insurance companies, mutual insurance companies, provident institutions, but also additional occupational pension funds (banks or financial advisers).
Depending on the age at which an individual PER is opened, the sums saved are used differently, which is called “managed management”. The further the retirement age, the more the money deposited by the holder is invested in riskier and more profitable assets. On the contrary, as retirement age approaches, the sums saved are directed towards vehicles that involve less risk (more info on Assurement Invest).
An individual PER is funded by voluntary payments from its holder. If he also holds a company PER, the latter can also pay into it sums of money coming from the profit-sharing, participation and contribution of his employer to a company PER or to other a PERCO, but also from a time savings account (CET) and allocated to his company PER or from compulsory payments made on a compulsory company PER.
Payments made to an individual PER are subject to a tax benefit. These sums of money are in fact deductible from taxable income, every year, within the limit of a ceiling. But the holder can choose not to benefit from this regular deduction and, in this case, he will benefit from a tax advantage when releasing his individual PER, the conditions of which differ depending on whether he receives his savings in the form of an annuity or capital.
An individual PER can be released when its holder reaches retirement age. If he did not opt at the time of subscription for a life annuity (periodic payment of a sum until his death), the money he has saved can be paid out, at his request, either in the form a lump sum (in one or more instalments), an annuity, or a combination of these two possibilities.
It is also possible to recover the savings made up thanks to an individual PER before the retirement age but under specific conditions:in the event of disability of the holder, of his children, of his husband or wife or of his partner of Pacs, the death of the husband or wife or partner of Pacs, the end of rights to unemployment benefits, over-indebtedness, acquisition of a main residence or, for non-employees, on the occasion of a cessation of activity following a judicial liquidation.
When the holder of an individual PER dies, the savings plan must be closed. The accumulated savings are then paid to his heirs or to the beneficiaries he has mentioned in his savings contract.
The Collective Company Retirement Savings Plan (PER), which replaces the Collective Retirement Savings Plan (Perco), is a plan open to employees (generally those with at least 3 months of seniority) of a company without their having the obligation to subscribe to it. However, some companies provide for the automatic membership of their employees, who in this case have 15 days to express their refusal to join the collective company PER. The management fees related to this type of PER are borne by the employer.
An employee benefiting from a collective company PER who leaves his company has the option of transferring it to the PER of his new company or of paying the sums saved into an individual PER.
Like the individual PER, the collective company PER is a long-term savings product which is intended to constitute savings which will be paid in the form of capital or an annuity at retirement age. When it is implemented in a company, each employee is given an employee savings account indicating the implementation of a collective company PER and its content.
In the same way, its management is controlled (based on more or less risky and profitable assets) according to the age of the holder. However, a collective company PER must offer savers at least one medium that allows them to invest in a solidarity fund.
Employees who join a collective company PER can freely make payments, transfer amounts from profit-sharing, profit-sharing, rights registered in a time savings account (CET), or an individual PER. .
The employer can also contribute to the collective company PER of each of its employees. We then speak of “contributions” which cannot exceed certain ceilings (3 times the amount that the employee has paid himself and 6,581.76 euros).
Payments made on a collective company PER are deductible each year from the holder's taxable income within the limit of a ceiling. It is possible to waive this tax benefit. In this case, when the PER is released, its holder is taxed on the capital gains recorded, and differently if he has opted for the payment of capital or an annuity.
Note:the sums paid into any PER are exempt from income tax from the moment they come from company employee savings.
The sums saved on a collective company PER can be recovered under exactly the same conditions as those placed in an individual PER, either when the holder has reached retirement age, or in advance, with the same consequences.
The conditions are also the same in the event of the death of the holder of the collective company PER.
The mandatory company Retirement Savings Plan (PER), which replaces "article 83" contracts (collective life insurance contracts taken out by a company for the benefit of some of these employees), designates a plan opened by a company to which all employees (or a certain category of them whose criteria are objectively defined) are obliged to subscribe.
The mandatory company PER is put in place either by the company manager, following the ratification of an agreement by the majority of employees or by a collective agreement. It can be grouped with a collective company PER.
The mandatory company PER works exactly the same way as a collective company PER. The employees concerned must also be kept informed of its existence and its content.
A mandatory company PER is funded by voluntary, but also mandatory, payments from the holder. In the same way, the employer can also top up this PER with these two types of payments.
The sums saved in a compulsory company PER are in principle blocked until the retirement of their holder. There are nevertheless cases where early exit is possible:disability of the holder, of his children, of his husband or wife or of his PACS partner, death of the husband or wife or of the PACS partner, end of rights unemployment benefits, over-indebtedness, acquisition of a main residence or, for non-employees, cessation of activity following a judicial liquidation.
The two types of payments (voluntary and compulsory) made within the framework of a mandatory company PER meet the same tax rules as those of a collective company PER.
When the compulsory company PER is released, the taxation that applies depends, on the one hand, on the payments which have fed it, voluntary and compulsory, and, on the other hand, on the method of liquidation (annuity or capital).
As part of a mandatory company PER, the money saved on the occasion of the mandatory payments is obligatorily liquidated in the form of a life annuity. The other types of payments are recovered in the form of a capital, an annuity, or a mixture of the two.
On the death of the holder, the accumulated savings are transferred to their heirs or to the beneficiaries designated in the mandatory company PER.
