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Can you earn a deferred salary if you worked on your parents' farm?

Verified 24 October 2022 - Directorate for Legal and Administrative Information (Prime Minister)

You are descendant from a farmer and you participated in the development of the family farm without receiving any remuneration? You may be entitled to a deferred salary under certain conditions. We explain how to take advantage of it.

To receive deferred pay, you must meet the following 3 conditions:

  • Be at least 18 at the time of the collaboration
  • To have participated effectively and directly in the agricultural operation of your ascendant (you must prove your effective participation by any means)
  • Have participated in the agricultural holding free of charge. This means that you must not have received a salary in exchange for your cooperation, nor must you have been associated with profits or losses.

Your parent can pay you the deferred salary in his or her lifetime. He can do it by a donation-sharing for example.

You can also benefit from the deferred salary at the time of your parent's succession. In this case, you must claim the deferred salary before any act of sharing.

Warning  

the period of prescription for the action for payment of the salary is 5 years. You must claim the deferred salary within 5 years of the death of your ascendant, even if his spouse is still alive and has usufruct of the estate.

You are entitled, for each year of participation, to an amount equal to the following formula: (Gross hourly minimum x 2080) x 2/3.

The hourly amount of the minimum wage to be used shall be that in force:

  • on the day of sharing if the operator has died,
  • or on the date of settlement of the claim if the operator is still alive.

Example :

your parents are dead. You worked on their farm for three years. At 1er november 2022, you can collect the following amount: (11.07 x 2080) x 2/3 x 3 = €46,051.20

The amount of deferred salary may not exceed the assets of the estate. The others heirs therefore have nothing to pay out of their own funds.

The maximum period that can be paid is 10 years.

The tax treatment of deferred wages varies depending on the period of farm participation.

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You participated before June 30, 2014

Deferred salary is exempt income tax (regardless of when the salary was actually paid).

You participated in part or in full after June 30, 2014

Deferred salary is taxable on income.