Company Savings Plan (PEE)

Verified 01 January 2024 - Legal and Administrative Information Directorate (Prime Minister)

The company Savings Plan (PEE) is a collective savings scheme that enables employees (and managers of small companies) to buy savings from transferable securities with the company's help. Employees and companies may make payments to the EEP. The sums are unavailable for at least 5 years, except in exceptional cases of release. The EPE may be set up at the level of several companies not belonging to the same group, in which case it is a PEI: titleContent.

One PEE: titleContent is a collective savings product that enables employees of a company to build up a portfolio of transferable securities.

The EEP may be implemented at the level of a company.

It can also be set up in a group of companies, then we speak of PEG: titleContent.

It can also be implemented in several companies not belonging to the same group, then referred to as (PEI: titleContent).

PEG and IEP function like the EEP.

If your company has set up an EAP, it should be open to all employees. However, a seniority condition may be required (maximum 3 months).

In the event of termination of the employment contract (resignation, dismissal, retirement, early retirement...), you can keep your EPE under certain conditions.

If the number of employees of the company does not exceed 250, its manager can also benefit from the EPE, regardless of his status. The manager's spouse or Civil partnership partner may also be eligible for the EAP if he or she is a working or associate spouse.

Which employer should set up the EEP?

The implementation of the PEE: titleContent is optional for companies.

But where there is a participation agreement within a company, the implementation of the PEE: titleContent becomes mandatory.

How should the agreement be drawn up?

The PEE: titleContent shall be established by a concerted decision between the Head of company and the employees in the following cases:

  • Agreement between the Head of company and the employees' representatives
  • Agreement within the Social and Economic Committee (ESC)
  • Approval of a branch agreement by 2/3 of employees

The PEE: titleContent shall be established by a decision of the Head of company when negotiations with the staff representatives have failed.

What should be in the agreement to set up the EAP?

The agreement must contain elements enabling the employee to understand how the sum due to him is calculated and when he can benefit from it.

These are: 

  • Date of conclusion, effective date and duration for which the agreement is concluded
  • Scope of the plan (list of companies, sectors concerned)
  • Duration of the plan (fixed or indefinite duration) and conditions for revision
  • Seniority requirements
  • Plan Power Sources
  • Details of the company aid
  • Different investment formulas
  • Duration of unavailability of beneficiaries' rights and cases of early release
  • Nature and method of managing beneficiaries' rights

Mandatory Deposit

The agreement chosen by the company with or without consultation with the employees or their representatives must be deposited on the website of the Ministry of Labor:

Collective company Agreement Filing Service

Checks

Since 1er september 2021, wage savings agreements filed by companies are subject to two types of control: a formal control and a substantive control.

Shape control

The form check is carried out by the DDETS: titleContent competent for the seat of the company.

This check is used to verify whether the company has deposited the agreement in the required format and whether it has complied with the rules for negotiating, denouncing and reviewing wage savings agreements.

The DDETS must take its decision within one month.

It may decide to issue the receipt or to request additional documents from the company.

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The receipt shall be issued

The DDETS must immediately forward the agreement to the social security collection agency on which the company depends.

The receipt is not issued

The situation varies depending on whether DDETS requires additional documents or not.

Additional documents are required

The DDETS must forward the agreement to the social security collection agency on which the company depends within one month.

No request for additional parts

The DDETS may transmit the agreement to the collection fund on which the company depends after the one-month period.

Substantive control

Substantive control is carried out by the social security collection agency on which the company which has lodged the agreement depends.

The purpose of this review is to verify whether the clauses of the agreement submitted comply with the law.

The recovery agency has 3 months to request the amendment of the provisions of the agreement which are contrary to the law.

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Request for change made

If the recovery agency requests the amendment of certain clauses within the three-month period, the company must make the amendments before it can benefit from the agreement.

No change request

If the recovery agency does not request any changes within the three-month period, the company may benefit from the social and fiscal advantages of the agreement for the current accounting year.

When you are hired, the employer must give you a payroll savings booklet indicating the arrangements put in place in the company.

If the company has an EEP in place, it must provide you with a rule that informs you of the plan and its content.

At least once a year, the company must give you a status report.

This statement should show the estimated value of your PEE portfolio as of December 31 of the previous year.

It must also show the payments and withdrawals made during the previous period.

When you leave the company, you must receive a summary statement of all money and securities saved or transferred. If you wish to continue to benefit from the plan, you will have to pay a custody account keeping. The company may also decide to bear these costs. The summary statement given to you when you leave should specify whether the expenses are covered by the company or by deduction from your assets.

Employee Payments

Payments are optional.

You can feed your EAP with the following amounts:

Voluntary payments are capped. You can pay each calendar year up to 25% of your gross annual remuneration.

The EAP Regulation may provide for a minimum annual payment of €160 at most.

If your remittances are intended to be used to pay an FCPE specially dedicated to the takeover of your company, they can then reach your entire annual remuneration.

Additional company payments (abundances)

The EEP may be financed by company payments which supplement employees' payments. These additional company payments are called abundances.

The abundance may not exceed 3 times the amount you yourself paid, or be more than €3,709.44.

If you invest in shares or investment certificates issued by your company or a related company, the abundance can be up to €6,676.99.

FYI  

when a company of 50 or more employees makes a supplementary payment, it must pay a special contribution, called social package.

Voluntary company payments

The company may also make payments to the EEP, even in the absence of payments from employees. These voluntary company payments are intended exclusively for the purchase of shares or investment certificates issued by the company or by a company of the same group.

Allocation of funds

The amounts paid out of the EEP may be invested in the company's shares, in shares of Sicav: titleContent or in FCPE. CEPAs may include shares of the EAP's founding company, even if it is a cooperative.

Part of the amounts paid out of the EEP must be invested in the shares of socially useful solidarity companies.

FYI  

an FCPE may be specifically dedicated to the takeover of the company by employees.

The amounts invested in the EEP are blocked for at least 5 years.

However, you can request the early release of funds in certain cases. The most common are the following:

  • Marriage, Civil partnership
  • Birth or adoption of a 3e child
  • Divorce, separation, dissolution of a Civil partnership, with the custody of at least one child
  • Victim of intimate partner violence
  • Acquisition of the principal residence
  • Construction of the main residence
  • Expansion of the main residence
  • Rehabilitation of the main residence
  • Disability (employee, spouse or Civil partnership partner, children)
  • Death (employee, spouse or Civil partnership partner)
  • Termination of the employment contract (dismissal, resignation, retirement before the expiry of the 5-year period)
  • Creating or Resuming company
  • Over-indebtedness

The request for early release must be made within 6 months of the event.

However, it may intervene at any time in the event of termination of the contract of employment, death, invalidity and over-indebtedness.

The EAP taxation is not the same during the life of the plan and during the unblocking.

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During the life of the plan

Taxation varies depending on the nature of the amounts paid to the EEP.

Abundance paid by the company

The abundance paid by the company is exempt from income tax for the employee, up to €3,709.44.

This ceiling shall be increased to €6,676.99 in case of investment in shares or investment certificates issued by your company.

But abundance is subject to the CSG (generalized social contribution) and the CRDS (contribution to the repayment of social debt).

Employee interest

The interest paid by your company and deposited on your EAP is exempt from income tax, up to €34,776.

Voluntary payments by the employee

Voluntary payments you make to the EEP are not deductible from your taxable income.

Income from securities held in the plan
Income from securities reinvested in the plan

Interest generated by the securities held in the plan is exempt from income tax when you reinvest them in the plan. They shall be subject to social security contributions.

Income from securities not reinvested in the plan

The interest generated by the securities held in the plan is subject to income tax and social security taxes if you do not reinvest them in the plan.

Savings in the plan

Profits generated by the sale of securities under the EAP are exempt from income tax, but subject to social security contributions.

On early release

The sums withdrawn from the plan correspond to the employer's and employee's payments and to the income generated by the plan which has been reinvested by the employee.

These amounts are exempt from income tax, but are subject to social security contributions for the part corresponding to the income generated by the plan.

At the end of the plan

The sums withdrawn from the plan correspond to the employer's and employee's payments and to the income generated by the plan which has been reinvested by the employee.

These amounts are exempt from income tax, but are subject to social security contributions for the part corresponding to the income generated by the plan.