The 2026 finance law has just put an end to an advantage appreciated by seniors on their PER: the tax deductibility of payments after age 70. Until now, a retiree could continue to fund your PER and deduct the amounts paid of his taxable income, even after having liquidated his retirement rights.
Concretely, a private doctor still working at the age of 72, or a senior receiving significant property income, could pay into their PER only to reduce their income tax… sometimes without ever intending to release it. The PER then became a tax exemption tool, or even wealth transmission – far from its original interest which is preparation for retirement.
But since January 1, 2026, any payment made after the holder’s 70th birthday no longer generates any tax deduction upon entry. Except that the finance law also added, more discreetly, a new advantage to the PER: the postponement of the ceilings which is now for five years.
The benefit of carrying over the PER ceiling
Until 2025, if you did not use your entire PER deduction ceiling in a given year, the remainder remained available for use during the following three years. From the ceilings generated in 2026, this window increases to five years.
On payments made in 2026 (declared in 2027), the maximum deduction ceiling is 10% of your professional income from the previous year (with a minimum of 4,806 euros and a maximum of eight times the PASS, or 38,448 euros for 2026). If you only use part of this ceiling, the rest will be usable for another five years.
These two additional years of deferral can make a big difference for someone whose income varies from year to year. A salesperson with inconsistent commission years, a freelancer just starting out, or simply someone who has gone through a period of low income.
A measure that is not retroactive
Please note, however, that the change to five years is not retroactive. This means that this rule only applies to caps generated from 2026. Previous caps remain subject to the old rule. So, by filing your return this monththe part that you do not deduct from your PER this year can only be mobilized until 2028. It is at the next declaration that the carryover will be made over five years.
An example being more telling, let’s take an executive whose gross annual salary amounts to 80,000 euros. His taxable income, after standard deduction of 10% for professional expenses, is 72,000 euros. Its PER deduction ceiling is therefore 7,200 euros per year (let’s imagine for simplicity that it is the same for the next five years).
He spends five years not funding his PER, but in 2032, his means increase and he decides to pay massively. With the new five-year rule, it can mobilize its unused ceilings from 2027 to 2031or 36,000 euros of carryovers, to which is added its 2032 ceiling: its total deduction capacity reaches 43,200 euros. At 30% marginal tax bracket, the tax saving exceeds 12,960 euros in a single payment.
Under the old three-year rule, he could only have mobilized three years of deferrals, i.e. a capacity of 28,800 euros and a tax saving of 8,640 euros. The reform saves him more than 4,300 euros in additional tax on this payment.
