In France, the PEA remains one of the most advantageous envelopes for investing in the stock market: after five years of holding, winnings are exempt from income taxonly social security contributions apply (recently increased to 18.6%). But this taxation has a counterpart: the envelope is reserved, in principle, for the shares of companies whose head office is established in the European Union or in the European Economic Area. In theory, this constraint therefore forces a PEA investor to stay in Europe… In theory only.
In practice, more than 200 ETFs legally circumvent this restriction and allow you to invest worldwide, without giving up the income tax exemption after five years. “The PEA requires that funds be invested at least 75 % in shares and securities of companies headquartered in the EU or an EEA state »explains Andrea Tueni, market expert at Saxo. ” As long as the quota is respectedthe fund can offer the investor the performance of a world or American index.
The swap, the key to investing in the world from a PEA
But then, how is this possible? This is called “swap”, a synthetic replication mechanism. “The World or Nasdaq ETFs eligible for the PEA actually hold European shares, but exchange their performance against that of the target index with a bank”, explains our market expert. For example, with a bank in New York which is interested in European performance. “Thus, the PEA envelope remains respected while providing access to major international markets”.
These so-called synthetic ETFs therefore really hold, in practice, European shares, even if they replicate the S&P 500 or the MSCI World by signing a swap contract. This mechanism involves counterparty risk: if the bank signing the swap defaults, the ETF may suffer losses. UCITS regulations regulate this risk by capping it at 10% of the fund’s net asset value. In practice, issuers also request additional guarantees.
How to check the eligibility of an ETF for PEA
“There is no official centralized list of PEA ETFs”explains Andrea Tueni, who advises “systematically check eligibility with his brokerfrom the issuer and via regulatory documentation ». Among investors, two tools are popular to identify them more easily: JustETF has a filter “PEA” which lists eligible products among several thousand referenced; as well as Trackinsight, a platform specializing in ETF rating. The tab “Tax optimization” offers a PEA France filter (available after free registration).
Thanks to this, on your PEA, you have access to a large number of ETF families. PEA synthetic ETFs currently cover most of the major indices:
– THE MSCI Worlda global index exposed to more than 1,500 companies (iShares Core MSCI World PEA (IE0002XZSHO1) or Amundi PEA World MSCI World (FR001400U5Q4) which has very low fees)
– To gain exposure to the American market, there is the Nasdaq (Amundi PEA Nasdaq-100 UCITS ETF (FR0011871110), of which there is also a version with lever x2, the Nasdaq-100 Daily (2x) Leveraged UCITS ETF) or the S&P 500 (Amundi PEA S&P 500 (FR0011871128) or BNP Paribas Easy S&P 500 (FR0011550185))
– Emerging markets with HSBC MSCI Emerging Markets (IE00B5SSQT16) orAmundi PEA Emerging Asia (FR0013412012) which targets in particular China, India, Taiwan and South Korea.
– Without forgetting the European indices, which do not need swap (Amundi PEA MSCI Europe(FR0013412038), BNP Paribas Easy Stoxx Europe 600 UCITS ETF (FR0011550193), or even theAmundi Prime Eurozone (LU2089238112) hits a record 0.05% annual fee, the lowest of any ETF.
– More surprisingly, there is also a Currency ETF eligible for the PEA: theAmundi PEA Euro Short Term (FR0013346681), which replicates the €STR Overnight index.
