It’s a small increase at first glance, but it could be significant. On Monday, September 27, the deputies adopted, in committee, during the examination of the Social Security budget for 2026, an increase in the generalized social contribution (CSG) on capital income. Does this imposition mean nothing to you? However, this is included in the single flat-rate levy (PFU), the famous “flat tax”, made up of 12.8% income tax and 17.2% social security contributions. Social deductions themselves made up of the generalized social contribution (CSG) of 9.2%, the contribution to the repayment of the social debt (CRDS) of 0.5% and the solidarity levy of 7.5%.
It is the first of these three components, the CSG, which would thus increase from 9.2% to 10.6% – if the Social Security budget is voted on as it stands -, bringing the entire PFU from 30% to 31.4%. A difference that may seem small, but is it really? Let’s take a few examples of investments subject to flat tax to see what it would cost you.
PEL, term accounts, securities accounts… the investments concerned
Since 2018, interest received on a PEL, even an old one, has been subject to income tax and social security contributions. Let’s imagine a PEL opened in 1997, at a fixed rate of 3.84%, and into which 61,200 euros (the ceiling) was paid directly. 28 years later, the interest brought the PEL to an amount of 175,777 euros, earning 6,750 euros in interest per year. With the current flat tax, at 30%, the net interest received amounts to 4,725 euros, compared to 4,630.5 euros with taxation inflated to 31.4%. In this case, a difference of barely 100 euros (94.5 euros) on interest received ultimately.
Other examples of widespread investments subject to flat tax: term accounts (CAT) and “ordinary” passbooks, that is to say unregulated, and which, unlike Livret A, or LEP, are not tax exempt. The amounts placed in these products can be substantial, because their ceilings are very high, even unlimited, in order to allow savers to invest significant amounts of cash without taking any risk. Currently, the best offers on the market offer annualized rates around 2.5%.
By investing, for example, 100,000 euros – the maximum amount covered on these products by the Deposit Guarantee and Resolution Fund (FGDR) – the expected interest is therefore 2,500 euros gross per year, or 1,750 euros net of flat tax at 30%, and 1,715 euros with taxation at 31.4%. Either 35 euros of difference. The same will apply to interest, capital gains and dividends drawn from an ordinary securities account (CTO, allowing investment in shares, bonds, ETFs, etc.) also subject to the 30% flat tax.
What impact on life insurance and PEA?
The impact of this new taxation could be even more reduced in the context of life insurance and an equity savings plan (PEA). In fact, these two products allow you to benefit from reduced taxation after a certain holding period. In life insurance, however, social security contributions are deducted each year by the insurer from the fund’s interest in euros. With this amendment, they would go from 17.2% to 18.6%.
With 20,000 euros placed in euro funds, at a rate of 2.65% (the expected average for this year 2025), the difference in interest received would be 7.42 euros only (438.84 euros net today, compared to 431.42 euros at a rate of 18.6%). Let us also remember that after eight years of detention, you can withdraw from your life insurance up to 4,600 euros of earnings for a single person (9,200 euros for a couple taxed jointly) completely tax-free. With a PEA, the difference will also be minimal, since provided you do not make any withdrawals during the first five years, you are not taxed. After this period, only social security contributions remain due if you wish to recover part or all of your earnings, at a rate which would therefore increase, here too, from 17.2% to 18.6%.
