Income tax: how to properly use PER taxation without disillusionment tomorrow

Free tribune

Reducing your income tax is one of the promises of the retirement savings plan (PER), beyond constituting individual savings. If the system is based on tax incentives, you should not be trapped through this, warns Catherine Baudeneau, member of the Altaprofits management committee.

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The system of the retirement savings plan (PER) aims to encourage the French to save for their retirement, to complete the income which will be generated by the distribution system and thus lighten the pressure on the latter. This is the subject of the tax incentive that has been put in place. Thus, each holder of a PER can choose to deduct the amount of his payable income from his taxable income and thus reduce his income taxes of the year, but in this case, he will be taxed at the exit, when he recovers the sums once retired. He can also make the choice not to activate this advantage at the entrance so as not to be taxed at the exit. As a reminder, the possibility of deducting the amount of its payments is limited to 10% of activity income of year N-1 (within the limit of 8 PASS, ie 37,094 euros under payments 2025), increased ceiling for non-employee workers.

So how to make this choice? The deduction to the entry is interesting for those who are both imposed on a marginal rate of high taxation (TMI 30% and more) and which anticipate a drop in their income once retired, with an impact on their tax rate. This will probably be the case, if we look at the development of the replacement rate, that is to say the amount of his retirement pension brought back to the amount of his last active salary. In this case, deductibility to entry is a real advantage, especially as it is necessary to take into account the possibility of making the sums saved grow thanks to the tax reduction obtained.

The subtleties to know to optimize your tax advantage at the entrance

The anticipated taxation of marginal tax rate is the first criterion of choice between the tax advantage at the entrance or the exit. For those who have chosen it at the entrance, three subtleties are to be known to optimize this tax advantage: first of all, you should know that the ceilings are mutualisable Between spouses or partners of PACS subject to common taxation. Interesting for couples who would have uneven wages. The ceiling of one can be used to the other to maximize its tax reduction. Then, you should know that the unused ceilings can be postponed from one year to the next, for three years. Good to know for all those who have income that fluctuates from one year to the next, whether by the very essence of their activity or by a remuneration structure which would give pride of place to variable premiums.

Finally, and it is not neutral, the tax advantage provided by retirement savings does not fall within the field of the ceiling of tax niches. Indeed, the tax code stipulates that the tax advantages which enter the cap are those granted in return for an investment or a service from which the taxpayer benefits (rental real estate, investments in FIP or FCPI), while the tax advantages linked to the personal situation of the taxpayer or to the pursuit of a general interest without counterpart are excluded from the cap. Retirement savings are in this second category. Thus, for highly taxed homes, it is possible to accumulate.

Tax deduction at the entrance, how not to be caught up in the exit?

As we have seen, the success of the PER is largely supported by the undeniable tax advantages which accompany it as to income tax. But it must be kept in mind that if the tax advantage is taken at the entrance, during the savings phase, then there will be taxation at the exit, at the time of withdrawal of the sums, hence the more marked interest in the event that there is a drop in the marginal tax rate once to retirement. Then, at the time of retirement, an optimization of its tax can still be made by implementing an appropriate withdrawal strategy, in particular by fractional outings to lessen the tax impact, by smoothing it over several tax years. The fractional redemption also makes it possible to recover savings according to real needs, while leaving the rest of the capital invested, which will thus continue to fruit.

If the retirement savings plan is a powerful tool which allows both to be retired financially while optimizing your income taxation for a highly imposed target, remember that the tax advantage is not limited to this deduction of taxable income. The taxation of the PER is also advantageous for taxation on capital gains at the time of withdrawals (taxation identical to that of life insurance), and for the succession (Development and tax rate identical to those of life insurance But with a difference in size: it is the age of death that counts, and not the age of payments). What explain its success with more than 11 million French people*.

* At the end of September 2024. Consolidated data from professional federations distributing PER (FA, AFG, FNMF, CTIP).