The Retirement Savings Plan (PER) should end the year 2025 on a good note. And this is excellent news, as this was not a foregone conclusion. Indeed, as part of the debates around the 2026 finance bill, the system was initially targeted by certain restrictive measures, which were ultimately rejected. Better still, an amendment was even adopted providing for extending the possibilities of catching up with the old deductible payment ceilings.
Because the success of the system (7.7 million policyholders) is largely based on its tax advantage upon entry. The PER allows its holder to make voluntary payments which will be deducted from their taxable income. A significant advantage, especially for those whose marginal tax rate or TMI (i.e. the tax rate on the highest bracket of income) is at a high level of 30, 41 or 45%. Once retired, the capital withdrawn (or the life annuity) will be taxed, but at a probably lower rate.
A ceiling mentioned on your tax notice
The tax advantage provided by the PER is, however, not unlimited. For each member of the tax household, an individual deductible payment ceiling applies. This ceiling is common to all retirement savings schemes (Perp, Madelin, PER, etc.) and is calculated on the basis of your professional income for year N-1.
For 2025, it corresponds to 10% of your professional income for 2024 (net of social security contributions and professional expenses), up to 37,094 euros, or 10% of the annual Social Security (PASS) ceiling for 2024, or 4,637 euros, whichever is higher.
Rest assured, this information is communicated by the tax administration. All you need to do is consult the last page of your 2025 tax notice, received this summer. You will find the “RETIREMENT SAVINGS CEILING” section which mentions the ceiling available to you for contributions paid in 2025.
An additional ceiling for non-employees
Traditionally benefiting from a lower replacement rate upon retirement, self-employed workers (TNS) have an additional ceiling. This ceiling is not mentioned on the tax notice, it cannot be carried forward and cannot be shared with the spouse.
Determined on the basis of the taxable profits of year N, it is potentially significant since it corresponds in 2025 to 10% of the taxable profit, within the limit of eight times the PASS 2025, to which is added 15% of the fraction of the taxable profit between one and eight PASS 2025. This corresponds to a maximum deduction of 87,135 euros.
Let’s imagine a self-employed worker with an income of 150,000 euros in 2025. He would then have an additional ceiling in 2025 of 30,435 € (150,000 euros x 10% + (150,000 euros – 47,100 euros) x 15%).
Consider catching up with your old ceilings
If you have never made a deductible payment into a retirement savings plan, or you have not fully used up your annual ceiling, it is possible to benefit from a carryover of unused ceilings from the last three years. In order of use, once the current year’s ceiling has been used, you will draw from your old ceilings starting from the oldest (2022) and going to the most recent (2024). Remember that this postponement does not concern the specific annual TNS ceiling which, if it is not used during the year, is then definitively lost.
Let’s take an example to better understand. Let’s imagine that you have received a stable net professional taxable income of 80,000 euros over the last four years. If you have never made a deductible payment into a retirement savings plan, your overall ceiling in 2025 will actually be 32,000 euros (8,000 euros for 2025 and 24,000 euros catch-up for the years 2022, 2023 and 2024).
Here too, no worries about finding these amounts since they are also indicated on your last tax notice.
Ask to use your spouse’s limit
If you are married or in a civil partnership and you have fully used your own tax available, there is another possibility of increasing the amount of your deductible contributions in 2025 by taking advantage of your spouse’s unused ceiling. Indeed, if one of the spouses does not use their maximum “quota” of payments on a PER, they can benefit from it to the other.
During your next declaration, you should remember to check the 6QR box labeled “You would like to benefit from your spouse’s ceiling”so that the tax authorities recalculate the new shared ceiling for the couple.
Take advantage of the ceilings for a child, an adult and tax-related person
Another operation may potentially interest you if you are looking for tax exemption and at the same time want to give a helping hand to a child, a young adult, who is still tax-related. Indeed, even if they do not work, a young adult has their own retirement savings ceiling, up to 10% of the PASS, with carryover of unused ceilings from previous years (this information does not generally appear on your tax notice).
Being tax-related, the contributions paid into one’s own PER will then also be deductible from the parents’ taxable income. Depending on the case, the payment may be a simple customary gift or a manual donation requiring a declaration to the tax administration. For a child who does not yet have a PER, their parents could then deduct up to 17,264 euros in payments in 2025 by combining all their ceilings.
Of course, retirement is not the first concern for young people, but it is always good to think about it in advance. Above all, the money accumulated in a PER can be used well before retirement, for the purchase of housing.
