During the examination of the state budget for 2025 in the National Assembly, deputies attacked the subject of overtime. They voted for their total tax exemption, as it existed under the presidency of Nicolas Sarkozy.
© Illustration Capital / Freepik
– The Republicans propose to completely exempt overtime from taxes in order to strengthen the purchasing power of the French.
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The shadow of Nicolas Sarkozy hovers in the hemicycle of the Palais Bourbon. As part of the examination of the “revenue” component of the finance bill (PLF) for 2025, the deputies voted in fact to return to total tax exemption for overtime. A system that emerged from the Republican boxes since it was first put in place in 2007, under the presidency of the former mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine, to boost the purchasing power of the French. This tax advantage was then removed upon the arrival of François Hollande at the Elysée, then partially restored in 2018 according to the logic of “at the same time” dear to Emmanuel Macron.
Currently, Macron version of overtime entitles you to a reduction in social security contributions, but also to an income tax exemption. within the limit of an annual ceiling set at 7,500 euros. Once this amount is exceeded, the surplus earned by working more than the hours provided for in your contract would therefore be subject to income tax. A potential return to overtime using the Sarkozy method would amount to removing this ceiling, and therefore completely exempting remuneration received for overtime from income tax and social security contributions.
The return of “work more to earn more”?
It is therefore a victory for a Republican right which was heavily weakened by the early legislative elections this summer. “The only budgetary solution to restore the country and resolve the purchasing power problem is work – everything else is artificial”argued Fabien Di Filippo, Republican deputy for Moselle. Words which inevitably recall the famous slogan of Nicolas Sarkozy’s first presidential campaign in 2007: “work more to earn more”. The parliamentarian is in fact keen to allow “those who wish and can work more than 35 hours (to benefit) entirely from the fruit of their labor.
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But this tax gift proposed to workers by the Republicans would further deteriorate public finances. “The budgetary cost of the proposed measure – the exemption from social contributions and income tax – is of the order of 3.2 billion euros. The elements of additional remuneration must not take precedence over the elements of main remuneration. raised the general rapporteur of the Finance Committee, Charles de Courson. For his part, the Minister of the Budget, Laurent Saint-Martin, admitted that “it is indeed through work that we will absorb the deficit, which is due to a problem of growth and activity”before issuing an unfavorable opinion on the measure. “Work must not escape contributions and taxes too much”he warned.
If the deputies voted for the measure against the advice of the government and the Finance Committee, the return to total tax exemption for overtime is still far from being achieved. Knowing that the government is struggling to find 60 billion euros to straighten out the public accounts, it is a safe bet that the total tax exemption for overtime in Sarkozy style does not pass the net of a probable recourse to 49-3 by the Prime Minister, Michel Barnier.
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