Within a few days, the pension can increase, a quarter can be saved and the tax bill reduced.
We often talk about the legal age, set at 64, or the automatic full rate at 67. But once the conditions are met, another question becomes decisive: the exact day of departure. This detail may seem secondary. It’s not at all. Firstly because retirement never starts at any time. It necessarily begins on the first day of a month. If an employee liquidates his rights on the 2nd or the 15th, the payment only starts the following month. Result: a month of pension can be lost simply because of a poorly chosen date. Scheduling your departure on the first day of the month avoids this gap in income.
Then, the calendar influences the validated quarters. Recent generations must accumulate up to 172 quarters to avoid a discount. Each missing quarter reduces the pension by approximately 1.25%. In the year of departure, it is the calendar quarters actually completed that count. Leaving a few weeks too early can prevent a full term from being validated. Conversely, waiting until the end of a calendar quarter allows you to secure it and avoid a permanent reduction in your pension.
There is also an issue regarding the very calculation of the basic pension. The amount is based on the best 25 years of salary, within the limit of the annual Social Security ceiling, set at 47,100 euros in 2025. If the last year of activity is not complete, it does not fall into these 25 years. However, end-of-career salaries are often the highest. Completing an entire year, from January 1 to December 31, allows this last year to be included in the calculation. This can raise the average and increase the pension paid for life.
The third lever concerns tax. The retirement bonus often represents between half and two times the last monthly salary. It is in principle taxable as exceptional income. If it is paid in the same year as the last salaries, which are already significant, it is added to high income and can push the household into a higher tax bracket. On the other hand, if it is received the following year, when income mainly consists of lower pensions, the tax impact can be significantly reduced. In some cases, the tax rate can drop from 30% to 11%.
The challenge therefore consists of aligning these three elements: starting a full month so as not to lose anything, validating an entire quarter and switching the bonus to a more advantageous fiscal year. Over time, a few weeks of delay can represent several thousand euros. Thus, by combining these parameters, the date of February 1 is particularly advantageous.
This date makes it possible to complete a full calendar year, from January 1 to December 31, and therefore to include this last year, which is often better paid, in the calculation of the 25 best. It also triggers the pension from the first day of a month, without any uncompensated period, and attaches the departure bonus to the following year, when income falls with the transition to retirement, which can significantly reduce the tax.
