Prime Macron: Who will be able to benefit?

PRIME MACRON. The Macron bonus, which allows a tax-free bonus to be paid, will be made permanent as part of the Purchasing Power Bill under consideration by Parliament this summer.

[Mise à jour du jeudi 28 juillet 2022 à 09h48] The government waived the opposition’s demands for a salary increase, preferring to continue the mechanism of the exceptional purchasing power bonus, better known as the “Macron bonus”. As a reminder, it was the latter established after the yellow vest crisis. Adopted by the National Assembly in first reading,This text renames the device to “Value Sharing Bonus” (PPV). If it is indeed confirmed by Parliament, employers can do so pay this bonus between August 1st and December 31st, 2022. In practice, the principle remains the same: encourage employers to pay a salary supplement. However, there are some significant changes. The upper limit of the Macron bonus is thus exceeded from 2,000 euros to 6,000 euros excluding taxes for companies that have signed a profit-sharing agreement and for companies with fewer than 50 employees. For the others, the maximum amount of aid to be paid changes from 1,000 to 3,000 euros.

Until December 31, 2023, the Macron bonus will remain “completely exempt from employee and employer contributions and tax for employees who draw up to less than 3 Smic per month,” the bill reads. However, from 2024, the same principle applies to all employees: the premium is subject to CSG/CRDS and income tax, and the employer has to pay the social package. In 2022, an employee can exceptionally receive a bonus of up to 8,000 euros. The Macron bonus for 2021 (up to 2,000 euros) that could be paid out by March 31, 2022 and the PPV (up to 6,000 euros) that could be paid out from August 1, 2022 Right, have that system tightened. They limited the facility to companies with fewer than 50 employees to perpetuate the “value-sharing bonus”, renamed the “purchasing power bonus”. This last only exempt from social security contributions. The elected officials also limited the possible distribution of the bonus during the year to four payments. The declared goal is to prevent the bonus from replacing a salary increase.

The Macron Bonus was created after the Yellow Vests crisis. It was maintained in the context of the health crisis to support household purchasing power. As a reminder: With this bonus, companies could pay up to 1,000 euros free of charge and tax. In order to be exempt from social and tax payments, this special bonus had to be paid before March 31, 2022. It could not replace an already planned salary increase or bonus. In addition, the salary level that must be maintained to benefit has been set at 3 Smic.

The Macron Bonus benefit is reserved for employees whose compensation less than three times the minimum wage and who work in a company that has entered into a profit-sharing agreement. Exceptionally, this agreement can be concluded for a period of less than three years. However, their duration must not be less than one year. The 2020 Social Security Funding Act, which introduced this new condition for claiming the Macron bonus, also provided for the establishment of help for the design of profit-sharing agreements.

In 2018, the Macron bonus benefited 5 million workers for an average of 450 euros. In 2021 it will again be possible to pay non-contributory employees an extraordinary purchasing power bonus even without a profit-sharing agreement.

The Macron bonus is an employee contribution exempt and tax free bonus. To be exempt, the Macron bonus must be granted to workers whose income does not exceed a certain limit (see below) and does not exceed 1,000 euros. Since 2019, the exemption from the Macron bonus has also been conditional on the existence or implementation of a Profit Sharing Agreement in business.

However, that condition has been lifted for companies that paid the Macron bonus up to a limit of €1,000 to their employees after working during lockdown in 2020. During this period and for companies with a 2020 profit-sharing agreement concluded before August 31, the bonus could be up to EUR 2,000. All companies can still pay for 2021 up to 1,000 euros in bonuses and up to 2,000 euros for profit-sharing agreements or measures to promote part-time jobs.

The special bonus must be paid out on time. The special purchasing power bonus must be paid for 2021 between June 1, 2021 and March 31, 2022.