Senate waters down new pension tax
Making fewer retiring bosses pay a new tax on retraites-chapeau will lose the state millions, says minister
SENATORS have watered down a new tax on special pensions for bosses of large firms so that fewer retirees will pay it.
According to Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot, who opposed the idea, this will cost the state €20 million in lost tax revenue.
Once the senators have finished tweaking the law it will go to the Conseil Constitutionnel to check it does not clash with anything in the constitution, before it becomes official.
The 2011 social security law as passed by the MPs in the National Assembly includes a new tax on retraites-chapeau at 14 per cent.
They said that it would not apply to sums of less than €300 a month and it would only be seven per cent for those of €300-500. However the senators have raised these to €500 and €500-700.
Retraites-chapeau are extra pensions on top of the basic state one and complementary one which are standard for salaried workers.
They are for directors and top executives and are paid for entirely by the firm, not from the person’s salary.
They compensate for the fact that the other pensions do not proportionally increase once a person’s salary is more than eight times the minimum wage.
They are controversial because of the large sums pocketed by bosses who have retired leaving their firms in a poor state.
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