The end of the year and the Christmas holidays are approaching.
On this occasion, many CSEs or employers pay out gift vouchers to their employees. The French tax authorities (formerly known as Acoss, now known as Urssaf Caisse Nationale) allow these benefits to be exempt from social security contributions under certain conditions.
- if the total amount of gift vouchers awarded to an employee over the calendar year does not exceed 5% of the monthly social security ceiling (i.e. €183 in 2023), gift vouchers are exempt from social security contributions.
- If the total amount of gift certificates and vouchers awarded to an employee over a calendar year exceeds 5% of the monthly social security ceiling, each voucher must be examined individually to check whether it meets the 3 cumulative conditions for exemption from contributions.
The 3 conditions to be met for a gift voucher to be exempt from contributions are as follows:
1st condition
Individual vouchers must not exceed 5% of the monthly social security ceiling, i.e. €183 per employee in 2023.
2nd condition
The voucher or gift certificate must be awarded for a specific event set out in a list drawn up by the administration, i.e. :
- Marriage, PACS
- Birth or adoption of a child
- Retirement
- Mother's and Father's Day
- Saint Catherine's Day (November 25) for unmarried women celebrating their 25th anniversary
- Saint Nicholas Day (December 06) for unmarried men celebrating their 30th birthday
- Christmas for employees and their children up to the age of 16 during the calendar year. There can be one gift voucher for the employee, and one for each child. In this case, the €183 limit is per person.
- Back-to-school (or university) for employees with children under the age of 26 in the calendar year in which the vouchers are awarded, subject to the provision of a school certificate. If the employee has several children at school, the €183 limit is calculated per child.
3rd condition
The voucher or gift certificate must be used in connection with the event.
The voucher must mention either the nature of the goods it enables you to purchase, or one or more departments of a department store or the name of one or more stores (excluding fuel and food products, with the exception of "luxury" food products of a festive nature).
The use of the voucher must be related to the event for which it is awarded.
Ex: If the voucher is for a child's Christmas, it must be for goods related to the event, such as toys, books, records, clothing, leisure or sports equipment.
The voucher must also be awarded at the time when the event occurs (in December for Christmas vouchers, in September for back-to-school vouchers, etc.).
If these 3 conditions are met, the gift voucher is exempt from social security contributions.
Conversely, if one of these conditions is not met, the gift certificate or voucher is subject to contributions.
Please note: The exemption of vouchers or gift certificates that meet the 3 conditions is a simple ministerial tolerance that is therefore not enforceable against judges or URSSAF.
The Cour de cassation refuses to apply this administrative tolerance. In its view, gifts or vouchers offered to employees by the CSE or directly by the employer are in principle subject to social security contributions.
The BOSS (Bulletin officiel de la Sécurité Social), whose aim is to compile the applicable regulations, makes no mention of this possibility of exemption.
Please note: Gift vouchers must not be discriminatory in any way. It must therefore be given to all employees of a company, whether they are on sick leave, on probation, on fixed-term contracts, on work experience, part-time, in the course of a notice period, and so on. Furthermore, neither age, sex, nor religious or trade-union affiliation may be used as grounds for non-distribution...
