Contributions countdown available 7th March 2019

Your contributions countdown will be put at your disposal in your "employer's space" as of 7th March 2019.

Amount of the legal minimum wage (SMIC)

Since January 1st 2019, the amount of the legally required minimum wage has been raised up to  :

  • hourly gross smic : 10,03 euros,
  • gross smic, on a month basis (35 hours a week) : 1 521,22 euros.


Find schedules of professionnal fees, benefit in kind and flat rates in January 2019 on this document and more on www.urssaf.fr.

Ceiling of the Social Security

The maximum amount of remuneration to be takein into consideration in calculating certain social benefit contributions have been raised up for the year 2019, and have to be taken in account for wages paid between January 1st and December 31st 2019.
  • monthly ceiling : 3 377 euros
  • annual ceiling : 40 524 euros

For more information, please contact us.

Pay as you earn income tax withholding

Beginning in January 2019, your Tese/Cea/TFE center will withhold income tax on a pay-as-you-earn basis on behalf of its members.

Based on the information it has received from the French tax authorities, your center will directly calculate the amount of income tax to be withheld. You will then be notified of the net salary after tax that you will need to pay each employee.

As an employer, URSSAF will charge you for the amount of this withholding (if your employee is liable to income tax) on top of your social security contributions. All administrative documents (pay slips, contribution statements, and tax certificates) will list the amounts of these withholdings.

Special cases:
-How income tax withholdings are calculated for short contracts
Income tax withholdings for employees on short contracts are calculated according to special rules. These rules mainly apply if the contract was drawn up under a specific set of circumstances, is no more than 2 months long, and the employer has not been provided with a withholding rate by the French tax authorities.

If these two requirements are met, a discount amounting to 50% of France’s net monthly taxable minimum wage (“SMIC net imposable mensuel”) will be applied to the employee’s net taxable wage for up to the first 2 months of employment.

However, employees to whom the discount applies must be informed that the net taxable income that they are to declare on their next yearly tax return is the undiscounted net amount.

-How withholdings on subrogated daily Social Security benefits are calculated
Income tax is withheld on all basic Social Security or supplementary daily benefits (for medical leave, maternity leave, etc.), insofar as said benefits are taxable.

To prevent double taxation, employees pay taxes on any subrogated daily social security benefits, but these benefits are not taken into account as part of their net taxable income. It should be noted that medical leave constitutes a special case in which the amount of the employee’s daily social security benefits must only be taken into account when calculating their income tax withholdings for the first two months of leave.

To learn more : www.prelevementalasource.gouv.fr and www.impots.gouv.fr.

The Agirc-Arrco schemes have merged. What will change?

The compulsory supplementary pension schemes Agirc and Arrco merged on January 1st, 2019. The new combined scheme, called Agirc-Arrco, applies to all employees with no difference in category between executive and non-executive staff (staff with or without “cadre” status).

This new scheme comprises 2 contribution brackets, which are charged at the following rates:
- Bracket 1, for amounts below the Social Security ceiling, at an overall rate of 7.87%;
- Bracket 2, for amounts between 1 and 8 times the Social Security ceiling, at an overall rate of 21.59%.
In most cases, these percentage rates are divided between the employee, who pays a 40% share, and the employer, who pays a 60% share.
However, employers can choose to divide the contributions at a rate that is more favorable to employees. It should also be noted that “special” employer-employee contribution breakdowns provided for by industry-wide or other agreements prior to October 30, 2015, may remain applicable.
The AGFF (Association for the management of the AGIRC and ARRCO financing fund), the GMP (Minimum guaranteed points), and the CET (exceptional and temporary contribution) have ceased to exist.

The have been replaced by:
-The CEG (Overall balance contribution), at a rate of 2.15% on Bracket 1 and 2.70% on Bracket 2:
-The CET (Technical balance contribution), at a single rate 0.35% on both Brackets 1 and 2.
The percentage rates for these new contributions are divided between the employee, who pays a 40% share, and the employer, who pays a 60% share.

You employees entitlements will remain the same, with 1 Arrco point being equal to 1 Agirc-Arrco point. To learn more, you can have them check out Agirc-Arrco’s videos and flyer for employees.

As an employer, you do not have to complete any paperwork. The National Tese/Cea/TFE Center will apply these new measures and calculation rules once the merger has gone into effect. For more information please check out Agirc-Arrco’s videos and flyer for businesses.

Extension of the general decrease in contributions

Beginning with the January 2019 employment period, the general decrease in contributions will be extended to apply to supplementary pension and unemployment insurance contributions.
For most employees, this extension will be applied in two phases: the extension to supplementary pension contributions will be taken into account from January 2019 while unemployment insurance contributions will be taken into account from October 2019.

In January 2019, the overall extension will apply only to those contracts for which a specific exemption program has been canceled or modified : apprenticeship contracts (“contrats d’apprentissage”) and job-entry contracts (“contrats de professionnalisation”). However, with the exception of lodeom, your TFE center will continue to apply the current exemptions to these contracts until October 2019, at which time contributions will be recalculated going back to January. Pay slips will then be made available in your employer’s area.

Decrease in the employer’s health insurance contribution rate

As from the January 2019 employment period, the employer’s health insurance contribution rate will decrease to 7% (down from 13%) for employees whose yearly compensation does not exceed 2.5 times the French minimum wage (SMIC).

This decrease does not apply to corporate officers (SAS/SASU chairman or director, or minority or managing co-director of a SARL), whose rate remains at 13%.

Industrial injury insurance

Since January 1st 2019, the industrial injury insurance is at 0,90 %.

Your annual documents available in your employer's space

Following documents are available in your employer's space :

- the social gross  basis, relating the total amount of annual gros basis of 2018
- annual statement
 -Your wage earner tax certificate corresponding to wages paid in 2018.

This documents are up to date under condition that all declaration have been made in 2018.

Your declaration by DSN

Your TFE centre is going to establish social nominative declaration (DSN) to make your company's social declarations shortly.

Here you should : 
- inform your salaried staff about the transition to DSN declaration,
- maintain temporarily usual process for salaried staff work health insurance company and unemployment benefit office.

It is compulsory to inform your salaried staff about the transition to DSN declaration
You have to forward to your entire salaried staff an information letter relating to this new means of declaration. A model of this letter is at your disposal on dsn.fr and specifies in particular the personal data  contained in DSN as well as the  arrangements for exercising rights of access and rectification under the Act.

Maintain usual process for salaried staff work stoppage and end of contracts
You will be informed later when your TFE center is going to integrate these formalities in DSN, until then you should carry on :
- to transmitt, through net-entreprises.fr the work certificate for payment of sickness allowance  in case of work stoppage,
- to establish through net-entreprises.fr the employer certificate in case of breach of contract, which also has to be given to salaried staff.
in both cases seize the information in provided aereas accordingly either under "social voucher" or "alerts"

The social security number is compulsory for social voucher's validation

The social security number is now compulsory in the frame of social nominative declaration data reliability :
- from the social voucher's entry of a French salaried,
- the latest from the third social voucher's entry for a foreign salaried.

If this number is not knowledgeable, you won't be able to validate the social voucher.

This data is essential regarding your salaried rights concerning pension on retirement and complementary retirement.

The so called pre-employment agreement "Déclaration préalable à l’embauche" - DPAE

The DPAE's aknowledgement of receipt sent by mail has been stopped.
Therefore the workcontract registration certificate is evolving.
When you have validated the contract, you will get a document which will both be a contract record certificate and a DPAE attestation.
In addition to the usual information, the date and time of employment, the recipient URSSAF and the occupational health departement's name will be specified.
We remind  you that this document must be printed, signed by you and your employee, and that you should give them a copy.

Compulsory supplementary health insurance as of 1st January 2016

As of 1st January 2016 a complementary social collective coverage (business insurance) has to be offered by the employer to all their staff, having none, in complement to the social security insurance basis. For more information about applications terms click here.

As soon as you have implemented a social collective coverage, please let us know all necessary data to manage them via tfe.urssaf.fr/contact field/contact us/kind of demand "adhesion"/subject of demand : adhesion collective coverage :
- insurance company's name and contact details
- rates or flat rates implemented by sharing (wage earner's and employer's part)
- name of wage earners recipient.

If this business insurance is allready set in your company and the information have been transmitted to you TFE center, you have nothing more to do.