PRIME MACRON 2022. The amount of the PEPA premium should triple this summer. Who are the beneficiaries? Which companies pay it? We take stock.
[Mis à jour le 3 juin 2022 à 08h07] Introduced in 2019 after the Yellow Vests crisis, the Macron bonus is a bonus paid on a voluntary basis by companies to their employees, totally exempt from taxes and social security contributions. To claim it, an employee must quite simply benefit from a salary lower than 3x the amount of the minimum wage. In other words, less than 4,768 euros gross monthly. A real boost in these times of galloping inflation (+5.2% in May over one year). And precisely, the exceptional bonus of purchasing power should well triple in 2022! Emmanuel Macron’s campaign promise, this bonus should be part of the purchasing power bill which will be detailed in the Council of Ministers on June 29, after the legislative elections.
Employees have the option of paying a “PEPA” bonus of 1,000 euros, which would therefore increase to 3,000 euros in the event of tripling. Better still, this bonus could rise from 2,000 euros to 6,000 euros net of tax if the company scrupulously respects three criteria: fewer than 50 employees, having signed aprofit-sharing or be covered by a branch agreement or a company agreement providing for the enhancement of the profession of employees who have contributed, in 2020 or 2021, to the continuity of economic activity and/or the maintenance of social cohesion by exercising exclusively or mostly on site during periods of health emergency. For any additional questions on the subject, you can contact your regional directorate for the economy, labour, employment and solidarity (DREETS).
Since 2019, employees have been able to receive an exceptional bonus, exempt from taxes and social security contributions called the “Macron bonus”. This exceptional purchasing power bonus (is paid by any employer who wishes it to employees, under certain conditions. In particular if the employee in question does not exceed a certain income limit. This tax and social security exemption scheme aims to encourage employers to pay bonuses to their employees in order to enhance their purchasing power. It is not a State bonus, but a company bonus which remains optional and voluntary.
To be exempt from employee contributions, the Macron bonus cannot exceed the amount of €1,000. Companies that have a profit-sharing agreement can pay the Macron bonus up to €2,000. This amount, doubled, is also valid for companies with fewer than 50 employees, and second-line workers (if revaluation measures are taken). This bonus could now triple in the event of the re-election of the LREM candidate on April 24, going from 1,000 euros to 3,000 euros. And up to 6,000 euros without charges or taxes for companies benefiting from a profit-sharing agreement.
The Macron bonus is paid within a period provided for by law. In this case, between the June 1, 2021 and the March 31, 2022. Whether you are a civil servant, an employee, or an industrialist, you have the possibility of benefiting from it. With the purchasing power bill, the reform of the Macron bonus should be announced in the coming weeks, after the legislative elections according to the last words of government spokesperson Olivia Grégoire.
The amount of the Macron bonus exempt from contributions is capped at €1,000. However, this amount may triple and reach €3,000 in the event of a majority obtained by the LREM group in the National Assembly following the legislative elections on June 12 and 19. A major campaign promise from the Head of State, it could come into force this year, at the beginning of the summer with the promulgation of the purchasing power bill by Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
This exceptional purchasing power premium could also go from €2,000 at €6,000 net of tax if the paying company has signed a profit-sharing agreement, has less than 50 employees and for second-line workers (if revaluation measures are taken).
The exceptional purchasing power bonus is exempt from income tax and from any social security contributions or contributions. But then, who is eligible for the Macron bonus? Employees earning less than 3 times the Smic (over the 12 months preceding the payment). This Macron bonus does not replace any element of remuneration. Already extended in 2021, the premium PEPA is renewed for the year 2022. Note that the employer is not obliged to pay the Macron bonus. If he wishes to pay it, he has the option of doing so atall of its employeesor only to employees whose remuneration is less than 3 times the Smic.
In 2022, the Macron bonus benefits both employees and apprentices, as well as temporary workers and public officials. The employer can completely modulate the amount of the payment of the PEPA bonus according to the beneficiary according to certain criteria such as the employee’s remuneration, the employee’s classification level, his working conditions during the Covid crisis, or still his working time over a year.