A pay slip reduced to 15 lines, compared to nearly fifty today. This is undoubtedly the major proposal of Bruno Le Maire’s project to rid businesses of “red tape”, presented this Wednesday April 24 to the Council of Ministers. “The action plan: simplification!”, assured the boss of Bercy.
Concerning the pay slip, the objective is clear: “simplify the pay slip to improve its readability”, assured the Minister of Economy and Finance in a message posted on (ex-Twitter). To be able to go from more than 50 lines to around fifteen, it is in particular the list of different employee and employer contributions that would be largely pruned. Thus, instead of having the details of the different contributions (health insurance, retirement, unemployment insurance) and the distribution of support between the employer and the employee – as currently displayed on your pay slip – these These would be grouped into two blocks: “employer social contributions and contributions” as well as “employee social contributions and contributions”. “All information will remain available upon request by the employee,” specified Bruno Le Maire.
This proposal must now be submitted for “discussion with the social partners”, indicated the Minister of the Economy. But this social dialogue does not come without debate. Thus, Force Ouvrière (FO) has already said in a press release that it “will vigorously oppose this proposal to simplify the pay slip”, denouncing a change in which “the employee will no longer know why he and his employer are contributing and how much”, and a proposal aimed at “making the employee realize just how expensive ‘it is'”.
A bill debated from June
This announcement concerning the salary slip is part of a broader 50-point simplification plan presented by Bruno Le Maire, the day after the presentation by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal of measures to “debureaucratize” the administration, intended for individuals . The Minister of the Economy spoke to the press this Wednesday about the bosses of VSEs and SMEs “tired, exasperated” by the accumulation of paperwork, to which they devote “on average eight hours per week”, according to him, for the equivalent of three points of GDP per year.
Among the other measures of this plan, more than half of which will be the subject of a bill which will begin to be debated in the Senate on June 3, Bruno Le Maire notably announced the elimination of the 1,800 Cerfa forms by to 2030, including 80% by 2026. He also announced “a complete review” over three years of the 2,500 administrative authorizations. From now on, business leaders will no longer have to send sick leave to Social Security, saving 15 million mailings.
Public procurement will also be simplified, “160 billion euros per year is considerable but it obeys rules worthy of Balzac” according to Bruno Le Maire. All public calls for tenders will be brought together in 2027 on a single platform, Place.
“The fear of making a mistake”
“Transparency will be achieved” with the publication on Wednesday on the ministry’s website of the average payment deadlines for local authorities with more than 3,500 inhabitants. The minister also confirmed that the “SME test” would actually be put in place “as soon as there is a new standard being studied” having an impact on SMEs. “Some bosses say they are scared, afraid of making a mistake, of having made a mistake, but there is no reason for the entrepreneur to be afraid of the administration,” he assured. .
The minister thus announced “the generalization of rulings”, which make it possible to request an opinion from the tax administration, to avoid errors. They can now be requested from the General Directorate for Consumer Affairs, Competition and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) or Customs, and the opinions, anonymized, will be posted online for consultation. “Always in this logic of trust”, prison sentences provided for certain declaratory failures will be abolished, in favor of less severe sanctions. “Business leaders are not potential bandits,” the minister reassured.
The plan finally includes a whole section favorable to industrialists: “large industrial projects will no longer have to organize a debate under the National Commission for Public Debate (CNDP), new factories, the extension of existing factories, will automatically benefit of the national Zero Net Artificialization (ZAN) quota, while environmental compensation will no longer have to be immediate, but within a reasonable time frame”, listed Bruno Le Maire. He virulently opposed the idea that Bercy would thus lower its guard on ecology: “Bercy has a strong environmental desire.” Simplification, finally, will be the subject of a new bill each year, to eliminate new “useless or too burdensome” measures.