French PER 2027: deduction ceilings, unused allowances and the age-70 limit

Quick answer. For your contributions to a French retirement savings plan (PER) in 2027, the ceiling for deduction from overall taxable income is 10% of your 2026 earned income, net of professional expenses, up to a maximum of €38,448, or €4,806 if that amount is higher. It is increased by your unused ceilings and, according to service-public, 2027 is the last year in which the unused 2024 ceiling can be used.

Both amounts can already be calculated from the rule in force on 6 November 2026. Article 163 quatervicies of the French general tax code sets the limit as the difference "recorded for the previous year". For 2026 contributions, the ministerial answer published in the Senate Official Journal on 1 October 2026 and service-public put it at €37,680 at most and €4,710 at least, i.e. 80% and 10% of the 2025 annual social security ceiling (PASS), which was €47,100. Under the same rule, 2027 contributions are calculated on 2026 income and on the 2026 PASS, set at €48,060. These amounts therefore do not depend on the 2027 PASS, which a ministerial order expected before the end of 2026 will set, and should be compared with the ceiling printed on the 2027 tax notice. The specific ceiling for self-employed people follows a different formula, explained further down.

How the retirement savings plan works in general (compartments, exit as a lump sum or as an annuity, early release cases) and the amounts that applied to 2026 contributions are still covered in our 2026 PER guide.

As the texts stood on 6 November 2026 (see the box further down), the calculation rules are the same as in 2026: only the reference year and the unused allowances available change. The table compares the two years for the same plan holder.

The maximum ceiling rises by €768 and the minimum amount by €96, in line with the PASS. The two substantive changes, which already applied in 2026, come from the 2026 Finance Act (Law no. 2026-103 of 19 February 2026): the five-year carry-forward of unused ceilings (article 10) and the end of the deduction from age 70 (article 9). According to service-public, two carry-forward periods coexist in 2027: three years for the unused 2024 and 2025 ceilings, five years for those of 2026 and later years.

The ceiling on overall income (article 163 quatervicies of the French general tax code, CGI) is calculated for each member of the tax household. You take 10% of their 2026 earned income, within the limits expressed in 2026 PASS, subtract the retirement savings linked to their employment in 2026, then add the unused ceilings that can still be carried forward. In detail, in four steps:

1. 2026 earned income. This means wages and salaries, taken after the deductions provided for in articles 83 to 84 A of the CGI (including professional expenses), the remuneration of managers and partners covered by article 62, and industrial and commercial, agricultural and non-commercial profits for their taxable amount. Long-term professional capital gains and losses are not counted.
2. 10% of that income, taken into account up to 8 times the 2026 PASS, i.e. €384,480: the result cannot exceed €38,448. If it is below €4,806, which is 10% of the 2026 PASS, then €4,806 is used instead, including for a household member with no earned income.
3. Minus employment-related retirement savings in 2026: mandatory supplementary pension contributions, mandatory contributions to a company PER, including the employer's share, and exempt amounts paid into a company PER, such as the employer's matching contribution. For a self-employed person, this also includes the contributions deducted from 2026 business profit, excluding the portion linked to the 15% increase (see below).
4. Plus the unused ceilings from earlier years that can still be carried forward: in 2027, those of 2024, 2025 and 2026.

The personalised ceiling is only printed later. For 2026 contributions, service-public states that it appears on the 2026 tax notice, based on 2025 income. Following the same mechanism, the ceiling for 2027 contributions will appear on the 2027 tax notice, based on 2026 income. For a contribution made before that notice arrives, the calculation therefore has to be done by hand. The role of the PASS in other ceilings is explained in our article on the 2026 PASS and its practical impact.

The 2027 ceiling by level of 2026 income

The table shows the ceiling before the step 3 reductions and before unused allowances, for a few income levels (illustrative cases).

Illustrative case: an employee with a company PER. A manager received €72,000 in salary in 2026 after deducting professional expenses. Her employer has set up a mandatory PER: €1,200 of contributions, employee and employer shares combined, were paid in 2026, and she received €600 of matching contributions on the collective PER. Her ceiling for 2027 contributions is €7,200 minus €1,800, i.e. €5,400, plus any unused allowances. A calculation that ignored company retirement savings would lead her to pay €1,800 too much as far as the deduction is concerned.

How employers set up these plans is covered in our guide to the company PER.

In 2027, your contributions can be set against three unused allowances: those of 2024, 2025 and 2026. According to service-public, the unused ceilings of 2024 and 2025 can still be carried forward for three years only: until 2027 for the 2024 ceiling, until 2028 for the 2025 ceiling. Only the 2026 ceiling and those of later years benefit from the five-year carry-forward; the unused 2026 ceiling can therefore increase the ceilings of 2027 to 2031.

The 2026 Finance Act replaced "three" with "five" in article 163 quatervicies without setting its own effective date; the law's general rule makes it applicable to income tax due for 2026 and later years. The administration drew the consequence in a ministerial answer published in the Senate Official Journal on 1 October 2026: a first unused balance of the deduction limit can be recorded for income tax due for 2026, and 2030 contributions are set against the 2030 limit and the unused limits of 2026 to 2029. Service-public gives the dates for the earlier allowances: 2027 for the 2024 allowance, 2028 for the 2025 allowance.

The order of allocation, as set out by service-public, is as follows: each contribution is first set against the ceiling for the year, then against unused allowances, from the oldest to the most recent. In 2027, the order is therefore the 2027 ceiling, then the 2024 allowance, then the 2025 allowance, then the 2026 allowance.

Good to know. A contribution that stays within the 2027 ceiling does not touch the 2024 allowance: that allowance is only used up by the part of contributions that exceeds the year's ceiling. Without a contribution above the 2027 ceiling, it can no longer be used after 2027, whereas the unused 2027 ceiling is carried forward for five years.

Illustrative case: using up the 2024 allowance. A plan holder has a 2027 ceiling of €8,000, an unused allowance of €2,500 from 2024, €6,000 from 2025 and €7,000 from 2026. He pays in €13,000 in 2027. The first €8,000 are set against the 2027 ceiling, the next €2,500 exhaust the 2024 allowance, and the last €2,500 start on the 2025 allowance, leaving €3,500 of it usable until 2028. The 2026 allowance remains intact and available until 2031. Had he paid in only €8,000, the €2,500 allowance from 2024 could no longer have been used after 2027.

Our view. For a plan holder who still has an unused 2024 allowance, we recommend working it out at the start of the year, from the 2026 tax notice and the contributions already made in 2026, without waiting for the 2027 notice. Using it up means paying in above the year's ceiling: whether that extra contribution is worthwhile depends in particular on your marginal tax rate (see the choice between deducting and waiving the deduction further down).

Spouses and PACS partners taxed jointly can deduct their contributions up to the combined total of the amounts each of them can deduct. This is an option, not an automatic mechanism. It matters most when the couple's incomes are unbalanced, since the household member with little or no earned income still has €4,806 available for 2027.

Illustrative case: a couple with unbalanced incomes. A salaried company director (assimilé salarié) received remuneration of €160,000 in 2026, net of professional expenses; his wife had no earned income. The director's 2027 ceiling is €16,000, his wife's €4,806. With no unused allowances and no company retirement savings to subtract, a €20,000 contribution to the director's PER exceeds his own ceiling by €4,000; by pooling, the couple has €20,806 available and can deduct the whole contribution.

A self-employed person can deduct contributions from business profit, within a specific limit set by article 154 bis of the French general tax code. As the texts stood on 6 November 2026, the formula is unchanged. The limit is the higher of the following two:

• 10% of taxable profit taken into account up to 8 PASS, plus 15% of the portion of that profit between 1 and 8 PASS;
• or 10% of the PASS.

Where applicable, it is reduced by the amounts paid by the business into retirement savings plans and exempt under a and a bis of article 81, 18°.

Article 154 bis expresses these limits by reference to "the annual amount of the ceiling referred to in article L. 241-3 of the social security code", that is, the PASS. The table follows this formula in multiples of the PASS.

Two rules prevent calculation errors.

• No double deduction. A contribution deducted from profit under article 154 bis cannot be deducted a second time from overall income under article 163 quatervicies.
• Effect on the overall income ceiling. That ceiling is reduced by the contributions the self-employed person deducted from profit in the previous year, except for the portion corresponding to the 15% increase. For 2027 contributions, the part of the 2026 deductions that does not come from that increase therefore reduces the overall income ceiling; the part that does come from it does not use it up.

The rules for former Madelin contracts are set out in our guide to the Madelin contract for the self-employed.

Since 1 January 2026, contributions made by the holder of a PER from the day of their 70th birthday are no longer deductible, either from overall income or from a self-employed person's profit (article 163 quinvicies of the CGI, as supplemented by article 9 of the 2026 Finance Act). Contributions are still possible; only the deduction disappears. For a plan holder who turns 70 in 2027, the year is split in two on the date of the birthday.

Illustrative case: turning 70 on 10 June 2027. A plan holder born on 10 June 1957 can still deduct, within her ceilings, the contributions she makes up to 9 June 2027. Those she makes from 10 June 2027 are no longer deductible. Her unused allowances from previous years no longer help her for these contributions: they increase a deduction limit that no longer applies.

These non-deducted contributions still have value on exit:

• as a lump sum, the portion corresponding to contributions made from age 70 is exempt from income tax (article 81, 4° bis, c of the CGI), like the portion corresponding to contributions for which the plan holder waived the deduction;
• as an annuity, the annuity corresponding to these contributions follows the regime for life annuities purchased for consideration: only a fraction is taxable, depending on age when payments start (70% before 50, 50% from 50 to 59, 40% from 60 to 69, 30% over 69).

Our view. For a plan holder who will turn 70 in 2027, we recommend making the contributions they want to deduct before the birthday and, if they have unused allowances, deciding before that date whether to use them, since they can no longer serve their own contributions afterwards. Beyond that, the value of the PER calls for an overall wealth analysis.

Deduction is the default. You can waive it, contribution by contribution, by telling your plan provider at the time of each voluntary contribution; the tax on exit is then lighter, since the portion of the lump sum corresponding to these contributions is exempt from income tax. Voluntary contributions to an individual PER are not capped: only the tax benefit is.

A full costing of this choice for a company director, exit included, is in our article on the director's PER and the tax trade-off.

A person who becomes tax resident in France in 2027 without having been domiciled there in 2024, 2025 and 2026 benefits from a special regime: the limit is calculated for the year of settlement rather than the previous year. If the absence of tax residence in France was for reasons unrelated to judicial, tax or customs proceedings, an additional ceiling equal to three times that limit is added for that year only. In the year of arrival, the total limit then reaches four times the normal limit.

Illustrative case: moving to France in 2027. An employee who settles in France in 2027, after several years abroad, has €90,000 of earned income taken into account for 2027. The limit for the year is €9,000; the additional ceiling adds €27,000. With no company retirement savings to subtract, he can deduct up to €36,000 of contributions made in 2027, provided he meets the three-year condition and his absence was unrelated to such proceedings.

Status on 6 November 2026. At first reading, the National Assembly rejected the 2027 Social Security Financing Bill (no. 3211) on 23 October 2026, then the 2027 Finance Bill (no. 3210) on 4 November 2026. Their initial texts amend neither article 163 quatervicies, nor article 163 quinvicies, nor article 154 bis of the French general tax code. On 16 October 2026, the Assembly had adopted an amendment (no. I-1599) that would have raised from ten to fifteen days a year the exemption limit for time-savings account (compte épargne-temps) entitlements paid into a PER (article 81, 18°, b bis of the French general tax code), sums that reduce the article 163 quatervicies ceiling; it was rejected together with the whole bill. These texts may still change until the final vote. The order setting the 2027 PASS had not been published by that date.

The PASS is set each year by ministerial order and cannot be lower than the previous year's (article L. 241-3 of the French social security code). The maximum and minimum amounts, expressed in PASS, therefore cannot fall from one year to the next: if the rules stay the same, the maximum ceiling for 2028 contributions, calculated on the 2027 PASS, will be at least €38,448.

• 2026 earned income gathered, net of professional expenses
• 2026 company retirement savings contributions and matching contributions noted
• 2024, 2025 and 2026 unused allowances estimated from the 2026 tax notice and 2026 contributions
• Pooling considered for a jointly taxed couple
• For a self-employed person: article 154 bis formula applied, without deducting the same contribution twice
• Date of the 70th birthday identified if it falls in 2027
• Deduction or non-deduction decided before each voluntary contribution
• Ceiling printed on the 2027 tax notice compared with the calculation made at the start of the year

• Overall income ceiling for 2027 contributions: 10% of 2026 earned income, up to €38,448, or €4,806 if that amount is higher, calculated on the 2026 PASS of €48,060.
• This ceiling is reduced by 2026 company retirement savings and increased by the unused allowances of 2024, 2025 and 2026.
• According to service-public, the 2024 allowance can be used for the last time in 2027; it is only used up by the part of contributions that exceeds the year's ceiling.
• The unused 2027 ceiling will be carried forward for five years, until 2032.
• Self-employed people: same formula as in 2026 (article 154 bis), expressed in multiples of the PASS.
• From the day of the 70th birthday, no more deduction, but lighter exit taxation on these contributions.

This article sets out the rules in force and how they apply to 2027 contributions; a significant contribution should be decided after reviewing your tax notice, your 2026 income and your family and professional situation. To work out your ceiling and unused allowances, or to fit the PER into your remuneration, you can discuss your situation with the firm through our pages on tax for company directors, managing a director's personal wealth or choosing how to pay yourself.