Daily LifeFrench Pay Slip

In France, every employee receives a Bulletin de Paie (French Pay Slip), also know as a Bulletin de Salaire or Fiche de Paie, each paycheck. Normally the pay slip arrives by mail. A French pay slip can be very hard to understand, often each contribution or tax only has abbreviations that are not defined. This makes it very hard to understand what the deduction is for. In general, an employee will pay 20% to 25% of his or her salary in taxes and other contributions.

The layout of a French pay slip is as follows:

• The heading will list the employer's and employee's name and address, along with the date and other administrative numbers.
• Under this, will be columns listing the net income and hours worked, followed by the different contributions and taxes that are taken out of gross income.
• At the very bottom, underneath the columns will be a summary, listing total amounts paid for each contribution and tax along with net income. Some French pay slips will also list total net income for the current year and the date payment was made.

The contributions and taxes can be organized as follows: health/social, retirement and unemployment. They are listed or grouped in alphabetical order. Below is an attempt to make sense of all of them.

Health/Social

• Veuvage - Widow and widower's insurance, paid by the employee.
• Accident du travail - On the job accident insurance for the employee, paid by the employer.
• Maladie - Used to fund the national health insurance system.

Retirement

• Vieillesse - Paid by both the employer and employee, but not at the same level, used to fund the general retirement fund.
• AGFF (Association pour la Gestion du Fonds de Financement de l'AGIRC et de L'ARRCO) - Used to subsidize two supplemental retirement insurance funds, the ARRCO (Association des Régimes de Retraite Complémentaire) and the l'AGIRC (Association Générale des Institutions de Retraite Complémentaire).

Unemployment

• ASSEDIC - Unemployment insurance; paid by the employer.
• FNGS (Fonds National de Garantie des Salaires) - Unemployment insurance paid if the employer were to stop paying his or her employees; paid by the employer.
• AGS (L'Assurance Générale des Salaires) - Insurance to be paid to the employee should the company they work for go out of business; paid by the employer.
• APEC (l'Association Pour l'Emploi des Cadres) - Unemployment insurance for mangers; paid by the employer.

Taxes

• FNAL (Fonds National d'Aide au Logement) - Housing tax; in France it is not uncommon for families to receive a monthly government allowance to help pay their rent.
• Allocations familiales - Tax that is used to finance the monthly government allowance that most families receive; paid by the employer.
• CSG (Contribution sociale généralisée) - Can be deductible or non-deductible. I really don't understand what this tax is for, but I think goes into the general welfare fund.
• CRDS (Contribution au remboursement de la dette sociale) - Used to pay off the debt that some social service agencies incurred during the early nineties. The CRDS tax will sunset in 1014.

Other

• Prime transport - Non-taxable payment to the employer from the employee for the use of a company vehicle, or if the employer paid the employee's transportation costs.
• Frais repas - Non-taxable payment to the employer from the employee for the use of the company restaurant, or if the employer paid for the employee's meals.

Related Link:
Comprendre et vérifier son bulletin de paye