The Senate, with a right-wing majority, perpetuated this Monday afternoon with the support of the Government the increase to 7,500 euros of the tax exemption cap for overtime, voted by the National Assembly for 2022. The High Assembly also voted, this time in against the government’s opinion, the sustainability of the possibility for companies to buy back RTT days from employees. “We are in the middle of the August night to bury the 35 hours”, accused the ecologist Thomas Dossus, the socialist David Assouline speaking “of a coup”.

The National Assembly last week voted for an increase in the overtime tax-exempt ceiling for the year 2022 only, as part of debates on the finance bill it amends. Examining the text in turn at first reading, the Senate voted by show of hands on an amendment by Rapporteur General Jean-François Husson (LR) that perpetuates this improvement.

“The idea of ​​raising the tax exemption ceiling from 5,000 to 7,500 euros is going in the right direction (…), we are ready for this tax exemption for overtime, increased to 7,500 euros, to be definitive”, he declared. Economy. Minister Bruno Le Maire, before the debates. For the Minister of Public Accounts, Gabriel Attal, “it is totally in line with the desire to revalue work.”

“Social Regression”

The speaker praised “an interesting response for employees, for companies, for France”. In addition to a gain in purchasing power, it can also be a solution to the “labour shortage” problem that occurs in various sectors, he developed. The Socialists and Communists, on the other hand, wanted the article deleted.

The socialist Rémi Féraud criticized the “refusal of the Government to move towards a real wage increase” and “a way to return to 35 hours without assuming it.” Céline Brulin (CRCE, with a communist majority) saw in it “a poisoned gift for employees”. “We are there facing a social regression”, added Pascal Savoldelli.

Currently, overtime is exempt from taxes up to a maximum of 5,000 euros per year, with a maximum of 220 hours worked in a year, not including branch, company or specific collective agreement. The Senate also voted, under vehement protests from the left, to perpetuate the article that opens the possibility for companies to repurchase RTT days with employees. The vote was acquired by 144 votes against 116.

The measure had been voted by the Assembly for 2022 and 2023. Gabriel Attal stated that the government wanted to “maintain the temporality of this device at this stage.” For the minister, being “a new device”, its evolution “should go through a small consultation with the social agents”.