One hundred and sixteen votes against thirty, and a niche that survives. Thursday October 15, the National Assembly deleted article 3 of the finance bill for 2027.
This text reduced the ceiling of the pension allowance for retirees from 4,439 to 3,000 euros, or 10% of pensions. The Republican Right and six other groups carried the deletion amendments.
The RN, LFI, the socialists, the ecologists, LIOT, the communists and the UDR therefore voted together. Only Renaissance, MoDem and Horizons voted against.
However, the measure was to bring in 1.4 billion euros out of the 5.5 billion requested from retirees. For those who hold cryptocurrencies, this vote also counts. The 24 crypto amendments of the same text pass after him, and every billion that Bercy loses on retirees, he will seek to take back elsewhere, flat tax and exit tax included.
Key Points
The measure targeted a third of households with a retiree. The tax rose to 432 euros for a pension of 50,000 euros per year.
On the other hand, the under-indexation of pensions beyond 1,260 euros per month remains in the text, representing around 4 billion savings.
Finally, the solemn vote on the revenue part will take place on October 20, without 49.3, as promised by Sébastien Lecornu.
Reduction for retirees: the vote which costs 1.4 billion in the 2027 budget
The retiree allowance is the equivalent, for pensions, of the standard deduction for professional expenses of employees. Each household benefits up to a ceiling, 4,439 euros today. The government wanted to reduce this ceiling to 3,000 euros. This only affected the highest pensions, i.e. a third of retirement homes according to Bercy. Guillaume Kasbarian, for Renaissance, defended the measure from the podium. He recalled that “the government is not proposing to completely eliminate this tax advantage, but to reduce its ceiling”.
The Minister of Public Accounts David Amiel then tried the generational argument to defend the plan on the 10% reduction. Retirees make up a quarter of the population, and the text asked them to contribute 10% of the total effort. In front of the deputies, he spoke of a “stab against the youth”. He also recalled that the poverty rate of retirees has fallen by two thirds since the 1970s, when that of young people tripled. Socialist Estelle Mercier responded with a figure: 4.6 million households affected. In the end, both the left and the RN voted for the suppression. The public vote gave 116 for, 30 against and 2 abstentions.
What remains for retirees, and what awaits the rest of the budget
10% reduction saved, the text nevertheless retains its heaviest measure. Pensions of up to 1,260 euros per month will follow inflation. Above, a decree will set a revaluation “less than or equal to inflation”.
The slowdown in spending would reach around 4 billion euros in 2027. No pension is falling. But purchasing power is falling for the majority of retirees, in a year with 3.1% inflation in September. The old-age minimum remains indexed at 100%.
The rest of the 2027 budget rolls back amendment after amendment
Each amendment adopted therefore distances the government from its target, and the reduction of retirees is not the only one. The project targets a deficit of 5% of GDP in 2027, with a total effort of 54 billion. The state's debt burden climbs to 72.9 billion euros. In committee, the deputies had already increased the revenue part by 8 billion, before rejecting it altogether. Thursday's session thus turned one way for the executive. The deputies extended the fuel bonus of 1,000 euros in 2027, by 46 votes to 2. They then rejected the LFI amendment on holding companies, then the capping of niches at 10,000 euros. On the crypto side, the deputies had not yet called for any of the 24 amendments tabled Thursday evening. Only one author withdrew his.
