The 2027 budget must be sent to the High Council of Public Finances "in the coming days", the Ministry of the Economy announced on Saturday September 12, before consultations with political groups in order to anticipate the parliamentary debate, which will begin in October in the National Assembly. The Minister of the Economy, Roland Lescure, put on the table an âeffortâ of the âorderâ of 30 billion euros in savings, in order to reduce the deficit (5.1% in 2025). To achieve this, the government is considering in particular affecting retirement pensions, reducing the salaries of ministers or introducing deductions from employee savings, even if the Prime Minister, SĂ©bastien Lecornu, has procrastinated on this subject. Here are the first tracks already known.
Savings on pensions
It is an explosive file that the government is preparing to reopen. The Minister of Public Accounts, David Amiel, announced that the government intended to make savings on pensions, of the order of "at least 6 billion euros" in 2027, according to his office. Several scenarios are being studied and the minister assured that it would be necessary to choose between indexing pensions to inflation and maintaining the 10% tax reduction for retirees, which has been in the government's sights for months.
âWe will have to decide between these two options, without half-measures,â insisted David Amiel on Sud Radio about a particularly sensitive subject. Enough for the Prime Minister to entrust three ministers (Public Accounts, Labor, Relations with Parliament) with the task of consulting the political groups in Parliament on this measure. The final decision will rest with SĂ©bastien Lecornu. In the meantime, Roland Lescure promised in Le Parisien that âno pension will decreaseâ and that the government did not want âto bludgeon retireesâ.
A drop in the exceptional contribution of large companies
In a letter to business leaders, the Prime Minister promised that the exceptional contribution to the tax of large companies would "decrease" in the 2027 budget. This surcharge "responded to an exceptional situation: what is exceptional must remain exceptional", he also said, while the government was studying the renewal for a third year of this tax on the profits of large companies. The Prime Minister justified this change by France's economic situation and the need for growth and investment by large groups. He did not specify the amount of the reduction in this tax, which will therefore bring in less than the 8 billion euros planned for 2026.
Furthermore, SĂ©bastien Lecornu clarified that he would not touch the financing of Apprentice Training Centers (CFA) or aid for hiring apprentices. On the other hand, he also mentioned the possibility of âreviewingâ aid to businesses when it âno longer has demonstrated effectivenessâ or turns into âa windfall effectâ.
Possible deductions from employee savings
The government is studying the introduction of deductions from employee savings. According to Les Echos, the government plans to subject part of the profit-sharing bonuses or employer contributions to savings plans to contributions. The Minister of the Economy confirmed this suggestion, but those around the Prime Minister assured that it was a simple working document and that nothing had been done. The Prime Minister's services even announced that they had taken legal action after this leak on "internal work".
According to SĂ©bastien Lecornu's office, "fundamentally, the thinking favored today by the Prime Minister goes rather in the opposite direction" of taxing employee savings to "temporarily allow employees to dispose more freely of the savings they have already accumulated". As such, the government supports the bill from Senator LR Olivier Rietmann, adopted in the spring in the Senate, which aims to facilitate the use of employee savings and make it possible to temporarily release funds up to a limit of 5,000 euros.
Temporary measures to encourage family donations
SĂ©bastien Lecornu's government will propose, as part of the 2027 budget, temporary measures to encourage family donations, in order to "move money around when it is most useful" and without having to wait for a death and an inheritance, according to Matignon. The main one of these provisions consists of raising from 31,865 to 50,000 euros the ceiling of sums exempt from taxation in respect of a family gift of sums of money. This system would concern a person under the age of 80 who would give an amount to an adult child, grandchild or great-grandchild.
âFor donations of full ownership within the family circle, the taxable portion after application of the reductions would temporarily benefit from a single rate of 6%, within the limit of 100,000 euros per donor and per adult beneficiary,â specifies Matignon. For such a sum, the rights would increase from 18,200 euros to 6,000 euros, and the system "would also concern the extended family, in particular transmissions between uncles or aunts and nephews or nieces", says the government.
The Dutreil pact, which significantly reduces the tax on transfers of family businesses, will be preserved, while a "Papin pact" will be created in order to "facilitate the recovery of our businesses", in particular via transfer to employees.
A possible reduction in the compensation of ministers and their advisers
