Retirement Savings Deduction Ceiling Calculator

The deduction ceiling for contributions to a PER (Plan d'Epargne Retraite, or retirement savings plan) is calculated according to the following rules:

• Current year ceiling:10% of net professional income, capped at 10% of 8 times the PASS (Annual Social Security Ceiling). For 2026, the maximum ceiling is 35,194 € and the minimum is approximately 4,636 €.
• Unused ceiling carryover: if you did not use your full deduction ceiling in previous years, you can carry over the unused balance for the following 3 years.
• Optimal contribution: to maximize your tax advantage, it is recommended to contribute the full available ceiling (current year ceiling + carryovers).

The Plan d'Epargne Retraite (PER) offers a major tax advantage: the deductibility of contributions from taxable income. But this deduction is capped by an annual ceiling that is essential to understand in order to maximize your tax savings. Here is a detailed breakdown of the applicable rules.

The 2026 PER ceiling for employees

For employees, the PER contribution deduction ceiling is set at 10% of net professional income from the previous year (N-1). This ceiling is bounded by a floor and a cap:

• Minimum floor: 4,399 euros (10% of the 2026 PASS). Even if your income is low or zero, you benefit from at least this deduction ceiling. This applies notably to non-working spouses.
• Maximum cap: 35,194 euros (10% of 8 times the 2026 PASS). Beyond this amount, additional contributions are no longer deductible (except for self-employed workers who benefit from an additional ceiling).

The Annual Social Security Ceiling (PASS) for 2026 is 47,100 euros. This amount serves as the reference for calculating the floor and cap of the deduction.

Recovering unused ceilings

If you did not use the full deduction ceiling in a given year, the unused balance can be carried forward for the following 3 years. Concretely, for your 2026 contributions, you can use the unused ceilings from 2023 (N-3), 2024 (N-2) and 2025 (N-1), in addition to the current year ceiling. The oldest ceilings are consumed first. Note: an unused ceiling beyond 3 years is permanently lost. If you have never contributed to a PER, you may have accumulated up to 4 years of ceilings, representing a considerable deduction capacity.

Pooling ceilings between spouses

Married couples or those in a civil partnership (PACS), filing jointly, can pool their deduction ceilings. Concretely, each spouse has their own ceiling (calculated on their personal income), but they can choose to share the unused ceiling from one to carry over to the other. This option is particularly advantageous when one spouse has high income (large ceiling) and the other has low or no income. The higher-earning spouse can then contribute more to their PER using the pooled ceiling, benefiting from a larger tax deduction. Pooling must be explicitly requested on the income tax return (boxes 6QR and 6QS).

Where to find your available ceiling

Your available deduction ceiling appears on your tax notice, generally on page 4, under the "Retirement savings ceiling" section. You will find the breakdown of the current year ceiling and carryovers from the 3 previous years, for each member of the tax household. On your tax return, the ceiling is also shown in box 6PS (declarant 1) and 6PT (declarant 2). You can also find this information online at impots.gouv.frin your personal space, under "My documents".

The specific ceiling for self-employed workers (TNS)

Self-employed workers, freelancers and non-salaried managers benefit from a higher deduction ceiling than employees. Their ceiling is divided into two tiers:

• First tier: 10% of taxable profit, capped at 10% of 8 times the PASS (i.e. a maximum of 35,194 euros in 2026). This is the same rule as for employees.
• Second tier: 15% of the portion of profit between 1 PASS and 8 PASS (i.e. between 47,100 euros and 376,800 euros of profit). This additional tier can represent up to 49,455 euros in extra deduction.

In total, a self-employed worker with high profits can therefore deduct up to approximately 84,649 euros per year on their PER, more than double the maximum ceiling for an employee. This specific ceiling compensates for the absence of a mandatory supplementary pension scheme for the self-employed.

Having a deduction ceiling is one thing; using it efficiently is another. Here are the strategies to make the most of your PER deduction capacity.

Check your available space every year

The first step is to systematically check your available ceiling every year, ideally as soon as you receive your tax notice (generally in July-August). This allows you to plan your contributions before the end of the calendar year (deadline: December 31) to benefit from the deduction on the current year's income. Many savers are unaware they have unused ceilings that are about to expire. A systematic annual check prevents this loss.

The catch-up strategy: using accumulated ceilings

If you have not contributed to a PER in recent years, you have likely accumulated significant carryover ceilings. The catch-up strategy consists of making an exceptional contribution to consume these ceilings before they expire. For example, if your annual ceiling is 5,000 euros and you have contributed nothing for 3 years, you have 20,000 euros of accumulated ceiling (4 x 5,000 euros). A single 20,000 euro contribution would allow you to deduct this sum from your taxable income, generating an immediate tax saving. Note: start by consuming the oldest ceilings (N-3) as they expire first.

Coordination between employer and individual contributions

The overall deduction ceiling includes contributions made by the employer for supplementary retirement (Article 83, PERE, PERCO/PERCOL matching). These amounts reduce your available ceiling for voluntary contributions to your individual PER. Before calculating your optimal contribution, check the amount of employer contributions already deducted. If your employer contributes 3,000 euros per year to a collective scheme, your individual ceiling is reduced by the same amount. This information appears on your December pay slip or on your annual employee savings statement.

The case of the non-working spouse

A spouse without professional activity (homemaker, job seeker, student) still benefits from the minimum ceiling of 4,399 euros(for 2026). This ceiling is often overlooked but represents a significant tax opportunity. If the working spouse is in the 30% tax bracket, a 4,399 euro contribution to the non-working spouse's PER generates a tax saving of 1,320 euros. With ceiling pooling, the working spouse can even recover the non-working spouse's unused ceiling from previous years, increasing their own deduction capacity.

Impact on the tax return

Deductible PER contributions are declared in section 6 of the income tax return (boxes 6NS for declarant 1, 6NT for declarant 2). The tax saving is proportional to your marginal tax bracket: a 10,000 euro contribution generates a saving of 3,000 euros if you are in the 30% bracket, 4,100 euros in the 41% bracket, or 4,500 euros in the 45% bracket. The impact is visible from the first year since the deduction directly reduces your taxable income. The amount of the saving is communicated on your tax notice, allowing you to verify that the deduction was properly applied. Also keep in mind that deductible contributions can lower your marginal tax bracket, which benefits all your income.

Calculating retirement savings ceilings is more subtle than it appears, and many savers make errors that reduce the effectiveness of their tax strategy. The first error is forgetting employer contributions when calculating the available ceiling. Mandatory contributions made by the employer for supplementary retirement (Article 83, PERE, PERCOL matching) are deducted from your overall ceiling. Not accounting for them leads to overestimating your deduction capacity and discovering, when filing taxes, that part of your contributions is not deductible.

Another common error is confusing the current year ceiling with the total available ceiling. Many savers limit their contributions to the annual ceiling without realizing they have accumulated carryovers from the three previous years. Conversely, some believe they can carry over unused ceilings indefinitely, when they expire permanently after 3 years. It is also common to overlook the possibility of pooling ceilings between spouses: a married or civil partnership couple can considerably optimize their total deduction by strategically distributing contributions between the two members of the tax household. Finally, always check your ceiling on your latest tax notice rather than relying on an estimate, as the tax administration automatically integrates employer contributions and prior contributions.