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Accounts in France

Every kind of account and pension the planner offers in France: what each one is, when money can come out, how it is taxed, and the pages we read the rules from.

Engine 2026Reviewed

Most French savings outside the state pension sit in two wrappers: assurance-vie, a life insurance contract used as an investment account, and the PEA, a share savings plan. A retirement savings plan (plan d'épargne retraite, PER) adds a third kind, out of reach until the legal pension age. Each is taxed differently on the way out, so each has its own row in the money step, and the PER has two, because what you paid in is taxed differently depending on whether you deducted it from your income.

Shares and funds in an ordinary brokerage account (compte-titres) go in the investment account, and so does cash in a Livret A, LDDS or LEP. A pension you already receive as an income, from a workplace scheme or from a contract turned into an annuity, goes in the pension step instead.

Rules as of the 2026 tax year, read from the authorities on 2026-07-30. Each account lists the pages we read it from.

Accounts you can enter

A new plan starts with 54% in Investment account, 41% in Assurance-vie, 3% in PEA, 2% in PER, payments you deducted, until you replace it with your own accounts. Where that split comes from: Banque de France, household financial savings at 31 December 2025, and the Treasury's figures for retirement savings plans.

Investment account

Interest, dividends and profit pay 12.8% income tax and 18.6% social levies, 31.4% in all. Livret A, LDDS and LEP savings go here too: their interest is really tax free, so we overstate it slightly.

Shares, funds and bonds held at a bank or broker outside any wrapper, in what France calls a compte-titres ordinaire. Profit is taxed when you sell, at 12.8% income tax plus 18.6% social levies. The plan assumes funds that reinvest their income, so nothing is charged while you hold them.

How it is taxed, rate by rate, is on the tax page.

In the withdrawal orders
With the ordinary accounts
Pays out
Whenever you like
At the first death
Your partner takes it over, and the gain built up in it is wiped for tax

Assurance-vie

Only the growth part of what you take out is taxed, with 17.2% social levies. From eight years the first 4,600 of growth a year (9,200 for a couple) pays no income tax and the rest pays 7.5%, or 12.8% on what your premiums above 150,000 earned. A contrat de capitalisation works the same way. A guaranteed euro fund is treated like the rest of the contract.

Assurance-vie is France's most widely held savings product: a life insurance contract that in practice works as an investment account, holding funds or a guaranteed euro fund. You can take money out at any age. Each withdrawal is part premiums, which come back untaxed, and part growth, in the proportion the contract holds them.

How the growth is taxed depends on the contract's age, counted from your first payment in. Under eight years it pays 12.8% income tax. From eight years the household's first 4,600 of growth taken out each year pays no income tax (9,200 for a couple), and the rest pays 7.5% on what your first 150,000 of premiums earned and 12.8% above that. The 17.2% social levies fall on all of the growth either way. The 4,600 is fixed in law, so the plan does not raise it with prices.

The planner asks how many years ago the contract was opened, and assumes eight unless you say otherwise. The contract then ages along with the plan, so one opened five years ago reaches eight years three years in. The plan treats every premium as paid after 27 September 2017, when the current rules began.

Growth taken out above the allowance also counts towards the household income that sets the social charge on your pension two years later, as it does in France.

If you die first, the contract pays your partner, who owes neither income tax nor inheritance tax on it. The social levies, 17.2% of the growth, are taken then, and the plan moves the rest into your partner's ordinary account.

In the withdrawal orders
With the ordinary accounts
Pays out
Whenever you like
In a couple
Whose it is changes the tax, so the planner asks
At the first death
It ends, and its value is paid into your partner's ordinary account, less 17.2% of the gain built up in it
What the planner asks about it
  • Years since you opened it From 0 to 100 years. We assume 8 years.
Where the model simplifies

  • We model an assurance-vie contract: only the growth part of a withdrawal is taxed, with the yearly allowance and the 7.5 percent rate from eight years. We treat every premium as paid after 27 September 2017. Premiums paid before that keep an older rule that is cheaper above 150,000 of premiums, so with more than that in old contracts the tax we show can be too high, by up to 5.3 percent of the growth above that line.

    Your real tax is lower/someone with more than 150,000 of premiums in assurance-vie contracts, part of it paid before 27 September 2017

  • The guaranteed fund inside a French life assurance policy has 17.2 percent of each year's credited interest taken at source, about 0.43 percent of what you hold in it per year at a 2.5 percent credit rate. We model the policy as if it were all invested in funds, growing at your portfolio's return, so those levies are charged when you take money out instead of each year. Same rate, later, so the tax we show is a little too low.

    Your real tax is higher/anyone holding the guaranteed fund inside a French life assurance policy

The law behind it
CGI art. 125-0 A, 200 A, 1417 IV; CSS L136-7, L136-8 IV; service-public F22414

PEA

From five years old, what you take out pays the 18.6% social levies on its growth and no income tax. Taking money out of a younger plan closes it, so we leave a young plan alone until it turns five. An employer savings plan (PEE) works the same way once released: enter it here.

The PEA (plan d'épargne en actions) is a share savings plan for European shares and funds, one per person. A PEA-PME, the smaller plan for small and mid-sized companies, is the same type. Nothing is taxed while the money stays inside, and once the plan is five years old what you take out pays no income tax: only the 18.6% social levies, on the growth part of each withdrawal.

Taking money out of a plan younger than five years closes it. The plan never does that: it leaves a young PEA untouched until it turns five, then draws on it like any other account. The planner asks how long ago you opened it, and assumes at least five years unless you say otherwise.

An employer savings plan (plan d'épargne entreprise, PEE) is taxed the same way once its money is released, so enter it here as a PEA at least five years old.

If the holder dies, the plan closes, however young it is. The growth is free of income tax, but the social levies, 18.6% of it, are due then, and the shares move into an ordinary account at their value that day.

In the withdrawal orders
With the ordinary accounts
Before the earliest age
Nothing comes out before the age the law sets for it
Pays out
Whenever you like
At the first death
It ends, and its value is paid into your partner's ordinary account, less 18.6% of the gain built up in it
What the planner asks about it
  • Years since you opened it From 0 to 100 years. We assume 5 years.
Where the model simplifies

  • We model a PEA, France's share savings plan: from five years old, what you take out pays the social levies on its growth and no income tax. Taking money out of a younger plan closes it, so until a plan turns five we do not draw on it at all, even in a year you are short of money. If yours is younger and you would close it early, the plan may show you short of money when you are not.

    Could go either way/someone holding a PEA opened less than five years ago who would close it to cover a shortfall

The law behind it
CGI art. 150-0 A II 2, 157 5° bis, 200 A, 1417 IV; CMF L221-32; CSS L136-8 I; service-public F2385

PER, payments you deducted

Nothing comes out before the legal pension age for your year of birth, or before you claim your pension. Taken as cash, the payments you deducted are taxed as income and the growth pays 31.4%. To take it as an annuity, enter it with your pensions instead.

The voluntary part of a PER whose payments you deducted from your taxable income while you worked. This row covers taking it out as cash, in one go or in parts. Each withdrawal is part payments, part growth, in proportion. The payments part is taxed as income on the ordinary scale, without the 10% deduction pensions get and without social levies. The growth part pays 12.8% income tax and 18.6% social levies, 31.4% in all.

Nothing comes out before the legal pension age for your year of birth: 62 for people born before 1961, rising in steps of a quarter of a year to 64 for those born from 1969. It opens earlier if your main pension starts earlier, which the plan reads from the age you give your pension. The early releases the law allows for events such as disability, the death of a spouse or buying your main home are not part of the plan.

Taken as an annuity instead, a deducted PER is a pension: enter it in the pension step as a workplace pension, not here.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Nothing comes out before the age the law sets for it
Pays out
Whenever you like
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
Where the model simplifies

  • Taking the deducted part of a retirement savings plan (PER) as a lump sum, you may ask for it to be taxed as if spread over four years, which lowers the rate on a large amount. We never make that election, so in a year you take a large lump the tax we show can be too high. It is lost anyway if you took a similar payment in the three years before, so it matters once at most.

    Your real tax is lower/someone taking a large lump sum from a PER whose payments were deducted

The law behind it
CMF L224-1, L224-4, L224-5; CGI 158-5 b quinquies, 163-0 A, 200 A; BOFiP BOI-RSA-PENS-30-10-20; service-public F34982

PER, payments you did not deduct

Nothing comes out before the legal pension age for your year of birth, or before you claim your pension. What you paid in comes back tax free and the growth pays 31.4%.

The voluntary part of a PER whose payments you chose not to deduct, or could not, such as payments made from age 70 on. Because they were never deducted, they come back untaxed. The growth part of each withdrawal pays 12.8% income tax and 18.6% social levies, 31.4% in all, the same as profit in an ordinary account.

It opens at the same age as a deducted PER: the legal pension age for your year of birth, or earlier if your main pension starts earlier. A plan holding both kinds of payment is entered as two rows, one for each.

In the withdrawal orders
With the accounts taxed on the way out
Before the earliest age
Nothing comes out before the age the law sets for it
Pays out
Whenever you like
At the first death
Your partner takes it over as it stands
The law behind it
CMF L224-4; CGI 154 bis-0 A, 158-5 b quinquies, 200 A; service-public F34982

Kinds of pension

A pension paid to you as an income goes in the pension step, not here. Choose its kind there and the plan taxes it by that kind's rules; leave it on standard and it is taxed like a state or workplace pension.

Life annuity bought with your own savings (rente viagère)

Only part of each payment is taxed, set by your age at the first payment: 40% from 60 to 69, 30% from 70.

This is the annuity you get when an assurance-vie or capitalisation contract is turned into a lifelong income, or when a PER you did not deduct is taken as an annuity. The taxed share is fixed at the first payment and never changes: 70% if you were under 50, 50% from 50 to 59, 40% from 60 to 69 and 30% from 70.

Where the model simplifies

  • A life annuity you bought, for example by turning a life assurance policy into a pension, is taxed on only part of each payment: 70, 50, 40 or 30 percent, depending on your age at the first payment. We apply income tax to that part correctly, but we do not yet charge the 18.6 percent social levies that also fall on it. On a 10,000 a year annuity first paid at 65 the tax we show is 744 a year too low.

    Your real tax is higher/up to €1,302 a year/anyone receiving a life annuity bought from a life assurance policy or from a personal pension plan whose payments were not deducted

The law behind it
CGI art. 158-6 (fraction by the crédirentier's age at entry into enjoyment: 70% under 50, 50% from 50 to 59, 40% from 60 to 69, 30% over 69); service-public F34982 (non-deducted PER rente follows the RVTO rules)

Life annuity from a share savings plan (PEA)

No income tax, but social charges of 18.6% apply to part of each payment, set by your age when it starts.

A PEA at least five years old can be closed into a lifelong annuity. The social levies fall on 70% of each payment if it started before 50, 50% from 50 to 59, 40% from 60 to 69 and 30% from 70, fixed at the first payment.

The law behind it
CGI art. 157 5° ter (rente viagère from a PEA after 5 years exempt from income tax; BOI-RPPM-RCM-40-50-40 §320); CGI art. 158-6 (fraction by age at first payment); CSS L136-7 II 5° and L136-8 I (CSG 10.6%, total social levies 18.6% from 2026)

Where other things you hold go

Workplace and older retirement contracts paid as an annuity (PER obligatoire, article 83, Madelin, PERP, Préfon)
Enter them in the pension step as a workplace pension. They are taxed like a pension, which is how the plan taxes them.
A deducted PER taken as an annuity
Enter it in the pension step as a workplace pension. Its income tax is right there; its social levies follow the pension rates instead of the 18.6% on part of each payment the law applies.
The 20% lump sum from a PERP or Préfon
The plan does not offer this option and treats the whole contract as an annuity. If you take it, enter the lump sum after tax as a one-off in the year you receive it, and the rest as a pension.
Contrat de capitalisation
Enter it as an assurance-vie: its withdrawals are taxed the same way.
Livret A, LDDS and LEP
Enter them in the investment account. Their interest is in fact free of tax, so the plan shows slightly more tax than you will pay on them.