The tax credit for home employment in the viewfinder of the Court of Auditors

Barthélémy Philippe, edited by Gauthier Delomez / Photo credits: STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP 6:17 a.m., April 1, 2024

In a recent report, the Court of Auditors recommends that the government cut the home employment tax credit to save money. This system, used by 3.3 million individuals, would cost the State increasingly more, which the Federation of Individual Employers refutes.

The State is looking for savings… and the Court of Auditors is trying to help it. In a report, she recommends looking at the home employment tax credit which offers the individual employer a tax advantage corresponding to 50% of expenses incurred to pay their nanny or cleaning lady. The institution notes that this system, used by 3.3 million individuals, is increasingly costing the State and essentially benefits the 20% of wealthiest households.

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The first savings scenario would consist of lowering the rate and the ceiling of the tax credit (12,000 euros per year) for all employers. Second scenario present in the report, a rate differentiated according to income, and therefore less advantageous for the wealthiest.

“The State is not losing money!”

Enough to annoy Nicolas, a senior executive in Lyon, who benefits from the tax credit for employing his housekeeper at home. “When I hear that we want to reduce this credit, I am not happy. I think that we already pay enough taxes, charges, to keep this type of advantage which is very useful, both for employers but also for employees. It allows them to be declared, to have a more stable situation", he says at the microphone of Europe 1.

President of the Federation of Individual Employers, Marie-Béatrice Levaux is up against the Court of Auditors. “We are a sector that weighs 12 billion euros per year. Of this 12 billion, there is a little less than 6 billion in state aid. And we bring in 6.3 billion euros in contributions. ", she explains. “The State does not lose money with individual employers,” defends Marie-Béatrice Levaux.

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The sector employs 1.3 million people, 97% of whom are women. A reduction in the tax credit could promote unemployment and inequalities, but also revive undeclared work, which makes employees precarious and represents a shortfall in revenue for the State.