Background information

The government has taken several measures to improve the support for employee's transport costs, in particular by modifying taxation or exemptions from social security contributions on salaries. The aim is to encourage employers to support employees' purchasing power by covering their transport costs more.

The measures concerning the social and tax regime for employee transport costs were taken within the framework of the amended Finance Act No. 2022-1157 of 16 August 2022.

Content of measure

The Act will apply for the years 2022 and 2023. It increases the exemption ceiling for the reimbursement by the employer of fuel costs incurred by employees for their home-to-work travel. This means that employers will be able to reimburse fuel costs of up to €400 per year (instead of €200), without paying social security contributions on these amounts.

It increases the overall exemption ceiling for the transport bonus (prime transport) from €500 to €700 (and to €900, including €600 for fuel costs in the overseas territories). The bonus corresponds to the employer covering the cost of fuel and power for electric, rechargeable hybrid or hydrogen vehicles incurred by employees when travelling between their usual residence and their place of work.

It expands the eligibility of new employees for the transport bonus by suspending the usual conditions for coverage (residence or workplace not served or outside the scope of a compulsory mobility plan, working hours that do not allow use of a public transport system); it allows to combine the transport bonus with the compulsory payment by the employer of 50% of the price of public transport passes; it increases the exemption ceiling for the sustainable mobility package (forfaire mobilité durable) from €500 to €700; it extends the tax and social security benefits attached to the compulsory payment by the employer of public transport or public bicycle rental service costs to the optional payment (in excess of 50%) of these costs, up to a limit of 25% of the price of season tickets.

At the same time, on a permanent basis, the ceiling for combining the sustainable mobility package with the cost of public transport passes or public bicycle hire services has been raised from €600 to €800.

Finally, the accumulation of mileage allowances (indemnité kilométrique) reimbursed to employees with those for carpooling is allowed on the basis of supporting documents.

Use of measure

As this is a new measure, there is no data available.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Employees in standard employment Workers in non-standard forms of employment	Applies to all businesses	Does not apply to citizens

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government Company / Companies Social insurance	Companies Employer National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	Consulted	Consulted
Form	Direct consultation outside a formal body	Direct consultation outside a formal body

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• No involvement
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

No information.

Views and reactions

About all the measures adopted to increase the purchase power of workers, all the trade union organisations, and in particular the five representative trade union confederations and the organisations representing young people, denounced, in a declaration of 21 July, the legislative measures announced by the government, including the generalisation of profit sharing.

They consider 'that wages are part of the sharing of wealth' and they 'are unanimous on the fact that the priority issue must be to increase wages, pensions, minimum social benefits and student grants'. However, the trade unions denounce the fact that 'a succession of one-off measures, mainly financed by the State, cannot constitute a sufficient package to respond to the emergency'. Moreover, the trade unions and youth organisations point out that 'these exemptions and reductions in contributions are undermining our collective social protection system'.

On the employers' side, the measures presented by the government are better accepted (see Press article in Source box).

It has to be noticed that the government has issued a « package » of measure through 2 law adopted on 16 August. Instead of creating a factsheet of the package, the national correspondent has created FS for each relevant measure. But on their side, the trade unions have published a global and common position to the whole package and not measure by measure.

Sources

• 16 August 2022: Loi n° 2022-1157 du 16 août 2022 de finances rectificative pour 2022 (www.legifrance.gouv.fr)
• 31 August 2022: A la grand-messe du Medef, les patrons prêts à utiliser la boîte à outils de la loi «pouvoir d'achat» (www.usinenouvelle.com)