CroissancePlus and Syntec Numérique propose new ambitions for employee share ownership

To improve the attractiveness of our companies, we need to return to the original spirit of employee share ownership, which aims to:

• Motivate and retain employees by giving them access to capital through stock options and free shares at a time when the trend is towards wage restraint.
• Involve employees in the company’s project by allowing them to benefit from capital gains usually reserved for shareholders.
• Attracting the best talent to growth and digital SMEs and ETIs through a financial stake in their success.
• Improve social cohesion within the company by reconciling the interests of employees with those of shareholders.

However, in addition to aligning the taxation of capital with that of labor, successive governments have increased taxation on employee shareholding tools, both for the company issuing them and for the employee benefiting from them:

• The company must now pay a 30% employer’s contribution, based on the value of the share, which is paid even if the employee never receives his or her shares because financial targets have not been met.
• The capital gain realized by the employee is taxed at a marginal effective rate that can reach 72% in the current configuration, depending on the length of the holding period and the level of income tax.

Only BSCPEs continue to benefit from a somewhat attractive tax and social security regime, with a flat rate equal to 34.5% provided that the beneficiary is an employee or manager within the issuing company for a period of at least three years.