The CESU sheme
Have you ever heard of the CESU scheme? It’s also called “Service à la Personne”. It’s a solution to employ someone for personal home services such as cleaning, gardening, assistance to elderly, tutoring, etc. Read more about this here!
The CESU scheme is an easy solution to get help around the house without going through the daunting French employment admin system. It is a very simplified scheme that will allow you to register as an employer and employ people to help with personal services at home.
What services are covered by the CESU scheme?
A lot of services are covered, the main criteria is that they are home services and must be carried out at the employer’s home (or for the employer’s home). Here are the main ones:
- Home maintenance, gardening and small DIY jobs.
- Tutoring.
- Meal preparation (including time spent at the grocery store).
- Home delivery of meals and groceries, and collection and home delivery of ironed linen.
- Home computer and administrative assistance.
- Pet care and walks for dependent persons.
- Temporary home maintenance, upkeep and vigilance.
- Tele-assistance and video-assistance.
- Driving services for people with a temporary disability, or for elderly, disabled or chronically ill people.
- Assisting anyone with a temporary disability, or elderly, handicapped or chronically ill persons, outside the home.
- Assistance with day-to-day living and social integration for the elderly, disabled or chronically ill who require such services in their own homes.
What are the benefits of this CESU scheme?
This scheme offers a very simplified solution to employ people for home services. The admin is simplified as once you are registered, you will only have to declare the monthly work done by your employee. The payroll and so on will automatically be done by the URSSAF website. Also, this scheme offers a “Crédit d’Impôts”, Tax credit, of 50% for up to €12,000 of expenses (so max of €6,000 euros refund).
How do I register as an employer with the CESU scheme?
To register as an employer and benefit from this scheme, you must create an account on the URSSAF – Service CESU account. Once your account is created, you’ll have access to a dashboard. This will allow you to register your employees, declare the monthly salaries and so on.
What’s the cost of employing someone via the CESU scheme?
When you employ someone, you will sign a contract in which you would have negotiated the net hourly wage. This has to be at least the minimum legal wage (SMIC horaire). On top you must add an extra 10% for paid vacations.
To the net figure, you must add social charges, “cotisations sociales”. The amount of these can vary depending on where you live and both yours and your employee’s personal situations. If there are no exonerations then the social charges are generally around 75% of net salary and if there are exonerations then they drop to roughly 48%.
You can get an estimate of the total cost of employment here.
How do I declare and pay my employee with the CESU scheme?
Every month you will have to declare your employee’s worked hours and any extra fees you’ve agreed to (transport, bonuses, etc.). The total amount to be paid to your employee will appear once you’ve completed all the monthly information. A payslip will automatically be created upon your declaration and sent to your employee.
The monthly payment can be done by cheque, bank transfer, cash, CESU + or prefinanced CESU cheques if the employee accepts these.
What must I do to benefit form the 50% Tax credit?
Every year, you can edit an “Attestation Fiscale”. This document summarizes everything you’ve paid over the previous tax year. You can report that amount in your French tax declaration in the form 2042. You will get a tax credit of 50% up to a maximum of €6,000.
The CESU scheme was created to facilitate access to home services. It is a very simple option to have someone come in and help with daily matters. If you would like to register to be able to get assistance via this scheme and need a hand, get in touch!
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Resources :
Throughout this article there are links with extra ressources.