The sums paid annually by one or more companies for an employee or a person mentioned in article L. 3332-2 constitute the employer’s contribution and may not exceed a ceiling set by regulation for payments into a company savings plan, without being able to exceed three times the beneficiary’s contribution. This contribution may be made up of sums from profit-sharing, company profit-sharing and voluntary payments by beneficiaries.
The company may increase the contribution mentioned in the first paragraph by the amount spent by the employee or the person mentioned in article L. 3332-2 to acquire shares or investment certificates issued by the company or by a company included in the same scope of consolidation or combination of accounts within the meaning of the second paragraph of article L. 3344-1, without this increase exceeding 80%.
In addition, companies may, even in the absence of a contribution from the employee:
1° If the plan rules so provide, make payments into the plan, subject to uniform allocation to all employees, for the acquisition of shares or investment certificates issued by the company or by a company included in the same scope of consolidation or combination of accounts within the meaning of the second paragraph of Article L. 3344-1. The shares or investment certificates thus acquired by the employee are only available on expiry of a minimum period of five years from the date of this payment;
2° Make payments into this plan under the conditions laid down in Chapter XI of Title III of Book II of the Commercial Code, up to a limit of 30% of the annual amount of the ceiling mentioned inArticle L. 241-3 of the Social Security Code. These payments are not taken into account when assessing the ceiling mentioned in the first paragraph of this article;
A decree determines the conditions of application of 1° and 2° of this article. The payments referred to in the same 1° and 2° are subject to the same social and tax rules as the company payments referred to in the first paragraph. The sums exceeding the ceiling mentioned in 2° are paid directly to the beneficiary employee and constitute business income within the meaning ofarticle L. 136-1-1 of the Social Security Code, subject to income tax under the conditions laid down in article 80 sexdecies of the General Tax Code.