Simplified payslip: a clarification in trompe-l'œil?

300,000,000 payslips are issued in France every year, and France leads Europe with 50 lines on each payslip .Over two years ago, the government decided to launch a project to simplify payslips. All our tips and best practice on payroll can be found here.
CONTENTS

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Context and timetable for the new payslip

The development of the simplified payslip concerns employers and employees under private law and meets the essential need for legibility and intelligibility in terms of payroll management.

The French payslip has inherited a pile of successive laws on reduced contributions (e.g. the Fillon Act), tax exemptions or benefits (e.g. the CICE), the various tax bases, etc. The transition to the simplified payslip is well underway, but is taking place in stages:

• It currently concerns 10 pilot companies (Arkema, AFPA, BNP Paribas, Daher, Inovyn, Safran, Saint-Gobain, Société Générale, Sopra Steria, Solvay), representing more than 100,000 employees.
• On 1 January 2017, the decree of 25 February 2016 will apply to all companies of a certain size (300 employees or more).
• It is planned to extend this to all companies by 1 January 2018.

To get closer to its European neighbours, who do not exceed 20 lines (16 in Belgium, 15 in Germany), France has launched this simplification project, which is supposed to be virtuous for those who read and prepare the payslip!

The expected benefits of the simplified payslip

In concrete terms, the new simplified payslip model features a number of significant improvements in terms of presentation:

• easier-to-read headings
• grouping of headings. For example, deductions now appear according to the type of risk covered (sickness, retirement, unemployment).
• a reduction in the number of rows (halved), for example by removing the reference to the body to which the employer pays Social Security contributions and the number under which these contributions are paid.
• a reduction in the number of columns, for example by removing the rate and base columns.
• quicker reading of amounts (wages, contributions, exemptions) with two separate columns for the employee's share and the employer's share.

A simplified payslip, perhaps... but has it really been clarified?

In reality, apart from optimising the form, it seems that the new simplified payslip is a victim of its own rationalisation:

• Opacity around the summary amounts, following the removal of a certain amount of detailed information
• The historical complexity of the calculation rules is still latent (nothing is being changed to the underlying calculation mechanisms).

What will change for payroll professionals?

• It will be necessary to continue with the same changes to payroll software parameters, in order to maintain rigorous correspondence with the accounts and to comply with future laws and decrees. We do not therefore expect any reduction in the workload for software publishers or Personnel Administration departments - quite the contrary...
• Education and change management support will be needed to help employees make the most of this new document: this task will probably fall to the company's payroll experts.
• Lower printing and dispatch costs, thanks to a number of factors:
  • the abolition of the obligation to provide an annual summary with the payslip showing groups of contributions.
  • the mechanical reduction in the total number of pages of pay slips.
  • dematerialisation - an option available to employees from 1 January 2017 - which will lighten the employer's load (production, publishing) by dispensing with the need to send the pay slip to the employee.

What will remain the same for employees :

• the need to print out pay slips (eventually dematerialised) for their pension fund.
• the need to understand in depth the breakdown of their net salary, especially if income tax is deducted at source by the employer.

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Conclusion

The new "simplified" payslip format makes it possible to lighten the presentation and hide the various criteria from view. However, it does little to solve the problem of the multiplicity of parameters involved in calculating net pay. So choose a payroll solution that's tailored to your needs. Don't hesitate to compare the offerings of several specialists to choose the one that will support you through these major upcoming changes.