Estimate the CSG and CRDS social contributions deducted from French salary.
CSG (Contribution Sociale Généralisée) and CRDS (Contribution au Remboursement de la Dette Sociale) are broad social levies deducted from French salaries. Both apply to 98.25% of gross salary: CSG at 9.2%, CRDS at 0.5% — a combined 9.7%.
Illustrative estimate only, using simplified/rounded 2026 French tax figures — not tax advice. Always confirm with impots.gouv.fr or a licensed tax/financial advisor.
CSG (Contribution Sociale Généralisée) and CRDS (Contribution au Remboursement de la Dette Sociale) are social levies charged on top of ordinary income tax, funding social security and paying down France's social security debt respectively. On earned income (salaries), CSG is charged at 9.2% and CRDS at 0.5%, with a portion of the CSG (6.8 percentage points) deductible from taxable income for income tax purposes, which softens the overall effect once the annual tax return is filed. Capital income — dividends, interest, and capital gains — is charged at a higher combined social-levy rate, which rose further in 2026.
Because these levies apply on top of, not instead of, ordinary income tax and are calculated on largely the same income base, French take-home pay and net investment returns are shaped as much by CSG/CRDS as by the headline income tax bands — a fact that often surprises people comparing French salaries to countries where social charges are lower or bundled differently into a single payroll tax line.
No — CSG on earned income (activité) is 9.2%, while CSG on capital income (investments, dividends, rental income) is higher, part of a combined social-levy package on capital that reached roughly 18.6% in 2026 following a recent reform, on top of the separate income tax due.
Partially — for salaried income, 6.8 of the 9.2 percentage points of CSG paid is deductible from the following year's taxable income, while the remaining 2.4 points and all of CRDS are not deductible. This partial deductibility is a genuinely confusing feature of French payroll that catches many people out.
They were introduced specifically to fund social security and social debt repayment as broad-based charges applying to nearly all income types, including some income exempt from ordinary income tax, giving the state a wider and more stable base than income tax alone provides.
Generally yes, though at different, often reduced rates depending on total household income, with full exemption available for the lowest-income retirees — the rules for pension income differ meaningfully from the rates that apply to salaries.