Other news for January 2023

Restaurant vouchers

The employer’s contribution to the financing of meal vouchers distributed to employees is exempt from social security contributions within a certain limit. From September 1st, 2022, to December 31, 2022, this limit was set at €5.92 per voucher. For meal vouchers distributed to employees since January 1st, 2023, this employer’s contribution benefits from an exemption from social security contributions up to a limit of €6.50 per voucher.

Minimum wage

In 2023, the minimum wage increases by 1.81%, an increase limited to the ordinary increase without any “boost”. Its gross hourly rate is therefore €11.27 from January 1st, 2023, compared to €11.07 until then. As for the gross monthly SMIC, it increases by about €30 from €1,678.95 to €1,709.28 in 2023, for a working time of 35 hours per week.

Legal interest rate

For the 1st half of 2023, the legal interest rate is set at 4.47% for receivables payable to individuals and 2.06% for receivables payable to professionals. It is therefore up sharply compared to the rate of the second half of 2022 (respectively 3.15% and 0.77%). This rate is used to calculate, in the absence of contractual stipulations, the default interest due in the event of non-payment by a debtor after he has been put on notice. It is also used to determine the minimum rate of penalties applicable between professionals in the event of late payment of an invoice. This last rate, which must be mentioned in the general conditions of sale, may not be less than 3 times the legal interest rate, i.e., 6.18% as of January 1st, 2023.

Printing of receipts

The systematic issuance of paper receipts in sales areas and business premises open to the public, as well as credit card receipts, vouchers and promotional tickets, should have been prohibited as of January 1st, 2023. This measure is finally postponed to April 1st, 2023 because businesses complained that they have not received precise guidelines and the decree had not been published sufficiently in advance. Waiting until April will give them “sufficient time to adapt” to the new system which allows them to transmit tickets by SMS or email.

Copyright Les Echos Publishing – 2023