This is apparently very common fraud in companies, especially to avoid setting up a social and economic committee.
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The bombshell comes from the Institute of Public Policy, an organization that quantitatively evaluates public policy. According to a report by this institute, quoted by the economic press agency AEF, a large proportion of companies would declare a workforce of less than 50 employees to avoid the legal obligations incumbent on them if they cross this threshold. Among these obligations, that of setting up a CSE, a social and economic committee, and a better sharing of profits with employees.
The study compares the workforce data declared by companies in their tax returns with that of the average full-time equivalent workforce over the year as reconstituted for each company, this time by INSEE. In the tax declarations, we observe a peak of companies which declare 49 employees. However, in the data recorded by INSEE, this peak disappears and the distribution of company sizes seems relatively smooth around the threshold of fifty employees.
This fraud is important, because according to the Institute for Public Policy, this phenomenon of under-declaration concerns between 50 and 70% of companies. And it would concern companies with up to 70 employees. This excludes, for the authors of this study, the hypothesis of poor knowledge of the legal rules in force.
What is to be gained by declaring a workforce of less than 50 employees, ct is first of all the establishment of a CSE but also an increased sharing of the company’s profits via the mechanism of participation. There is also the risk of no longer benefiting from certain public aid. According to the report, quoted by AEF: “New hires are, for example, exempt from social security contributions for one year for companies with fewer than fifty employees in rural revitalization areas.” There is also the tax exemption for holiday vouchers up to 400 euros in the smallest companies. The authors of this study call on public authorities to use more reliable data to determine the real workforce of companies.