The kitchen-table slogan is still “thirty percent on capital.” That slogan was the 2018 architecture of the prélèvement forfaitaire unique: 12.8% income tax plus social levies then set at 17.2%. PFU versus barème France is not a slogan. It is an annual, household-level model. From 1 January 2026 the social overlay on many capital incomes moved with CSG. Service-public now states the default PFU as 12.8% plus 18.6% social levies, 31.4% in total. Families who still paste 30% into a 2026 distribution spreadsheet are modelling last year’s postcard.
This article is general information for families and family offices. It is not a tax opinion, a mandate, or personalised advice. The option for the progressive scale, the 40% dividend allowance, and the deductible fraction of CSG depend on the year’s incomes, on the composition of the household, and on counsel who can read the return against the Code général des impôts and the official pages. Vellum Finance does not tick box 2OP for a client from a distance.
What PFU versus barème France still is in 2026
Since 1 January 2018, investment income of individuals (dividends, most interest, and gains on disposal of securities) is by default taxed under article 200 A of the CGI at a flat income-tax rate of 12.8%, unless the household elects to take those items into the progressive scale. Social levies sit on top. They are not “the PFU.” They are a separate stack (CSG, CRDS, and the solidarity levy) whose combined rate on capital income is what families hear as the second half of the flat tax.
The administration’s own summary on impots.gouv.fr for revenus mobiliers still starts from that split: PFU of 12.8% for income tax, with an option to place all revenus de capitaux mobiliers and securities gains on the progressive scale by ticking box 2OP on form 2042. When the PFU applies, the 40% dividend allowance does not, expenses are not deductible, prior RCM deficits do not offset, and no deductible CSG is computed on those RCM. When the scale applies, the reverse is true: 40% on eligible dividends, expenses, deficit relief, and a deductible fraction of CSG.
Service-public’s company-facing fiche on taxation of dividends received by associates, verified in February 2026, states the current default: PFU equal to 31.4%, of which 12.8% is income tax and 18.6% is social charges. A dedicated service-public note of 10 February 2026 on the evolution of the PFU rate explains the arithmetic: CSG on this class of income rose by 1.4 points on 1 January 2026, so social levies moved from 17.2% to 18.6%, and the headline PFU from 30% to 31.4%. The 12.8% income-tax limb did not move in that note. Families should model the two limbs separately. Collapsing them into “the flat tax” is how a CSG reform becomes an invisible extra 1.4 points.
The social overlay, and the CSG that is deductible only on the scale
Social levies on capital are not a single contribution. The classic split, still the right way to read a payslip-style bridge, is CSG, CRDS at 0.5%, and the solidarity levy. CSG on wages has long been 9.2% with a 6.8 point deductible fraction. On capital income, the deductible fraction is the same idea with a different gate: it exists when the income is taxed on the progressive scale, and it does not exist when the household remains on the PFU.
The service-public fiche on social levies on wealth and investment income (F2329) is the official orientation for that gate. You do not get deductible CSG if you have remained on the single flat-rate levy. If you have paid social levies on income taxed on the scale, a portion of CSG, 6.8%, is deductible from the following year’s taxable income. Timing matters. The deduction is not a refund of this year’s 18.6%. It is a delayed income-tax relief at the household’s marginal rate next year. Families who “gross up” the barème option by 6.8 points as if it were cash this year overstate the benefit.
The 2026 CSG increase on capital, as described by service-public, hit the non-deductible part of the social stack. The 6.8% deductible fraction is the figure the official pages still use for the scale option. This article does not invent a new deductible percentage. If a later social-security financing act changes the split after the pages cited here, F2329 and the security-code articles it cites are the check.
The option is global, annual, and (from 2026) no longer a one-way door
Box 2OP is a household election for the year. It takes dividends, other RCM, and securities gains together. A family cannot put dividends on the scale to keep the 40% allowance and leave interest on the PFU. Impots.gouv.fr states that rule without decoration. A year with a large eligible dividend and a large bond-interest coupon can make the election that looked obvious in January look expensive in May.
Until the 2026 finance act, the election was irrevocable for the year once the return was filed. Impots.gouv.fr now states that from 2026 the irrevocable character of the option has been removed. That is a filing-hygiene change, not a reason to skip the model. The election remains annual and global. Revocability is a safety net for a bad tick. It is not a substitute for simulating both columns before the deadline.
Withholding at source still happens. Dividends and many interest items are subject to a 12.8% income-tax prepayment (article 117 quater for dividends) plus social levies when paid. The return then settles: PFU as the default, or scale if 2OP is ticked, with credit for the prepayment. A household that is non-taxable or in the 11% band often over-prepaid relative to the scale. A household in the 41% or 45% band that ticks 2OP because “the 40% allowance feels large” often under-prepaid relative to the true scale tax, then discovers the 40% does not apply to interest or to most gains.
Dividends, interest, and gains are not the same column
Eligible dividends on the scale get the 40% allowance of article 158-3-2° CGI. The allowance requires, among other conditions, a regularly deliberated distribution and a paying company that is French or established in a state with administrative assistance. Unlawful or extra-statutory distributions do not buy the 40%. Interest on associates’ current accounts, bond coupons, and similar RCM generally do not get that allowance. Gains on disposal of securities have their own articles (150-0 A and following). Some pre-2018 titles still carry holding-period allowances if the scale is elected; those allowances are a declining population, not a 2026 planning product.
Assurance-vie is another trap for slogan models. Products attached to premiums paid before 27 September 2017 can still meet older levy rates (including 7.5% income tax in specified cases). They are not “all PFU 31.4%.” They are also not a reason to ignore the 2OP election on the rest of the securities book. The wrapper and the securities account are different statutes.
How families should model, not slogan
Build two columns for the same year. Column A: 12.8% income tax on the PFU base, plus the social rate in force (18.6% for the capital incomes service-public places in the 2026 PFU). Column B: progressive scale on the household’s net income after adding RCM and gains with the 40% on eligible dividends, minus deductible expenses, minus the following-year effect of 6.8% CSG at an assumed marginal rate, plus the same social levies on the social base (social levies do not disappear on the scale). Then test sensitivity: a year with only qualifying dividends versus a year with a large securities gain and a large coupon.
The indifference region is not a single “TMI below 12.8%.” Social levies are in both columns. The 40% allowance cuts the income-tax base on dividends only. Deductible CSG is next year’s income-tax relief, not this year’s social rebate. A household in the 11% band with mostly eligible dividends will often prefer the scale. A household in the 30% band and above will often prefer PFU, especially if the year is gain-heavy or interest-heavy. A household with a one-off gain that pushes it across a band must model the band, not the dinner-table TMI from two years ago. Service-public’s F32963 still prints the 2026 scale rungs used for that illustration (0%, 11%, 30%, 41%, 45% on the slices it lists). Those rungs move with the finance acts. The model should take the scale from the year’s official notice, not from this paragraph.
Holding companies change the picture again. A distribution from an IS company to an individual is a dividend in this file. A share of result from an IR-translucent SCI is not a PFU dividend; it is the associate’s category income (usually revenus fonciers for a rental SCI). Mixing those lines in a “capital income” spreadsheet is how families apply 31.4% to rental profit or apply the 40% allowance to a civil company’s result. The vehicle-versus-asset question belongs in the holding-versus-SCI analysis; the PFU election does not repair a misclassified line.
IFI remains a different tax. Cash and listed portfolios are outside the IFI base; the IFI 2026 taxable-wealth note is the inventory for bricks. ATAD interest limitation in a family HoldCo, described in the ATAD 2026 holding note, can change how much cash is available to pay a dividend, which then lands in this PFU-versus-scale model. The three files interact in cash. They do not share a rate.
A family-office discipline for box 2OP
Once a year, before the filing deadline, rebuild the two columns from broker reports, company PV distributions, and the draft 2042. Do not tick 2OP because it was ticked last year. Do not leave it blank because “PFU is simpler” if the household is in the 0% or 11% band with a large eligible dividend. Record the assumption on CSG deductibility as a next-year item. If the 2026 revocability of the option is used, treat it as a correction process with the administration, not as a planning method.
Vellum keeps that model inside a fee-only process so that a bank’s “flat tax, very simple” slide does not replace the household computation. How the work sits next to reporting and structuring is on the Vellum Finance services map. The output is a dated comparison, not a slogan. Official pages remain Légifrance for article 200 A, impots.gouv.fr for the 2OP mechanics, and service-public for the 2026 social overlay.
Conclusion
PFU versus barème in 2026 is still a household election under article 200 A: 12.8% income tax by default on many capital incomes, plus social levies that service-public now states at 18.6% for this stack (31.4% combined), versus the progressive scale with a 40% dividend allowance and a 6.8% CSG deduction the following year. The option is global. Families who model both columns, with the year’s actual mix of dividends, interest, and gains, will use the election as a tool. Families who repeat “thirty percent” will miss both the 2026 social overlay and the years when the scale was cheaper.
Discretion. Stability. Prosperity.
Team Vellum
A team of passionate professionals who combine their expertise to bring knowledge through Vellum Finance & Patrimoine blog articles. Each member writes about their own field of expertise, cross referencing with our colleagues own fields to ensure the highest quality of information possible in all our content.
