The government made a commitment last February to negotiate with Bercy 8-year EMPs instead of 6 years.
“We are starting to discuss with the European Commission on extending the reimbursement period for EMPs.
We would like to go from six years to eight years.
The important thing is to secure entrepreneurs and give them visibility.
They must not have a sword of Damocles over their heads which would hamper the recovery.
We hope for a return from the Commission in 2021,
”Minister Alain Griset declared.
The will was there but where are we today?
No news of the transition to 8 years of PGE and the clock is ticking ...
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Almost 160 billion in loans guaranteed by the State to companies.
38% of the billions of EMPs went to very small businesses, or 53 billion to around 600,000 small businesses.
VSEs who have also accumulated 7 billion in deferral of Urssaf contributions… In many of these small businesses (1 in 4 VSEs has contracted an EMP), the EMP will in fact have to be reimbursed over 4 years since the first two years can be blank for reimbursement.
Some small businesses will find themselves in a complicated situation.
Note that before the crisis, according to INSEE, very small businesses already had 215 billion in total debt, including 103.5 billion in financial debt.
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Most valuations agree on an average of 5-7% of all BMPs that would not be repaid with business failures. But, according to confidential estimates, this can vary greatly depending on the size of the company and the sector of activity. In tourism, hotels and restaurants, this percentage could rise to more than 10% for example.
On the eve of 2022, the subject becomes crucial because we will soon be entering the 4-year repayment period. But it seems that the government has given up on convincing Brussels on the subject. And that he reassures himself by telling himself that companies will not really need a staggering of the duration of the reimbursement of EMPs and that they will manage on a case-by-case basis. Also on the grounds that this would increase rates… But even with a slightly higher rate (but couldn't we block the rates instead?) It would be more comfortable for many companies to repay over 6 years and not over 4 years. years.
Bercy has also activated the creation of a simplified legal procedure before the commercial courts.
The procedure is aimed at companies with fewer than 20 employees and with less than € 3 million in declared liabilities, but also individual entrepreneurs with limited liability.
It will be aimed at companies in default of payments but in a position to present a business continuity plan.
The continuation plan may provide for a staggering of liabilities over a period of 10 years, as in matters of receivership.
Passive which will obviously include the current EMPs.
Hyper complex procedure
The fact remains that this procedure is very complex: much more than an hour of meeting with his banker to spread a loan over two more years… Especially since it is often the same small businesses that have asked to postpone their payments of Urssaf contributions (there would be in total, all companies combined, for around twenty billion tax and social claims). Here too the doctrine seems to be to manage on a case-by-case basis ...
But what will happen at the end of the crisis? The postponements of Urssaf contributions are designed to last the time of the state of health emergency. The deadlines are based on the legal maximum period of reimbursement of tax debts (tax clearance plan), that is to say 3 years in metropolitan France (5 years overseas), which is very short. For the independents, the tide is already starting to turn. Following Bruno Le Maire's speech on August 30, the SDI-PME reported an about-face by the URSSAF towards the independents, indicating to them the end of the postponement of charges until then in force, from this month of september.
The file is complex, but that's no reason to drop a good idea that could help - even save - thousands of businesses. We cannot erase these tax and social claims because, if we erase them, we create distortions of competition and of public debt in addition. On the other hand, we can ask both for the EMP and the social and fiscal claims that Bercy does not let go of the deal with Brussels and spread the repayment over 8 years, i.e. 6 years from 2022 at least for the S1 and S1 sectors. bis those most affected by the crisis (hotels, restaurants, etc.). Provided that the staggered reimbursement is not considered a payment incident with regard to banking regulations. It would have the merit ofinclude financial and fiscal-social crisis debts in the same schedule (excluding supplier debts). This crucial issue needs to be addressed urgently.
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