A closed wrapper, two ceilings, one single plan

Mr Delaunay opens a second equity savings plan at another bank, to "spread the risk". He has just exposed both plans to closure and 150 000 € of contributions to reassessment. The code allows one plan per person. Before you read on: which wrapper could he legitimately have opened alongside?

One standard plan only, and it is a hard rule

Article L. 221-30 of the monetary and financial code leaves no margin: one person may hold only one equity savings plan. This is not a piece of good-management advice, it is a condition of the wrapper's existence.

The sanction is not symbolic. Holding two plans exposes them to closure, and closure triggers taxation of the gains accumulated. The prudent gesture of spreading across two institutions produces here the exact opposite of what it aimed at.

Only one combination is allowed: a standard plan and a plan dedicated to financing small and medium-sized enterprises and mid-caps. These are two distinct wrappers, with distinct ceilings, but whose total is capped.

Two ceilings, and a third few people know

The holder makes cash contributions within a limit of 150 000 € since the plan was opened. The plan dedicated to SMEs and mid-caps carries, for its part, a ceiling of 225 000 €.

The two combine, but not without end: holding both wrappers opens a total contribution capacity of 225 000 €, not 375 000 €. The second ceiling is an overall one, it is not a supplement.

A third ceiling exists, and it is regularly overlooked. For an adult attached to the tax household of another taxpayer, the contribution limit is brought down to 20 000 €. That is the typical case of a student opening a plan early to start the clock.

The ceiling caps contributions, not value

This is the most useful distinction in the module. The 150 000 € ceiling limits what the holder PUTS IN, never what the plan is WORTH. A plan funded up to the ceiling may be worth 400 000 € without breaching any rule.

The practical consequence is direct: once the ceiling is reached no further contribution is possible, but the gains keep accumulating and reinvesting inside the wrapper. The ceiling does not curb growth, it bounds funding.

The reverse is worth noting too. A withdrawal does not restore contribution capacity: the 150 000 € is assessed cumulatively since opening. Withdrawing 30 000 € does not reopen 30 000 € of room to pay in.

This asymmetry explains a common piece of advice: open the plan early, even with a token amount. What is scarce is not the room to contribute, it is the seniority, and seniority only starts running from the day the plan is opened.

What the wrapper agrees to hold

Eligibility is twofold: it bears on the nature of the security and on the issuer's registered office. Shares and investment certificates of companies, holdings in limited liability companies and capital securities of cooperatives are among those admitted.

Collective funds are admitted on a composition condition: they must invest at least 75 % of their assets in securities that are themselves eligible. That is what allows a broadly diversified plan without buying the securities one by one.

On the issuer side, the registered office must be in France, in another member State of the European Union, or in a State of the European Economic Area that has concluded an administrative assistance agreement with France. American shares are therefore excluded.