Introduction
This page contains the information required to adapt payroll management softwares in relation to the new CALCUL.xml file.
The information in this file allows employers to retrace exactly the different positions with regard to contributions due or reimbursed respectively, as well as the calculations and recalculations of reimbursements on behalf of the Employers' Mutual Insurance and of the financial summary of the monthly Social Security Centre (Centre commun de la sécurité sociale - CCSS) invoice for both the current period and any recalculated periods.
Searching for a difference between the contributions claimed by the CCSS and the contributions calculated by the employer has been streamlined, particularly when the employer uses appropriate computer processing. The same is true for recalculations caused in particular by late declaration of entry or exit forms, entering an incorrect date, wage changes or the retroactive addition of a gratuity through late or incorrect notice of periods of incapacity for work, reimbursements of estimated contributions, etc.
Appropriate software will be able to settle any differences owing to an incorrect calculation by the employer or an error in recording basic data with the CCSS.
The monthly sending of the CALCUL.xml file by the CCSS is automatically included in the SECUline agreement.
Persons concerned
Publishers of payroll management IT solutions that include or will include interpretation of SECUline files sent by the CCSS.
Brief summary of the information in the CALCUL.xml file
For each employer, insured and reference period, the file contains one record (or several if there are several different types of affiliation for the period in question) giving the following information:
- identification of the employer and the insured by their respective registration number and social security number, the reference period and the period for which the calculation is made;
- affiliation data, including the occupational scheme and the general specification;
- the calculation data relating to the employer;
- a summary of the wage components declared and related hours of absence claimed, as recorded in the CCSS files;
- for recalculations: a reminder of historic data (data deleted on recalculation with reimbursement of previous contributions);
- the results of the calculation (1st calculation or recalculation) with the following breakdown by type of cover:
- the contribution base;
- the contributions due, broken down into employee's share, employer's share, State share or Economic and Social Orientation Fund for Agriculture (Fonds d'Orientation Économique et Sociale pour l'Agriculture - FOESA) share;
- reimbursements from the Employers' Mutual Insurance;
- the cumulative threshold data (1st calculation or recalculation) with a breakdown by type of cover.
Migration schedule (CALCUL.dta to CALCUL.xml)
- April 2021: specifications made available to software developers;
- April to June 2021: discussions with software developers, if necessary;
- Mid-June to July 2021: at the publishers' request, a CALCUL.xml test file sent alongside the CALCUL.dta file;
- August to September 2021: a CALCUL.xml test file sent alongside the monthly CALCUL.dta file to all SECUline members;
- October 2021: sending of the CALCUL.dta file stopped permanently;
- December 2021: updated CALCUL.xml file structure specifications made available (XSD v1.2 schema);
- February 2022: Calcul.xml file switches to updated structure (XSD v1.2 schema).
Transfer
From October 2021, the date of the permanent switch to the CALCUL.xml file, only the CALCUL.xml file type is generated and sent via SECUline. The CALCUL.dta and PLAFAN.dta files will no longer be generated. The frequency at which they are sent (monthly) is not changing.
The CALCUL.xml file requires version 6.02 of the SOFiE tool as a minimum. All the relevant information about updating SOFiE can be found via the following links:
Documentation downloads
- Schema v1.2 (XSD format)
- Schema v1.2 documentation (PDF format)
- Annex - Scheme & GenSpec v1.0 (PDF format)
- Example of CALCUL v1.2 file (XML format)*
* So that all fields can be tested, all the optional fields have been included in this example file. The example values used comply with the data type defined in the XSD schema, but they represent an entirely theoretical example.
Additional explanations
Active periods
Periods before 2016 can no longer be modified (they are offline); as a result, it is no longer possible to make wage declarations ('DECSAL') for this period through SECUline. The CALCUL.xml file can only contain data for the periods of the current fiscal year and the previous 7 years.
Surcharge
Information (bases and contributions) relating to the surcharge, applied from 2009 to 2012, no longer forms part of the CALCUL.xml file.
Hours of incapacity for work and reimbursement due to illness
The 'Mal' (Hours of incapacity for work due to illness) and 'Maladie' (Illness reimbursement) fields contain the data relating to incapacity for work due to illness and to COVID-19 quarantine or isolation ordered by a competent authority. In the CALCUL.xml file, the rate of reimbursement for the share linked to COVID-19 is 100 % whilst any remaining share remains at 80 %. For reasons of health data protection, no distinction will be made between the 2 types of illness reimbursement.
The 'Calculation type' field indicates whether it is a normal calculation (even if it relates to a first calculation for a period prior to the calculation reference period) or a reimbursement. For a recalculation, the data from the previous calculation are displayed in the 'Previous' calculation section.
Maximum contribution bases and contribution bases not subject to ceiling
Information on the maximum contribution base and the contribution base not subject to ceiling for the reference period is included for all cover for which the contribution calculation is limited by a contribution assessment ceiling (health insurance - healthcare, health insurance - cash benefits, pension, accident, Employers' Mutual insurance Scheme, family allowances, Multi-sector Occupational Health Service (Service de santé au travail multisectoriel - STM)).
Family allowances
Family allowance contributions can be payable by the State or the employer. As the 2 fields are separate, no indicator is used to specify who is responsible for paying the charge.
Contribution assessment ceiling
The base for the monthly calculation of contributions for certain types of social cover (pension, health - cash benefits, health - healthcare, accident, Employers' Mutual Insurance Scheme, family allowances, occupational health service) has a ceiling of 5 monthly minimum wages. If the various items for payment making up this base exceed the monthly ceiling once or more during a fiscal year (a calendar year), a regularisation of the cumulative contribution assessment ceiling is carried out by the CCSS on a monthly basis.
Where applicable, the CALCUL.xml file includes a 'Ceiling' section with each monthly calculation during which a regularisation of the contribution assessment ceiling is carried out. In addition, the contribution assessment ceiling and the contribution base not subject to ceiling are provided by type of cover, for all reference periods calculated.
The cumulative contribution assessment ceiling approach has the advantage that the contributions are invoiced by the CCSS as from the first time the monthly contribution assessment ceiling is exceeded, up to the cumulative annual contribution assessment ceiling. Invoicing takes place for as long as the cumulative annual contribution assessment ceiling for the period observed remains above the cumulative annual contribution base not subject to ceiling. This cumulative ceiling principle is also applied to any retroactive contribution recalculation.