You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore and you want to sell, hire or invoice in France. Your bank asks for a French company number, your first client asks for a French VAT number, and a formation agent offers you an SAS in 48 hours for 300 euros. Should you sign? The honest answer is that the vehicle you choose on day one decides how you will be taxed, how you will pay yourself, how easily you can sell or close, and how exposed you are if the business fails. France offers foreign founders a genuine choice: the SAS (société par actions simplifiée), the SARL (société à responsabilité limitée), their one-shareholder versions the SASU and the EURL, and the registered branch (succursale) of your existing foreign company. Each route ends at the same counter, the Guichet unique run by INPI (Institut national de la propriété industrielle, the National Industrial Property Institute), which forwards your file to the Registre national des entreprises (RNE, the National Enterprise Register) and triggers the Kbis, the official identity certificate issued by the greffe (the registry office of the commercial court). But the road to that Kbis, and everything that happens after it, differs sharply from one vehicle to another. This guide explains, entirely from the founder-abroad point of view, how to choose between SAS, SARL and branch, how to register without flying to France, how a foreign president or gérant is paid and covered for social security, and what the first-year legal, tax and VAT calendar demands once the company exists. Our companion pillar guide covers the practical formation chain in detail, from bank deposit certificate to first hire: Setting Up a Company in France as a Foreign Founder.

I. SAS, SARL or branch: which French vehicle should a foreign founder choose to do business in France?

The question sounds administrative. It is in fact strategic. An SAS gives you contractual freedom and easy share transfers but demands carefully drafted articles. A SARL gives you a tested statutory frame and cheaper control for a family business but locks the share transfers. A branch lets you test France without incorporating, at the price of unlimited liability of the foreign head office. Foreign founders who choose badly do not simply overpay: they discover eighteen months later that they cannot remove a co-founder, cannot pay themselves without double charges, or cannot sell the business without rewriting everything. The sections below walk through each option with the exact legal texts that govern it.

A. How does a foreign founder set up an SAS or single-shareholder SASU entirely from abroad?

The SAS is the default recommendation for foreign founders, and the statute explains why. Article L. 227-1 of the Commercial Code states: “Une société par actions simplifiée peut être instituée par une ou plusieurs personnes qui ne supportent les pertes qu’à concurrence de leur apport.” In plain English, one or more shareholders create the company and risk only what they contribute. When there is a single shareholder, the company is called a SASU (société par actions simplifiée unipersonnelle) and that sole shareholder exercises all the powers of the collective shareholders. Liability is limited to contributions in every case, which is exactly what a founder living abroad needs before signing a French lease or hiring.

The second reason founders pick the SAS is freedom. Article L. 227-5 of the Commercial Code provides, in one short sentence: “Les statuts fixent les conditions dans lesquelles la société est dirigée.” The articles of association (statuts) decide how the company is run: who appoints and removes the president, what majority sells the business, whether some shares carry veto rights, whether transfers need approval. No standard template is imposed. For a foreign founder with co-founders in different countries, this means the shareholders’ agreement can largely live inside the articles themselves, enforceable against future buyers. The official enterprise portal confirms the point and warns that this very freedom makes drafting complex, recommending a specialised lawyer for the articles: see the English-language page Société par actions simplifiée (SAS): ce qu’il faut savoir, and the comparison overview Company creation: choose the legal form of your company.

Capital is not a barrier. The shareholders set the capital freely, with a one-euro minimum, and the official guidance confirms that at least half of the cash contributions must be paid up (libéré) on a blocked company account at formation, the balance within five years of registration. In practice, banks and landlords read a 1-euro capital as a red flag, and most foreign founders incorporate with 1,000 to 10,000 euros. The bank issues a certificat de dépôt des fonds (deposit certificate), which joins the incorporation file. Founders living abroad complete every step remotely: passport certified with an apostille where required, proof of the registered address in France (attestation de domiciliation or lease, the occupancy proof that most INPI rejections turn on), draft articles, deposit certificate, declaration of beneficial owners (bénéficiaires effectifs), and filing on the Guichet unique. The greffe then issues the Kbis, and a notice appears in the BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official gazette where company creations, moves and insolvencies are published). If the filing is rejected for a missing occupancy proof or a mismatched address, the founder receives a complementary-documents request rather than a Kbis, and the clock restarts: our detailed rescue guide for rejected filings is INPI Rejected Your French Company Formation.

Day-to-day power in the SAS sits with one person. Article L. 227-6 of the Commercial Code states: “La société est représentée à l’égard des tiers par un président désigné dans les conditions prévues par les statuts.” It continues: “Le président est investi des pouvoirs les plus étendus pour agir en toute circonstance au nom de la société dans la limite de l’objet social.” The president binds the company even by acts outside the corporate purpose, unless the company proves the third party knew or could not have ignored it, and purely internal limits in the articles cannot be invoked against third parties. A foreign shareholder living in Dubai or New York can therefore appoint himself president, be registered as such on the Kbis, and sign from abroad, while internal thresholds (for example, any commitment above 20,000 euros needs shareholder approval) protect him against a local manager. The articles may also create directeurs généraux with the same external powers. This architecture is ideal for a remote owner, provided the articles organise revocation carefully, because French courts take the articles literally, as the case law below shows.

Tax follows the vehicle, not the nationality of the owner. Article 206 of the General Tax Code lists the companies liable to corporate income tax (impôt sur les sociétés): “sont passibles de l’impôt sur les sociétés, quel que soit leur objet, les sociétés anonymes, les sociétés en commandite par actions, les sociétés à responsabilité limitée n’ayant pas opté pour le régime fiscal des sociétés de personnes”, alongside cooperatives and profit-making legal persons. The SAS is liable to corporate tax by default, with a temporary five-year option for transparency (régime des sociétés de personnes) for small newly created companies. Profits are taxed at the standard corporate rate, currently 25 percent, with a reduced 15 percent rate on the first 42,500 euros of profit for qualifying small companies. Dividends paid to a shareholder living abroad then bear French withholding tax, reduced or eliminated by the applicable tax treaty, which is why the choice between salary and dividends in year one deserves modelling before the first euro is paid out, as explained in part II below.

B. When does a SARL, a single-member EURL or a registered branch work better than an SAS?

The SARL is the older, more standardised cousin of the SAS, and for some foreign founders it remains the better buy. Article L. 223-1 of the Commercial Code states: “La société à responsabilité limitée est instituée par une ou plusieurs personnes qui ne supportent les pertes qu’à concurrence de leurs apports.” Like the SAS, it limits liability to contributions, and with a single shareholder it is called an EURL (entreprise unipersonnelle à responsabilité limitée). The difference lies in governance: where the SAS lets the articles invent the rules, the SARL applies a ready-made statutory regime for meetings, votes and managers. For a solo founder or a couple who simply want a robust small company, a holding vehicle, or a family restaurant or shop, that standard frame means lower drafting costs and fewer traps.

Management of the SARL belongs to one or more gérants, who must be individuals. Article L. 223-18 of the Commercial Code provides: “La société à responsabilité limitée est gérée par une ou plusieurs personnes physiques.” And: “Dans les rapports avec les tiers, le gérant est investi des pouvoirs les plus étendus pour agir en toute circonstance au nom de la société, sous réserve des pouvoirs que la loi attribue expressément aux associés.” Externally this mirrors the SAS president, but internally the gérant lives under closer shareholder control, and the price of that control appears at revocation time. Article L. 223-25 of the Commercial Code states that the gérant is removed by shareholder decision under the majority of article L. 223-29 unless the articles require a higher majority. It adds the sentence foreign partners often discover too late: “Si la révocation est décidée sans juste motif, elle peut donner lieu à des dommages et intérêts.” A majority shareholder who removes a minority-partner gérant without a serious reason (faute, incompatibility, prolonged absence) can owe damages, and any shareholder can ask the court to remove the gérant for legitimate cause. In an SAS, by contrast, the articles may allow removal at any time without reasons and without compensation, and the courts enforce that bargain.

Two recent Cour de cassation rulings show how strictly the courts read SAS articles on dismissal. In Cass. com., 9 July 2025, No. 24-10.428, the court held: “Il résulte de ces textes que les statuts de la société par actions simplifiée fixent les conditions dans lesquelles celle-ci est dirigée, notamment les modalités de révocation de ses dirigeants. Si une décision des associés peut compléter les statuts sur ce point, elle ne peut y déroger, quand bien même aurait-elle été prise à l’unanimité.” Even a unanimous shareholder vote cannot override the articles on how a manager is removed unless the articles themselves are amended. Earlier, in Cass. com., 9 March 2022, No. 19-25.795, the court approved judges who had enforced articles allowing removal at any time, ruling: “c’est à bon droit que l’arrêt décide que la révocation de M. [N] en tant que directeur général de la société Hubbard pouvait intervenir sans qu’il soit nécessaire de justifier d’un juste motif.” The lesson for a foreign founder is direct: in an SAS, write the removal and non-compete mechanics you can live with, because the judge will apply them as written; in a SARL, accept that removing a partner-manager without a documented serious reason can cost damages even if you hold the majority.

Share transfers confirm the contrast. SAS shares transfer freely unless the articles create an approval (agrément), pre-emption or inalienability clause, which makes fundraising and exits clean. SARL shares (parts sociales) transfer to third parties only with the approval of shareholders holding at least half the capital, a statutory lock that protects family control but slows sales. Social charges, examined in part II, add a second fault line: the majority gérant of a SARL pays the independent-worker regime, while the SAS president pays the general scheme. As a rule of thumb, choose the SAS or SASU when you plan to raise funds, grant equity to managers, sell within five years, or run the company remotely with strong internal thresholds; choose the SARL or EURL when the business is a stable family or solo operation where standard rules and lower running costs matter more than contractual tailoring.

The third route, the branch, suits a different moment. A succursale is not a French company at all: it is the same foreign legal person operating an establishment in France, registered on the RNE and the trade register but without its own capital or Kbis-bearing personality. Registration is lighter, there is no French share capital to fund and no French board to run, and the foreign parent invoices through the branch. The cost is liability: the foreign head office answers indefinitely for the branch’s debts, French courts can seize French branch assets for head-office disputes, and banks, landlords and large clients often prefer a capitalised SAS subsidiary. Branches also complicate payroll, VAT and profit allocation between head office and branch. The branch therefore works as a twelve-to-twenty-four-month testing vehicle, or for regulated groups that must keep one balance sheet, and most successful branches convert into an SAS subsidiary once turnover stabilises. If you already operate through a branch and want to convert, the mechanics and closure sequence are described in our guide How a Foreign Company Converts Its French Branch Into an SAS Subsidiary. For everyone else, incorporate the subsidiary now rather than explaining unlimited liability to your board later.

II. How does a foreign owner pay himself and keep a French company compliant after the Kbis arrives?

The Kbis is the starting line, not the finish. Once the greffe issues it, the company has a Siren number (the nine-digit lifetime business identifier), the president or gérant is personally on the public record, payroll and tax clocks start, and every missed filing produces penalties that follow the director. Foreign owners get into trouble in two places: paying themselves in the wrong form, and missing the first-year calendar. Both are fixable if you set the mechanics before the first invoice.

A. How is a foreign president or gérant paid, taxed and covered for health, pension and URSSAF charges?

Start with the SAS president living abroad. French social security treats him as an assimilated employee (assimilé salarié), not as an independent worker. Article L. 311-3 of the Social Security Code brings within the general scheme, among the persons subject to the obligation of article L. 311-2: “Les présidents et dirigeants des sociétés par actions simplifiées et des sociétés d’exercice libéral par actions simplifiées ;” In practice, a paid SAS president receives a payslip, the company declares the salary to URSSAF (Unions de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales, the agency that collects social contributions), and contributions fund health, family, basic and supplementary pension and work-accident cover at rates close to an executive employee, roughly 60 to 75 percent of net salary in employer plus employee charges combined. What the president does not get is French unemployment insurance (assurance chômage): no Pôle-emploi equivalent contributions, no unemployment benefit if the mandate ends, whatever the salary level. Many foreign presidents therefore combine a modest salary with dividends, or keep their main employment contract abroad while taking little or no French salary, a structure that must be checked against the tax treaty and, inside the European Union, against the single-applicable-legislation rule documented by an A1 certificate.

The SARL gérant plays by different rules depending on his stake. A gérant who, alone or together with co-gérant partners and family holdings, controls more than half the capital is a travailleur non salarié (TNS, independent worker): his contributions are governed by article L. 131-6 of the Social Security Code, which states: “Les cotisations de sécurité sociale dues par les travailleurs indépendants non agricoles ne relevant pas du dispositif prévu à l’article L. 613-7 sont assises sur l’assiette définie à l’article L. 136-3.” Contributions are lower than the general scheme but so are the benefits, particularly pensions and daily sickness allowances, and the gérant must still register, declare and pay through URSSAF and the independent-pension funds from the first euro. A minority or non-shareholder gérant, conversely, rejoins the assimilated-employee scheme like an SAS president. For a foreign founder, the comparison is concrete: a majority SARL gérant taking 60,000 euros pays markedly lower charges than an SAS president taking the same salary, but builds weaker pension rights and has no unemployment cover either. Model both routes with an accountant before choosing the vehicle, because switching from SARL to SAS later means amending the articles, transferring the mandate and re-registering the director, all published and billed.

Residence abroad does not switch French charges off. Salary paid by the French company for work performed in France is declared in France even if the president lives in London or Dubai and even if he is tax-resident elsewhere; the treaty then allocates the taxing right and avoids double taxation but rarely removes the French declaration. Dividends follow their own path: distributed from after-tax profit by shareholder vote, reported in France, then declared by the recipient at home with treaty credit. Foreign founders sometimes invoice the French company as consultants from their foreign entity instead of taking salary. That route is lawful only if the services are real, priced at arm’s length and documented, because the French tax administration can reclassify fictitious fees as disguised salary with back charges, and URSSAF can pursue undeclared work. Keep every mandate, employment contract, secondment letter and invoice in both languages from day one.

Dismissal mechanics deserve a final warning because they hit foreign-owned companies hardest. In an SAS, the articles decide everything, and the two rulings cited above prove the courts enforce them literally: unanimous votes cannot patch a defective removal procedure, and an at-will clause means what it says. Draft the SAS articles to state who removes whom, by what majority, with what notice and what severance, and mirror any employment contract so the two documents cannot contradict each other. In a SARL, remember that removing a partner-gérant without a serious, documented reason can produce damages under article L. 223-25 even when the votes exist. In both vehicles, a brutal or humiliating removal can independently generate damages for vexatious circumstances, as the 30,000-euro award preserved in the July 2025 ruling illustrates. When a separation turns hostile, take advice before the removal meeting, not after the writ arrives.

B. What is the first-year legal, corporate-tax and VAT calendar once the company is on the Registre national des entreprises?

VAT comes first because the deadline is the shortest. Article 286 of the General Tax Code requires: “Toute personne assujettie à la taxe sur la valeur ajoutée doit : 1° Dans les quinze jours du commencement de ses opérations, souscrire au bureau désigné par un arrêté une déclaration conforme au modèle fourni par l’administration.” Within fifteen days of starting taxable activity, the company must file its VAT existence declaration and obtains a French VAT number (numéro de TVA intracommunautaire) built on the Siren. In practice the number arrives through the tax office of the registered seat (service des impôts des entreprises) once the RNE registration propagates, but the fifteen-day rule means the founder should chase it rather than wait: without a VAT number there is no valid intra-EU invoicing, no recovery of French VAT on setup costs, and no correct distance-selling treatment. Companies with only French clients file VAT monthly or quarterly depending on turnover; companies selling to EU businesses invoice without French VAT under reverse charge once the customer’s EU VAT number is validated on the VIES register. Our VAT-specific guide walks through fiscal representatives and penalties: How a Foreign Company Gets Its French VAT Number.

Corporate tax follows the accounting year. The company closes its first financial year (twelve months, or a shorter first year if the articles so allow), the president or gérant prepares the accounts, and the shareholders approve them. Article L. 225-100 of the Commercial Code sets the rhythm: “L’assemblée générale ordinaire est réunie au moins une fois par an, dans les six mois de la clôture de l’exercice, sous réserve de prolongation de ce délai par décision de justice.” For an SAS, the articles adapt this meeting to written consultation or video call so a shareholder in New York can approve without flying in. Approval decides the fate of the profit: legal reserve top-up (5 percent of profit until the reserve reaches 10 percent of capital), voluntary reserves, retained earnings (report à nouveau) or dividends. The corporate tax return (liasse fiscale, form 2065 with its schedules) is then filed electronically, generally in early May for calendar-year companies, and the balance of corporate tax is paid with four instalments (acomptes) during the year once the company owes more than 3,000 euros of tax. From abroad, the founder’s job is to make sure the French accountant has the bank statements, the payroll summaries and the intercompany invoices in time, because late filing triggers automatic penalties plus interest, and those penalties are published nowhere but debited everywhere.

The same accounts feed two public filings that foreigners underestimate. First, the annual accounts must be deposited with the greffe (dépôt des comptes) within one month of approval, two months if filed online, for publication and consultation by banks, suppliers and courts. Missing the deposit blocks financing files and, after reminders, can draw fines and court injunctions; our rescue guide for missed deposits is Missed the Annual Accounts Filing. Second, any change during the year, registered seat move, new president or gérant, capital increase, transfer of shares, must be filed on the Guichet unique within one month and published in a legal-notices journal and the BODACC where required. The beneficial-owner register must be kept current within thirty days of any change in control. Add the payroll calendar: the hiring declaration (DPAE) before the first employee starts, monthly URSSAF declarations (déclaration sociale nominative), and the first-year property levy (cotisation foncière des entreprises) from the second year of activity. A founder who diaries these five dates, VAT declaration within fifteen days, accounts approval within six months, tax return in May, accounts deposit within one to two months, and rolling one-month update filings, avoids nearly every first-year penalty we see in foreign-owned files. Our first-hire and payroll guides complete the picture: Hiring Your First French Employee and Recovering an Unpaid French Invoice.

Losses deserve their own diary line because the Commercial Code forces a decision. For the SARL, article L. 223-42 provides: “Si, du fait de pertes constatées dans les documents comptables, les capitaux propres de la société deviennent inférieurs à la moitié du capital social, les associés décident, dans les quatre mois qui suivent l’approbation des comptes ayant fait apparaître cette perte s’il y a lieu à dissolution anticipée de la société.” For companies under the board regime, including SASs that borrow those rules, article L. 225-248 mirrors the duty: “Si, du fait de pertes constatées dans les documents comptables, les capitaux propres de la société deviennent inférieurs à la moitié du capital social, le conseil d’administration ou le directoire, selon le cas, est tenu dans les quatre mois qui suivent l’approbation des comptes ayant fait apparaître cette perte, de convoquer l’assemblée générale extraordinaire à l’effet de décider s’il y a lieu à dissolution anticipée de la société.” If the shareholders vote to continue, the company has until the end of the second following financial year to rebuild equity to at least half the capital or reduce the capital, with the resolution published. Foreign owners who inject cash to plug losses should do it as a documented shareholder loan (compte courant d’associé) or a formal capital increase rather than an informal transfer, so the money can be repaid or converted cleanly: see Funding Your Company Through a Shareholder Current Account and, when losses are terminal, Closing an SAS From Abroad.

Conclusion

For most foreign founders doing business in France, the SAS or SASU is the right start: limited liability, free capital, articles that organise remote control, easy share transfers and a president affiliated to the general social-security scheme. The SARL or EURL wins for stable solo or family operations where standard rules beat bespoke drafting, at the price of locked share transfers and an independent-worker regime for the majority gérant. The branch is a temporary probe, never a home. Whichever vehicle you pick, register it cleanly on the Guichet unique with a real address, set the president’s or gérant’s pay mix before the first invoice, write the removal rules you can live with, and diary the first-year calendar from the fifteen-day VAT declaration to the six-month accounts approval. Those four decisions, taken in week one, prevent the disputes, back charges and missed filings that fill our files in year two. If your situation mixes countries, the treaty, the employment contract abroad and the French mandate should be reviewed together, once, before money moves.

Further reading in this series: our guides to choosing your French SAS, SARL, branch or subsidiary and to registering that vehicle step by step.

Need a quick opinion on your case

Get a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm. Call 06 46 60 58 22 (Maître Reda Kohen) or write through our contact page. From our Paris office we assist foreign founders and companies across France with choosing, registering and running their French company.