You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, your customers or your next hires are in France, and everyone tells you to “just create an SAS”. That advice is often right, but it is also incomplete. The choice between a Société par actions simplifiée (SAS, a simplified joint-stock company) and a Société à responsabilité limitée (SARL, a limited liability company) decides who can remove the director, how profits can leave the company, what social security you pay as a director, and how easily you can sell or close the business later. Get it wrong and you will pay for it in notary fees, blocked bank transfers, disputes with a French partner, or a tax reassessment. This guide walks you through the choice and the formation steps you can complete from abroad, then through running the company, paying yourself and paying French corporate tax, and finally through fixing a wrong choice. It explains every French acronym on first use: the Kbis (the official company identity extract), the greffe (the court registry that issues it), the RCS (Registre du commerce et des sociétés, the trade and companies register), the RNE (Registre national des entreprises, the national business register), BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the gazette where company events are published), the Guichet unique (the single online filing portal run by INPI, the Institut national de la propriété industrielle), URSSAF (the agency collecting social contributions), and IS (impôt sur les sociétés, French corporate income tax).

I. Should you choose an SAS or a SARL when you live abroad, and how do you form it without flying to France?

A. SAS or SARL for a foreign founder: limited liability, capital, shares, votes and the director you will live with

Start with the good news: both vehicles shield your personal assets. An SAS, in the words of Article L227-1 of the Commercial Code, “Une société par actions simplifiée peut être instituée par une ou plusieurs personnes qui ne supportent les pertes qu’à concurrence de leur apport”, meaning it can be formed by one or more persons whose liability for losses is limited to their contributions. A SARL offers the same shield: Article L223-1 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”. If you are alone, both forms work with a single member: the one-person SAS is called a SASU (Société par actions simplifiée unipersonnelle) and the one-person SARL an EURL (Entreprise unipersonnelle à responsabilité limitée). Neither requires a minimum share capital, so you can start with one euro, though a symbolic capital alarms banks and landlords, and you will need real cash to fund the first months.

The real differences sit in flexibility, share transfers and management. The SAS is a contract-first company: the statutes (statuts, the articles of association) can create several classes of shares, free voting rules, approval clauses (agrément, a prior-consent requirement before shares change hands), exclusion clauses forcing a partner out, and tailor-made director roles. Collective decisions of the shareholders follow the statutes, since Article L227-9 of the Commercial Code provides that “Les statuts déterminent les décisions qui doivent être prises collectivement par les associés dans les formes et conditions qu’ils prévoient”. The SARL is a statute-first company: the law imposes the skeleton and the statutes fill the gaps. Membership interests are called parts sociales rather than shares, they cannot be listed, and transfers to outsiders require the consent of members holding at least half of the parts. Ordinary decisions in a SARL follow Article L223-29 of the Commercial Code: “Dans les assemblées ou lors des consultations écrites, les décisions sont adoptées par un ou plusieurs associés représentant plus de la moitié des parts sociales”. For a foreign founder, the practical translation is simple. Choose the SAS or SASU when you want investors later, different share classes, an American-style president with broad powers, or a future sale of the whole company. Choose the SARL or EURL when the project is a small family business, when you want the protective rigidity of the law, or when the director will hold the majority and accept the independent-worker social regime described below. The French administration itself presents the two forms side by side: the official enterprise portal describes the SAS as a highly flexible company in its SAS fact sheet and walks founders through how to create a company step by step.

Think about the director on day one, because you cannot run a French company without one. The SAS must have a president (president), an individual or a legal entity, who represents the company toward third parties: Article L227-6 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” and adds “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 SARL is managed by one or more gérants (managers), who must be individuals: Article L223-18 of the Commercial Code states “La société à responsabilité limitée est gérée par une ou plusieurs personnes physiques”. A non-European founder can be president or gerant without a French residence permit for the appointment itself, but actually working in France, signing, hiring and living there is a different question that belongs to immigration law. Most foreign founders therefore appoint themselves president or gerant while living abroad, sometimes alongside a French-based co-director for signatures, banking and inspections. If your project could instead run without any French company at all, read our guide on the branch (succursale) and liaison office option before you incorporate, because a branch exposes the foreign parent directly while a subsidiary ring-fences risk.

B. Forming your French company from abroad: statutes, capital deposit, registered office, Guichet unique filing, RCS registration, Kbis and BODACC

Formation from abroad is entirely possible, and thousands of founders do it every year, but each step has a trap for non-residents. First, draft real statutes instead of copying a template blindly. The statutes are the operating system of an SAS: Article L227-5 of the Commercial Code says, in one sentence, “Les statuts fixent les conditions dans lesquelles la société est dirigée”. That single line carries the two leading court rulings every foreign founder should know. In a 9 July 2025 decision ( appeal number 24-10.428), the Commercial Chamber of the Cour de cassation held that “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” (see Cass. com., 9 July 2025, No 24-10.428). In plain English: the statutes rule, and even a unanimous side agreement cannot override them. In a 9 March 2022 decision, the same court added that “les conditions dans lesquelles les dirigeants d’une société par actions simplifiée peuvent être révoqués de leurs fonctions sont, dans le silence de la loi, librement fixées par les statuts, qu’il s’agisse des causes de la révocation ou de ses modalités” (see Cass. com., 9 March 2022, No 19-25.795). So write the removal rules, the voting thresholds, the approval clause and the exclusion clause into the statutes now, while the founders agree, because a separate pact signed later will not save you if it contradicts the statutes.

Second, fix the registered office (siège social). A French company must have a French address, and the registry checks it. Foreign founders typically choose between a domiciliation company (a licensed business-address provider), the home of a French-based director where the statutes allow it, or commercial premises. Whatever you choose, keep the proof: lease, domiciliation contract and the provider’s approval number. Filings are rejected far more often over occupancy proof than over anything else, and our guide on rejected registrations, apostilles and how to get the Kbis shows the exact documents registries ask foreign founders to add. Third, deposit the cash capital in a French bank and obtain the deposit certificate (attestation de dépôt des fonds, sometimes called certificat de depot). This is where many foreign founders stall: banks must run anti-money-laundering checks on non-resident shareholders, ask for passports, proof of address, the origin of funds and the draft statutes, and some simply refuse. Do not wait until the last week. Our companion article on refused bank accounts, frozen KYC files and the Banque de France right-to-account procedure explains the remedies when the deposit or the account is blocked. If you are based in Paris or the Ile-de-France region, open the file with a bank branch used to non-resident files and keep a Paris-domiciled contact reachable by the bank’s compliance team, because most follow-up questions arrive by phone within days.

Fourth, file everything through the Guichet unique des formalites des entreprises, the single online portal operated via formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr under INPI supervision (see also INPI’s business-formalities pages). Since 2023 this portal has replaced the old paper centres: statutes, capital certificate, ID documents, proof of address, director declarations of non-conviction, and foreign documents with sworn translations and, depending on the country, an apostille or legalisation. The portal routes the file to the competent registry, which registers the company in the RNE and the RCS. Registration is not a formality in the weak sense: Article L123-1 of the Commercial Code requires that companies with their seat in a French department be entered in the trade and companies register, covering “Les sociétés et groupements d’intérêt économique ayant leur siège dans un département français et jouissant de la personnalité morale conformément à l’article 1842 du code civil ou à l’article L. 251-4”. Only that entry gives the company its legal personality and its SIREN number. Fifth, download the Kbis from the greffe: this extract is the company’s ID card, showing the name, capital, seat, activity, director and registration number. Banks, notaries, suppliers and the VAT office will ask for a Kbis less than three months old before doing anything. Key events, including the creation itself, are then published in BODACC, the official gazette, where anyone can verify the company exists. Our pillar guide to setting up a company in France as a foreign founder, from bank account to Kbis, VAT and first hire ties these five steps together with the hiring and VAT steps covered below. If your seat is in Paris, the company will be registered with the RCS of Paris and the file checked by the greffe of the Paris business court: file early, answer registry queries (often called “rejets” or “compléments”) within days, and keep one person in the Paris time zone available to sign, because a silent file is a file that sleeps.

II. How do you run the company, pay its tax and pay yourself when you live abroad, and how do you fix a wrong choice?

A. President or gerant: appointment, removal without warning, salary or dividends, social security, corporate tax and VAT

Once the Kbis arrives, the director question becomes daily reality. In an SAS, the president can act fast because the law gives the office sweeping powers toward outsiders, but the founders decide in the statutes how the president is appointed, paid, supervised and removed. The courts give full effect to that freedom in both directions. A clause saying managers “sont révocables à tout moment par l’associé unique ou, en cas de pluralité d’associés, par l’assemblée générale ordinaire des associés sur proposition du président” means exactly what it says: removal at any time, with no justification required (see Cass. com., 9 March 2022, No 19-25.795). Conversely, a side arrangement granting the director protection against dismissal is worthless if the statutes allow removal at will, because an extra-statutory decision cannot contradict the statutes even when voted unanimously (see Cass. com., 9 July 2025, No 24-10.428). Write the rule you actually want: removal at will (révocation ad nutum) with or without compensation, removal only for cause (juste motif), notice period, severance formula, and who votes. In a SARL the law is stricter and more protective of the company: a gerant can be removed by the members, but “Si la révocation est décidée sans juste motif, elle peut donner lieu à des dommages et intérêts” under Article L223-25 of the Commercial Code, and any member can ask the court to remove the gerant for legitimate cause. A foreign majority shareholder who removes a minority gerant without cause should therefore budget for damages, while a minority founder made gerant enjoys real protection. For a full breakdown centred on pay slips, contribution bills and inspections, read our companion guide to director social security and pay in an SAS or SARL while living abroad.

Pay and social security come next, and they surprise almost every foreign founder. A president of an SAS who receives pay is attached to the general social security scheme, like an employee for health, family and retirement purposes but without unemployment insurance, and the cost is roughly comparable to an executive salary. A gerant of a SARL who holds, alone or with family, more than half of the parts belongs to the independent-worker scheme (travailleur non salarié, TNS): lower contributions, but thinner protection, especially for daily allowances and retirement. The dividing line is written in Article L311-3 of the Social Security Code, which brings into the general scheme “Les gérants de sociétés à responsabilité limitée et de sociétés d’exercice libéral à responsabilité limitée à condition que lesdits gérants ne possèdent pas ensemble plus de la moitié du capital social, étant entendu que les parts appartenant, en toute propriété ou en usufruit, au conjoint, au partenaire lié par un pacte civil de solidarité et aux enfants mineurs non émancipés d’un gérant sont considérées comme possédées par ce dernier”. In short: minority or equal-share gerants join the general scheme, majority gerants stay independent workers, and family holdings count toward the majority. Founders who keep working from London, New York or elsewhere while directing the French company add a second layer: European A1 certificates proving which country’s social security applies, French payroll registration for anyone working on French soil, and URSSAF declarations. Our detailed guide to directors’ social security, A1 certificates and URSSAF controls covers posted directors and cross-border remote work, and the hiring side, trial periods and the mandatory pre-hiring declaration (DPAE, déclaration préalable à l’embauche), is covered in our pillar setup guide.

The company’s own tax is the third pillar of running costs. Both the SAS and the SARL with several members are subject to corporate income tax as a rule: Article 206 of the General Tax Code makes liable to this tax, “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 dans les conditions prévues au IV de l’article 3 du décret n° 55-594 du 20 mai 1955 modifié”. The standard rate is now simple to quote: Article 219 of the General Tax Code states “Le taux normal de l’impôt est fixé à 25 %”. New companies pay in instalments (acomptes) during the year and settle the balance after the accounts close, so budget the cash, not just the rate. Small SARLs and single-member companies can, under conditions and for a limited time, elect for partnership-style taxation where profits are taxed directly at the member level, which sometimes helps loss-making starts but complicates foreign tax credits: take advice before electing. The official enterprise portal explains the SARL tax picture in English in its SARL taxation fact sheet. VAT (TVA, taxe sur la valeur ajoutée) registration follows automatically with an active company in most cases, with its own number and filing rhythm depending on turnover; distance sellers, marketplaces and cross-border services face extra rules, and our guide to French VAT numbers, fiscal representatives and registration from abroad covers them. Finally, the shareholders must approve the annual accounts every year, decide on dividends or reserves, and file with the registry, all manageable from abroad by written consultation or video meeting if the statutes allow it: see our walkthrough of approving annual accounts and bringing dividends home while living abroad. Keep one calendar with four dates: accounts approval, tax balance, VAT filings and social declarations, because French penalties grow while you sleep in another time zone.

B. You chose the wrong vehicle or your partner blocks everything: convert the company, transfer the shares, challenge the abuse or close cleanly

Choosing wrong is common and usually fixable. An SAS can be converted into a SARL and a SARL into an SAS by shareholder vote, with a report from a conversion auditor (commissaire à la transformation) protecting creditors, and the company keeps its legal personality, contracts, bank accounts and tax history. Conversion is the right tool when the business outgrows the vehicle: a family SARL bringing in venture investors typically becomes an SAS to create preferred shares, while a solo SASU whose founder wants the independent-worker regime sometimes becomes an EURL. Related operations follow the same logic: increase the capital to bring in a partner or convert a shareholder loan, which our guide to capital increases, cash contributions and shareholder loans from abroad explains step by step, or buy out the other side through a negotiated share transfer, checking the approval clause first so the sale is not blocked at the registry. In an SAS, the statutes can go further than in a SARL: exclusion clauses (clauses d’exclusion) can force a disruptive partner to sell at a price set by the agreed formula, and leaver clauses organise departures of founder-employees. Draft these clauses before the conflict, because courts enforce clear contractual machinery and punish improvisation.

When dialogue breaks, French law offers a ladder of remedies. Start with the shareholders’ meeting: refuse to approve the accounts, vote against the abusive resolution, and have your opposition recorded in the minutes, because a challenge filed months later needs written traces. Ask the court to appoint an expert to report on suspicious management acts, then challenge resolutions that serve the majority against the company’s interest (abus de majorité, abuse of majority) or freeze profits in reserves year after year to starve the minority (mise en réserve abusive). In a SARL, any member can petition the court to remove the gerant for legitimate cause under the second half of Article L223-25 of the Commercial Code, and our guide to deadlock, exclusion and dissolution when a partner blocks a foreign shareholder maps the full route from warning letter to court-ordered dissolution for serious deadlock (mésintelligence paralysant le fonctionnement). If the company cannot pay its debts, the director must declare the cessation of payments (cessation des paiements) at the court within forty-five days, opening rescue, recovery or liquidation proceedings as our insolvency guide for foreign owners explains, and personal liability for late filing is a real risk. If instead the business simply failed or the founder gives up, a solvent wind-down through dissolution and liquidation lets the owner leave cleanly: see our guide to closing a French company from abroad, from dissolution to final tax. For Paris-registered companies, these disputes go to the Tribunal des activités économiques de Paris (the Paris business court), whose greffe also issues the Kbis: keep the Paris seat’s mail monitored, because court summons and registry letters are served there, and a founder who learns about a hearing from a forwarded scan has already lost two weeks.

Conclusion

For most foreign founders, the SAS or SASU is the default answer: maximum contractual freedom, investor-ready shares, a president with clear powers, and removal rules you write yourself, remembering that only the statutes bind, never a side letter. The SARL or EURL wins for small owner-managed businesses where the legal straitjacket protects everyone and the majority gerant accepts independent-worker coverage. Either way, the method is the same: draft serious statutes now, deposit the capital early with a bank used to non-residents, file once and cleanly on the Guichet unique, read the Kbis on arrival, calendar the tax and social deadlines, and keep written traces of every shareholder decision. France rewards founders who respect procedure and punishes those who improvise, and from three thousand miles away the cheapest lawyer is a good clause written on day one.

Need a quick opinion on your case

Setting up an SAS or a SARL from abroad, or locked in a dispute with a French partner, director or registry? Get a telephone consultation within 48 hours with an attorney of the firm. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22 or write via our contact page. We assist foreign founders in Paris and across the Ile-de-France region, from the first statutes to the final Kbis.