You created a company in France from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, and instead of increasing the share capital you wired money from your personal foreign account to keep the business running: paying the office deposit, covering the first salaries, bridging a value-added tax (VAT) gap. On the French balance sheet, that wire is called an avance en compte courant d’associé, a shareholder current-account advance, in plain terms a loan from a shareholder to their own company. Months later you ask for your money back and the reply from Paris is evasive: the funds are blocked, the shareholders voted a lock-in, the company has no cash, the manager says the advance will be repaid only when the property is sold. Living abroad, you wonder whether French law leaves you powerless, how much interest your company may legally pay you, and what French tax applies when interest crosses the border to a non-resident lender. This guide answers those three questions in order: first, your right to be repaid and the proof you must gather from abroad; second, the blocking clauses and minority traps that can lawfully delay repayment; third, the deductible-interest cap and the withholding tax on interest paid to someone who does not live in France. Each point is grounded in the statute in force and in court decisions handed down in 2025 and 2026.
I. Getting your shareholder loan back when you live abroad
A. How to claim repayment of a loan you made from abroad and what proof to gather
French company law starts from a simple principle: money you lend to your company is not a gift and not capital. It is a loan, and a loan must be repaid. Article 1902 of the French Civil Code states that “L’emprunteur est tenu de rendre les choses prêtées, en même quantité et qualité, et au terme convenu” (Article 1902, Civil Code). In practice, shareholder current-account advances are repayable on demand, at any time, unless a written agreement says otherwise. That default rule is your strongest asset when you live abroad, because it means you do not need a court to create your right: you only need to prove the loan and to demand it.
A recent decision shows exactly how courts apply this. Four shareholders of a French simplified joint-stock company (société par actions simplifiée, known as a SAS) had made current-account advances to finance a real-estate project in Benin. After falling out with the chairwoman (présidente), they asked to leave the company and to recover their advances. The Paris Commercial Court ordered the company to repay 6,700 euros, 6,700 euros, 7,140 euros and 3,660 euros respectively, and the company appealed. The Paris Court of Appeal recalled, on 14 April 2026 (no. 24/01215), the ground on which the first judges had granted repayment: “ni dans les statuts, ni lors de la souscription du capital social, il a été stipulé un blocage des comptes courants”. Because neither the articles of association (statuts) nor the subscription documents contained any lock-in clause, the advances remained repayable. The court added that a shareholders’ meeting held after the formal demand could not retrospectively increase the shareholders’ commitments without unanimity. For a foreign founder, the lesson is direct: if you never signed a blocking agreement (convention de blocage), the company cannot invent one after you ask for your money, and a majority vote cannot force you to leave your cash in the company indefinitely. Read the full decision here: CA Paris, Pôle 5, Chambre 8, 14 April 2026, no. 24/01215.
Proof is where foreign lenders win or lose. From abroad, assemble before any demand: the written current-account agreement (convention de compte courant) if one exists, or at minimum emails and board minutes describing the wire as an advance; the SWIFT transfer slips showing the debit of your foreign personal account and the credit of the French company account, with matching amounts, dates and reference; the company’s accounting entries and annual financial statements (comptes annuels) recording the credit balance in your name; and any acknowledgment by the manager, even informal. If interest was agreed, Article 1907 of the Civil Code requires writing: “Le taux de l’intérêt conventionnel doit être fixé par écrit” (Article 1907, Civil Code). Without a written rate, you can still recover the principal, but contractual interest above the statutory rate (taux d’intérêt légal) will be refused. Keep every document in euros with the exchange rate applied at the transfer date, because the French judge reasons in euros and your foreign bank statement alone will not convert itself.
The procedure itself can be handled from abroad through a French lawyer. The standard sequence is a formal demand letter (mise en demeure) served by a commissaire de justice, the French enforcement officer formerly called huissier, giving the company a short deadline, typically eight to fifteen days, and warning of legal interest and court costs. If the debt is undisputed in writing, the fast track is the injonction de payer, an order-for-payment procedure before the commercial court (tribunal de commerce) or the judicial court (tribunal judiciaire) depending on the company form, filed on documents alone and served internationally. If the company disputes the nature of the payment, an ordinary summons (assignation) follows, and the court will examine the paper trail described above. Interest for late payment and capitalisation of interest can be claimed from the demand, as claimants routinely do, though the court grants them only on proven written agreement or on the statutory rate. Acting through counsel in Paris, signing powers of attorney electronically and appearing by representation means you never need to fly in for the first stages. Readers setting up the whole structure, from the corporate bank account to the Kbis company identity certificate issued by the court clerk (greffe), will find the general roadmap in our companion guide to setting up a company in France as a foreign founder: bank account, Kbis, VAT and first hire.
B. When the French company refuses: lock-in clauses, systematic reserves and prohibited debit accounts
Repayment on demand is the default, not an absolute. Three lawful obstacles can delay or defeat your claim, and each has been tested in court in the past eighteen months.
First, a lock-in clause you actually signed is enforceable. In a Paris case decided on 22 May 2026 (no. 24/08300), a company had transferred 1,284,800 euros to a sister company within a joint venture holding a Paris property. When it demanded immediate repayment of its current-account claim with interest from July 2020, the Paris Commercial Court rejected the claim, having “rejeté la demande de remboursement de l’avance en compte courant, qualifié de prêt entre associés remboursable uniquement lors de la revente du bien immobilier”. The advance had been characterised as a shareholder loan repayable only upon resale of the building, and the creditor company did not even appeal that part of the judgment: its appeal challenged only accounting disclosure orders. The message for foreign investors is blunt: read before you wire. If the subscription pack, the shareholders’ agreement (pacte d’associés) or a standalone blocking agreement ties repayment to an event such as a resale, a fundraising or a fixed date, French courts will hold you to it. Never wire first and read later; the blocking clause signed in English in a London or Dubai side letter can still bind you if it designates the French advance. Full text: CA Paris, Pôle 4, Chambre 1, 22 May 2026, no. 24/08300.
Second, even without a lock-in, the company may simply have no distributable cash because profits are systematically parked in reserves. A minority shareholder in a French company that had never distributed a single dividend since incorporation, with reserves climbing from 138,389 euros to 282,294 euros between 2015 and 2023 while the majority manager raised his own pay, cried abuse of majority (abus de majorité). Before the Poitiers Court of Appeal on 11 March 2025 (no. 24/00333), she invoked the Cour de cassation, Commercial Chamber, 1 July 2003, no. 99-19328, recalled in the judgment, under which “les bénéfices d’exploitation de l’entreprise sont venus systématiquement accroître le montant des capitaux propres, (…) sans que cette mise en réserve n’ait eu aucun effet sur la politique d’investissement de l’entreprise”. Yet the court confirmed the lower judgment in full: “Confirme le jugement déféré en toutes ses dispositions”, dismissing her claims. Systematically hoarding profits can in theory amount to abuse of majority, but the bar is high: the claimant must show the reserves serve neither debt, nor risk, nor investment, and benefit only the majority. A foreign minority shareholder who cannot obtain repayment of a current account and cannot obtain dividends either should therefore gather multi-year accounts, investment records and the manager’s remuneration history before alleging abuse, because courts reject bare assertions of unfairness. Decision: CA Poitiers, 2nd Chamber, 11 March 2025, no. 24/00333.
Third, two neighbouring rulings show how courts treat debt forgiveness and withdrawal accounting. The Versailles Court of Appeal, Commercial Chamber 3-2, on 9 September 2025 (no. 24/05677), upheld the rejection of a claim seeking to annul EUR 80,450 of current-account debt waivers granted since 2017 and to order repayment of 225,550 euros plus statutory interest running from 21 December 2019, in a family property company (société civile immobilière, known as SCI) that had bought its building with shareholder advances and a bank loan. And the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, Chamber 3-4, on 23 October 2025 (no. 23/06454), refused a withdrawing shareholder’s demand for EUR 352,855.80 of current-account repayment, sending the valuation of her rights to an expert instead. Together they confirm that waivers (abandons de créance) documented in the accounts are hard to undo, and that leaving the company does not automatically cash out the current account on the leaver’s terms. Texts: CA Versailles, Commercial Chamber 3-2, 9 September 2025, no. 24/05677 and CA Aix-en-Provence, Chamber 3-4, 23 October 2025, no. 23/06454.
One more boundary protects you but also constrains managers. The loan direction matters: while a shareholder may lend to the company, the reverse is strictly policed. Article L223-21 of the French Commercial Code provides that “A peine de nullité du contrat, il est interdit aux gérants ou associés autres que les personnes morales de contracter, sous quelque forme que ce soit, des emprunts auprès de la société, de se faire consentir par elle un découvert, en compte courant ou autrement, ainsi que de faire cautionner ou avaliser par elle leurs engagements envers les tiers.” An identical prohibition applies to directors of public limited companies under Article L225-43, which states that “A peine de nullité du contrat, il est interdit aux administrateurs autres que les personnes morales de contracter, sous quelque forme que ce soit, des emprunts auprès de la société, de se faire consentir par elle un découvert, en compte courant ou autrement, ainsi que de faire cautionner ou avaliser par elle leurs engagements envers les tiers.” A debit current account in the manager’s name is therefore void and must be regularised immediately; it cannot be used as a set-off excuse against your credit balance. Statutes: Article L223-21, Commercial Code and Article L225-43, Commercial Code. In a SAS, advances from shareholders holding more than 10 percent of voting rights fall under regulated agreements (conventions réglementées): the auditor (commissaire aux comptes), or the chair if there is no auditor, reports on them and the shareholders vote, under Article L227-10, Commercial Code, which requires that “Le commissaire aux comptes ou, s’il n’en a pas été désigné, le président de la société présente aux associés un rapport sur les conventions intervenues directement ou par personne interposée entre la société et son président, l’un de ses dirigeants, l’un de ses actionnaires disposant d’une fraction des droits de vote supérieure à 10 %”. Check that your advance went through that report: its absence does not void your loan, but its presence proves the company acknowledged the debt.
II. Interest and French tax when the lender lives outside France
A. How much interest the French company may deduct: the cap, the reference rate and the paid-up capital condition
French tax law lets the company deduct interest paid to shareholders, but within a ceiling that moves every month. Article 39, 1-3° of the French Tax Code (Code général des impôts) allows “Les intérêts servis aux associés à raison des sommes qu’ils laissent ou mettent à la disposition de la société, en sus de leur part du capital, quelle que soit la forme de la société, dans la limite de ceux calculés à un taux égal à la moyenne annuelle des taux effectifs moyens pratiqués par les établissements de crédit et les sociétés de financement pour des prêts à taux variable aux entreprises, d’une durée initiale supérieure à deux ans. Cette déduction est subordonnée à la condition que le capital ait été entièrement libéré.” Two practical consequences follow. First, only interest computed up to that average market rate, called the TMP average rate, is deductible; anything above is added back to taxable profit. Second, no deduction at all is allowed unless the share capital has been fully paid up (capital entièrement libéré): a foreign founder who subscribed 10,000 euros but paid in only 2,500 euros cannot have the company deduct a single euro of interest on the current account. Text: Article 39, 1-3°, General Tax Code.
The administration publishes the ceiling as a reference rate (taux de référence) depending on the financial year-end. The official English-language service-public explainer, verified 3 July 2026, explains that these advances are treated as interest-bearing loans, and warns that where the contractual rate fixed by the articles or the agreement exceeds the reference rate, the excess interest paid to the shareholder cannot be deducted. For twelve-month years closing in mid-2026 the published reference rates were 4.34 percent for years closing between 31 May and 29 June 2026 and 4.33 percent for years closing between 30 June and 29 September 2026, down from 5.32 percent a year earlier. Concretely, a 200,000 euro advance bearing 7 percent contractual interest for a year ending 30 June 2026 generates 14,000 euros of interest, of which only about 8,660 euros (200,000 at 4.33 percent) is deductible; the 5,340 euro excess stays in taxable profit and costs the company corporate income tax (impôt sur les sociétés) at the standard rate. The detailed doctrine is BOFiP BOI-BIC-CHG-50-50-30 on interest on shareholder advances and the cap rate. Sources: service-public: shareholder current account, operation and taxation (English) and BOFiP BOI-BIC-CHG-50-50-30, interest cap rate.
When the foreign lender is not an individual but their own foreign company, a second ceiling applies. Article 212, I of the Tax Code provides that “Les intérêts afférents aux sommes laissées ou mises à disposition d’une entreprise par une entreprise qui est son associée ou par une entreprise liée, directement ou indirectement, au sens du 12 de l’article 39, sont déductibles : a) Dans la limite de ceux calculés d’après le taux prévu au premier alinéa du 3° du 1 du même article 39 ou, s’ils sont supérieurs, d’après le taux que cette entreprise emprunteuse aurait pu obtenir d’établissements ou d’organismes financiers indépendants dans des conditions analogues”. A French subsidiary borrowing from its foreign parent at 9 percent must therefore justify that an independent bank would have lent at that rate in similar conditions, with documentation on the loan terms, the subsidiary’s creditworthiness and market comparables, or accept the TMP cap. Groups that ignore this face reassessment on audit, with the excess interest reclassified. Statute: Article 212, I, General Tax Code.
Excess interest does not simply vanish: it can be recharacterised as a distribution. Article 109, 1 of the Tax Code treats as distributed income “Tous les bénéfices ou produits qui ne sont pas mis en réserve ou incorporés au capital” and “Toutes les sommes ou valeurs mises à la disposition des associés, actionnaires ou porteurs de parts et non prélevées sur les bénéfices.” Interest paid above market to a foreign shareholder therefore risks dividend treatment, with dividend withholding instead of interest treatment and no corporate deduction. The written agreement should state a rate at or below the reference rate, fix the calculation method, and record the capital liberation date. And remember Article 1907: “Le taux de l’intérêt conventionnel doit être fixé par écrit” (Article 1907, Civil Code). An oral 6 percent agreed on a video call is worth little before the tax auditor (vérificateur); a signed clause is worth its weight. Statutes: Article 109, 1, General Tax Code and Article 1907, Civil Code.
B. French tax when interest leaves France: withholding, treaties and how to challenge from abroad
The tax treatment of the interest depends on where you, the lender, live for tax purposes (domicile fiscal). If you moved to France, Article 125 A, I of the Tax Code provides that “Les personnes physiques fiscalement domiciliées en France au sens de l’article 4 B qui bénéficient d’intérêts, arrérages et produits de toute nature de fonds d’Etat, obligations, titres participatifs, bons et autres titres de créances, dépôts, cautionnements et comptes courants, ainsi que d’intérêts versés au titre des sommes mises à la disposition de la société dont elles sont associées ou actionnaires et portées sur un compte bloqué individuel, sont assujetties à un prélèvement lorsque la personne qui assure le paiement de ces revenus est établie en France, qu’il s’agisse ou non du débiteur, ce dernier étant établi en France ou hors de France.” The French company then withholds a flat levy (prélèvement) at payment, creditable against your French income tax. Statute: Article 125 A, I, General Tax Code.
If you stayed tax-resident abroad, which is this guide’s core case, the mechanism is a withholding at source (retenue à la source). Article 119 bis, 1 of the Tax Code states that “Les revenus de capitaux mobiliers entrant dans les prévisions des articles 118,119, 238 septies B et 1678 bis donnent lieu à l’application d’une retenue à la source dont le taux est fixé par le 1 de l’article 187 , lorsqu’ils bénéficient à des personnes qui ont leur siège en France ou à l’étranger ou qui n’ont pas leur domicile fiscal en France.” Paragraph 2 extends the same logic to distributed products under Articles 108 to 117 bis when the beneficial owners (bénéficiaires effectifs) have neither French tax domicile nor French seat. The French company must therefore identify your residence, apply the domestic rate by default, and pay the withholding to the tax administration (direction générale des finances publiques, known as DGFiP). Statute: Article 119 bis, General Tax Code. Where a bilateral tax treaty between France and your state of residence caps the source taxation of interest, often at 0 or 10 percent, the reduced rate applies only if you deliver before payment a certificate of residence (attestation de résidence fiscale) on the treaty form, duly stamped by your home tax authority. Without that certificate, the company must withhold at the full domestic rate, and you recover the excess afterwards by filing a reclaim with the French withholding-tax office with proof of residence, the loan agreement, the interest computation and the bank trail. Keep the certificate current: an expired form is the most common reason treaty relief is refused on audit.
From abroad, disputes follow a paper path you can walk without relocating. If the auditor reclassifies your interest as dividends, denies the deduction for lack of fully paid-up capital, or applies withholding despite your treaty claim, first file an administrative claim (réclamation contentieuse) with the competent tax office within the statutory deadline stated on the assessment notice (avis d’imposition or proposition de rectification), attaching the residence certificate, the written rate clause, the TMP computation for the year-end month, proof that the capital was fully liberated before the interest accrued, and the transfer slips. If the administration rejects or stays silent, appeal lies to the administrative court (tribunal administratif), where proceedings are written and representation by a French tax lawyer suffices. Parallel to tax, if the company itself withholds your repayment citing set-off (compensation) with alleged damages, contest the set-off in the commercial court and demand separate accounting of the current-account balance: French judges require liquid, due and fungible debts before any set-off, and a disputed damages claim is none of those. Foreign founders who hit a wall at the account-opening stage rather than the lending stage should read our guide to forcing a French company account open from abroad: capital deposit, Kbis and droit au compte, because a frozen account and a frozen current account often come from the same missing paperwork.
Conclusion
A shareholder loan from abroad to a French company is repayable on demand unless you signed a lock-in, it bears deductible interest only up to the monthly reference rate and only if the capital is fully paid up, and its interest suffers French withholding when you live outside France unless a treaty certificate secures the reduced rate. Before wiring, sign a written advance agreement with an explicit rate at or below the reference rate, check the articles for any blocking clause, liberate the capital in full, and file the treaty residence certificate with the company. If repayment stalls, serve a formal demand through a commissaire de justice, then use the order-for-payment track for documented balances and the full commercial-court action for disputed ones, keeping every transfer slip and board minute. The 2025 and 2026 decisions cited above show courts enforcing written bargains in both directions: no lock-in means repayment, as in the Paris 14 April 2026 ruling, while a signed sale-linked lock-in means waiting, as in the Paris 22 May 2026 ruling. Paper made abroad, in euros and in writing, is what gets money home.