You created a company in France but you live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. The Kbis (the official registration certificate issued by the greffe, the clerk’s office of the commercial court) has arrived, the corporate bank account is open, and the first invoices are about to be paid. One very practical question now dominates everything else: how do you, personally, take money out of that French company while living abroad? Can you pay yourself a monthly salary, live on dividends only, combine both, and what paperwork proves each euro you transfer to your foreign personal account? French law treats salary and dividends as two completely different channels, each with its own decision-maker, its own tax treatment and its own social security bill. Mixing them up is one of the most frequent causes of URSSAF reassessments (URSSAF being the agency that collects social security contributions) and tax adjustments for foreign founders. This guide explains the two channels step by step, with the exact legal texts, so you can choose your mix deliberately and document it from abroad.
I. What status applies when you pay yourself a salary from France?
Taking a salary from your French company sounds simple, but your social security status depends entirely on the legal form of the company and on the office you hold. A president of an SAS (société par actions simplifiée, the flexible joint-stock company most foreign founders choose) is not treated like the majority manager of a SARL (société à responsabilité limitée, the limited liability company with stricter statutory rules). The difference decides which contributions you pay, to which body, and which rights you earn in return. Understanding this split before you sign your first pay slip saves expensive corrections later.
A. How is an SAS president taxed and covered when he takes a salary?
The president of an SAS who receives remuneration for his corporate office is covered by the general social security scheme as an assimilated employee, which the French call an assimilé salarié. He is not an employee in the labour law sense: he has no employment contract, no protection against dismissal under the Code du travail, and no unemployment insurance unless he holds a separate genuine technical job alongside his office. But for social security purposes, every euro of remuneration attracts contributions to the régime général, the general scheme that covers employees, and opens rights to health coverage, family benefits and a basic plus supplementary pension on the same tables as an executive employee.
The contribution base is set by Article L. 242-1 of the Code de la sécurité sociale, which provides: “Les cotisations de sécurité sociale dues au titre de l’affiliation au régime général des personnes mentionnées aux articles L. 311-2 et L. 311-3 sont assises sur les revenus d’activité tels qu’ils sont pris en compte pour la détermination de l’assiette définie à l’article L. 136-1-1”. (Article L. 242-1 of the Code de la sécurité sociale) In plain terms, contributions apply to the gross remuneration shown on the pay slip, including bonuses and benefits in kind, and they are due for the period to which that income is allocated. The combined employer plus employee contribution rate for an assimilated employee is roughly comparable to that of a senior executive, commonly between 65 and 80 percent of net pay in total cost depending on the level of remuneration and the supplementary pension tranches, because the company pays the employer’s share on top of the gross salary.
Every salary payment must produce a bulletin de paie, the payslip that French law makes mandatory. Article L. 3243-2 of the Code du travail states: “Lors du paiement du salaire, l’employeur remet aux personnes mentionnées à l’article L. 3243-1 une pièce justificative dite bulletin de paie.” (Article L. 3243-2 of the Code du travail) For a company president, the company itself is the employer for payroll purposes: it registers with URSSAF, runs the monthly DSN (déclaration sociale nominative, the single monthly electronic payroll return that replaces most separate social declarations), withholds the employee’s share, pays the employer’s share, and issues the slip. A president who lives abroad but works for the French company follows the same payroll circuit; residence does not exempt the French company from issuing French pay slips for French-source remuneration.
For income tax, the president’s remuneration is taxed in the salaries category when it is deductible at company level. Article 62 of the Code général des impôts (the General Tax Code, abbreviated CGI) provides: “Les traitements, remboursements forfaitaires de frais et toutes autres rémunérations sont soumis à l’impôt sur le revenu au nom de leurs bénéficiaires s’ils sont admis en déduction des bénéfices soumis à l’impôt sur les sociétés par application de l’article 211”. (Article 62 of the Code général des impôts) The salary is therefore a deductible expense for the company’s corporate income tax and taxable income for the individual. If you are not a French tax resident, that French-source salary remains taxable in France as a rule, subject to the applicable double tax treaty, which usually gives the state where the work is physically performed the first right to tax employment income. Keep the treaty text next to the payslips: the payroll proves the amount, the treaty decides which country taxes it, and the foreign tax credit mechanism in your country of residence normally prevents double taxation.
One warning from the courts is worth keeping in mind even though it concerned a different type of entity. In a decision of 3 September 2026, the Second Civil Chamber of the Cour de cassation held, under case number 24-10.670: “Il résulte de la combinaison de ces textes qu’est affilié obligatoirement aux assurances sociales du régime général, le dirigeant rémunéré d’une association dont le montant annuel des ressources, calculées selon les modalités prévues par le dernier texte, est supérieur à 200 000 euros en moyenne sur les trois derniers exercices clos précédant celui pendant lequel la rémunération est versée.” (Cour de cassation, second civil chamber, 3 September 2026, No 24-10.670) The case dealt with an association director, not a company president, but the method is the lesson: the moment a director is paid, the court checks compulsory affiliation to the general scheme first and asks questions later. A foreign founder who runs a French SAS and takes a salary should assume the same reflex from URSSAF auditors: paid means affiliated, declared through the DSN, and contributions follow automatically. The official page on the remuneration of SAS directors published by the public service for businesses (service-public.fr business portal, SAS director remuneration file) confirms the practical circuit and should be read before the first payroll run.
The SAS also offers precious contractual freedom that directly affects your pay. The Commercial Chamber of the Cour de cassation recalled on 9 March 2022, in case number 19-25.795, 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”. (Cour de cassation, commercial chamber, 9 March 2022, No 19-25.795) The same freedom governs remuneration: the law does not set the president’s salary, so the articles of association (statuts) or a collective decision of the shareholders must fix it, its amount or at least its calculation method, and its revision rules. From abroad, insist on a written shareholders’ decision that states the gross monthly amount, the effective date, and who may revise it. That single page is the document URSSAF inspectors and tax auditors ask for first when they review a president’s pay.
B. What changes if you manage a SARL as majority manager from abroad?
The SARL works differently. Article L. 223-18 of the Code de commerce opens with a simple rule: “La société à responsabilité limitée est gérée par une ou plusieurs personnes physiques.” (Article L. 223-18 of the Code de commerce) The manager, called the gérant, must be a natural person, and when he holds more than half of the shares, alone or together with family holdings counted by law, he belongs to the independent workers’ scheme, the régime des travailleurs non salariés universally known by its initials TNS. He does not receive pay slips, is not covered by the general employee scheme, and pays his contributions to URSSAF under the self-employed rules, with lower rates than an assimilated employee but correspondingly thinner rights, particularly for daily sickness allowances, complementary pensions and unemployment, for which voluntary private cover is common.
The contribution base for independent workers is defined by Article L. 131-6 of the Code de la sécurité sociale, which ties it to the income determined for income tax purposes, including the manager’s remuneration and, above certain thresholds, a fraction of dividends. The practical consequence is that a majority gérant cannot escape contributions by labelling everything a dividend: part of large dividend distributions is pulled back into the social charges base under rules your accountant must compute each year. Exact thresholds move with finance laws, so have them checked annually rather than relying on a figure remembered from an old blog post.
There is one important exception inside the same text that foreign co-founders sometimes use. Article L. 311-3 of the Code de la sécurité sociale provides: “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”. (Article L. 311-3 of the Code de la sécurité sociale) In other words, a minority or equal-share manager of a SARL stays in the general employee-like scheme, exactly like an SAS president, while the majority manager falls into the TNS scheme. Two founders each holding 50 percent who both manage the SARL therefore both stay assimilated employees for social security, a configuration worth modelling with your adviser before the capital is split.
The TNS route has cash-flow implications a non-resident founder should measure. Contributions are calculated on professional income and called provisionally on the basis of the previous year’s income, with a final adjustment once the real income is known. A first-year manager with no history pays flat-rate provisional calls, then faces the adjustment in year two, at exactly the moment the company may also be paying its first corporate tax instalments. Budget both. Conversely, the assimilated-employee route of the SAS produces an immediate monthly cost through the payroll but no year-two surprise of the same kind, since each month’s DSN settles that month’s contributions. Neither route is universally cheaper: the SAS costs more in contributions per euro of net pay but buys broader coverage and simpler proof, while the SARL majority route costs less in charges but demands private top-up insurance and careful dividend planning.
A final practical point for both forms: social security follows the place of work within the European Union coordination rules, and bilateral agreements cover many non-EU situations. A director who genuinely lives and works abroad for the French company may, depending on the country and on where the activity is actually performed, remain covered in his state of residence with an A1 posting certificate or equivalent, or fall under French coverage for the French mandate. These are case-by-case determinations that depend on residence, nationality, the country concerned and the real pattern of work. Do not assume that living abroad automatically removes French contributions on French-source remuneration; ask for a written determination before skipping affiliation, because retroactive affiliation plus late penalties is the standard sanction when the analysis was wrong.
II. How do you take dividends and combine them with salary from abroad?
Dividends are the second channel, and they obey company law rather than payroll law. They reward the shareholder, not the worker: they require profits, a vote, and accounts that prove the profits exist. Many foreign founders dream of a dividends-only life with no payroll and no social charges. That dream is sometimes workable, but it has strict legal gates and hidden costs, starting with the fact that dividends need a profitable year while a salary is paid even in a loss-making year. The sections below set out each gate, then show how to combine the two channels safely.
A. When can your French company legally pay you dividends?
Dividends can only be voted after the annual accounts are approved and distributable sums are established. Article L. 232-12 of the Code de commerce states: “Après approbation des comptes annuels et constatation de l’existence de sommes distribuables, l’assemblée générale détermine la part attribuée aux associés sous forme de dividendes.” (Article L. 232-12 of the Code de commerce) The sequence is therefore fixed: close the accounts, have them approved by the shareholders within six months of year-end, verify that reserves, legal allocations and prior losses leave a distributable balance, then vote the dividend. The payment itself follows within nine months of year-end. A dividend voted without that sequence, or in excess of the distributable sums, is not a minor irregularity. The same article warns: “Tout dividende distribué en violation des règles ci-dessus énoncées est un dividende fictif.” (Article L. 232-12 of the Code de commerce) Fictitious dividends expose the directors to civil liability toward the company and, in serious cases, to criminal prosecution for distributing fictitious dividends, alongside an obligation for the shareholders to repay them.
Interim dividends, called acomptes sur dividendes, exist for founders who cannot wait for year-end, but their gate is even narrower: only a balance sheet drawn up during the financial year and certified by a statutory auditor (commissaire aux comptes) showing a profit after depreciation, provisions, prior losses and mandatory reserve allocations may support them, and the advance cannot exceed that certified profit. Most young foreign-owned companies have no statutory auditor and cannot use this door; they must wait for the ordinary approval cycle. Plan your personal cash needs around that calendar: a company closed on 31 December typically votes dividends between April and June, for payment in the following months.
The tax treatment of dividends for a non-resident shareholder starts with a withholding that surprises many founders. Article 119 bis of the Code général des impôts provides: “Les produits visés aux articles 108 à 117 bis donnent lieu à l’application d’une retenue à la source dont le taux est fixé par l’article 187 lorsque leurs bénéficiaires effectifs sont des personnes qui n’ont pas leur domicile fiscal ou leur siège en France”. (Article 119 bis of the Code général des impôts) The French company must therefore withhold tax at source on the dividends it pays to its foreign shareholder and remit it to the French Treasury; the standard statutory rate is high, commonly 25 percent for individuals in recent years, before treaty relief. Most French double tax treaties reduce that rate, often to 15 percent or below for qualifying beneficial owners, but the reduction is not automatic: the shareholder must provide the treaty reclaim forms, usually certified by his foreign tax administration, within the deadlines, and the excess is otherwise withheld first and refunded later. Your distribution checklist from abroad should therefore include the treaty form alongside the shareholders’ minutes, or part of the dividend will stay temporarily with the French Treasury.
For a French tax resident shareholder, dividends join the flat-rate levy system or, on election, the progressive scale with its allowance, but a non-resident founder is generally outside that election: the withholding described above is the main French levy, with the dividend then declared in the country of residence under local rules. Keep both proofs: the French withholding certificate issued in connection with the distribution, and the bank transfer showing the net amount received. Tax administrations on both sides ask for these two documents when they check the foreign tax credit.
One more gate concerns the source of the funds. Dividends must come from distributable profits, never from the share capital, and never from a company whose equity has fallen below half of the capital without following the special recapitalisation or continuation procedure. If the balance sheet shows worries, the dividend project must wait for a clean legal and accounting opinion. Directors who push a distribution through a doubtful balance sheet answer for it personally, and the shareholder who knew or should have known the distribution was irregular must return it. When in doubt, the safe substitute is a modest salary, which requires no profit and no vote on accounts, combined with patience until the accounts genuinely allow a dividend.
B. How do you combine salary and dividends without a URSSAF or tax reassessment?
The combination most advisers recommend for a foreign founder is a base salary that covers social protection plus dividends that distribute the remaining profit. The salary, even modest, keeps you affiliated and buys health, pension and provident rights that a dividends-only founder simply does not earn, while the dividends move the rest of the profit at a global cost that is often lower than loading everything onto the payroll. The exact split depends on your residence country, your need for French coverage, and the treaty, but the method for securing it is the same everywhere: decide in writing, pay through the right circuit, and keep every proof accessible from abroad.
Start with the written decisions. The shareholders must fix the director’s remuneration in a dated minute that states the gross amount, the effective date and the revision rule; the SAS freedom recalled by the Cour de cassation on 9 March 2022 in case number 19-25.795, available at Cour de cassation, commercial chamber, 9 March 2022, No 19-25.795, means your statuts or your minutes do this job, because “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”. Remuneration follows the same logic: what is not written does not exist for an auditor. Then, each year, separate minutes must approve the accounts and vote the dividend, referencing the exact distributable amount shown in the approved balance sheet. These two sets of minutes, remuneration and distribution, are the backbone of your file; label every bank transfer to match them, with references such as salary for a given month or dividend balance for a given year.
Run each channel through its own circuit and never mix them. Salaries travel through the payroll: monthly pay slip under Article L. 3243-2 of the Code du travail, monthly DSN to URSSAF, withholding of income tax at source through the PAS system, and payment from the company account to your personal account with the month clearly referenced. Dividends travel through the corporate secretarial circuit: approved accounts filed with the greffe, shareholders’ minutes voting the dividend, withholding under Article 119 bis of the Code général des impôts computed and remitted by the company, and payment of the net dividend with the treaty reclaim filed where applicable. A transfer labelled as an advance, a loan or a current-account withdrawal that behaves economically like hidden remuneration is the classic trigger for reassessment: URSSAF pulls it into the contribution base under Article L. 242-1 of the Code de la sécurité sociale, whose text covers affiliation through Articles L. 311-2 and L. 311-3, and the tax administration reclassifies it as salary with penalties. The case of 3 September 2026, Second Civil Chamber, No 24-10.670, published at Cour de cassation, second civil chamber, 3 September 2026, No 24-10.670, illustrates the courts’ strict reading of affiliation texts: “Il résulte de la combinaison de ces textes qu’est affilié obligatoirement aux assurances sociales du régime général, le dirigeant rémunéré d’une association dont le montant annuel des ressources, calculées selon les modalités prévues par le dernier texte, est supérieur à 200 000 euros en moyenne sur les trois derniers exercices clos précédant celui pendant lequel la rémunération est versée.” Different entity, same reflex: once money reaches a director, affiliation and contributions are presumed, and the company must prove the correct circuit was used.
Beware the dividends-only strategy, which is lawful in itself but fragile in practice. A founder with no salary earns no French health coverage, no pension quarters and no daily sickness allowance from the French system, which matters the day a hospital bill or a loan application requires proof of income and cover. Banks granting a French mortgage or lease almost always ask for pay slips, not dividend minutes. And a zero-salary president who works full time for the company invites questions: URSSAF may examine whether off-circuit payments hide remuneration, and the tax administration may test whether management fees or current-account movements are disguised salary. None of this forbids dividends-only years, particularly when the founder is covered abroad, but it means the choice must be deliberate, minuted, and supported by real foreign coverage, not a default caused by forgetting the payroll.
Organise the evidence so it can be produced from abroad within days, because audits always come with short deadlines. Keep in one shared file the Kbis, the statuts with the remuneration clause, the annual remuneration minutes, the twelve pay slips with the DSN receipts, the approved accounts with the greffe filing proof, the dividend minutes with the withholding computation and the treaty forms, and the bank statements showing each labelled transfer. If you run the full journey from incorporation to first payroll and first distribution, the companion guide on setting up a company in France as a foreign founder: bank account, Kbis, VAT and first hire gives the earlier steps of the same path. The legal references used throughout this guide are the current versions of Article L. 311-3 of the Code de la sécurité sociale, Article L. 242-1 of the Code de la sécurité sociale, Article L. 131-6 of the Code de la sécurité sociale, Article L. 223-18 of the Code de commerce, Article L. 232-12 of the Code de commerce, Article L. 3243-2 of the Code du travail, Article 62 of the Code général des impôts and Article 119 bis of the Code général des impôts, each to be reread in its version in force on the day you act, since finance and social security financing laws adjust rates, thresholds and forms every year.
Conclusion
Paying yourself from a French company while living abroad is a choice between two legal channels, not a single tap. Salary buys social protection and simple proof through the pay slip and the DSN, at the price of higher contributions, with the SAS president in the general scheme as an assimilated employee and the majority SARL manager in the independent workers’ scheme. Dividends move profit to the shareholder only after approved accounts and a regular vote, with withholding at source for non-residents and treaty relief to claim. The safe pattern for most foreign founders is a deliberate mix decided in writing each year: enough salary to stay covered and credible, dividends for the rest once the accounts genuinely allow them, each euro travelling through its own documented circuit. Set the two minutes, run the two circuits, keep the proofs where you can reach them from abroad, and the French company becomes what it should be: a business that pays its founder cleanly, on time, and without fear of the next audit.