You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore and you want a real operating company in France: a French bank account, French clients billed in euros, maybe a first hire in Paris. The question your accountant back home cannot answer is which French vehicle to pick. In practice the choice comes down to three forms: the SAS (société par actions simplifiée, simplified joint-stock company), its one-person version the SASU (société par actions simplifiée unipersonnelle), and the SARL (société à responsabilité limitée, limited liability company), whose one-person version is called the EURL (entreprise unipersonnelle à responsabilité limitée). All three shield your personal assets, since shareholders bear losses only up to their contributions. Everything else — who runs the company while you are abroad, how you bring in or buy out partners, what tax the profits bear and what social regime covers you as manager — works differently. This guide compares the three forms rule by rule, with the exact statutes and court decisions behind each point, so that a founder living outside France can choose once and choose well.

I. SAS or SARL in France: what really changes when you live abroad?

A. Who runs the company day to day, and who can remove the manager from abroad?

The SAS is a contract-first company. Article L. 227-5 of the Commercial Code states, in one sentence: “Les statuts fixent les conditions dans lesquelles la société est dirigée.” The articles of association decide how the company is run. The statute imposes only one mandatory officer: a president (président) who represents the company vis-à-vis third parties, designated as the articles provide, and “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.” Beyond that, you are free: you can add a general manager (directeur général), deputy managers, a board, committees, veto rights for the foreign parent, or remote voting rules for associates scattered across time zones. That freedom is exactly what a non-resident founder needs, because the articles can organise written consultations, video meetings and decisions signed from abroad instead of physical meetings in France.

The same freedom governs dismissal. The Commercial Code says nothing about removing SAS officers, and the Cour de cassation has drawn the consequence twice. In a 9 March 2022 decision (Commercial chamber, appeal no. 19-25.795), the Court approved an appeal ruling which had “exactement énoncé que 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”. In that case the articles simply said the managers could be removed at any time by the sole associate or the general meeting, and the Court held that, reading that clause as requiring a serious reason would add to it: no reason had to be shown. For a foreign parent company, the lesson is direct: if your French SAS articles say the president or the general manager can be removed at any time by decision of the sole shareholder taken from abroad, that clause governs, and a dismissed local manager cannot demand that you prove misconduct.

More recently, on 9 July 2025 (Commercial chamber, appeal no. 23-21.160), the Court confirmed the other side of that freedom: what the articles do not say can be completed outside them. An investment protocol signed alongside the articles promised a general manager a fixed severance if he were removed within two years, while the articles themselves provided for removal without compensation. The court of appeal had thrown the promise out as contrary to the articles; the Cour de cassation quashed that reasoning, holding that the off-articles clause contained only a personal undertaking by its signatories to arrange for the appointment decision to include the severance, “de sorte qu’elle n’est pas contraire à l’article 16 des statuts”, and recalling that “les conventions légalement formées tiennent lieu de loi à ceux qui les ont faites.” If you recruit a country manager for your French subsidiary from abroad, you can therefore combine strict articles (removal at any time, no indemnity) with a separate side agreement (shareholders’ agreement or investment protocol) that protects the manager — each document doing its own job.

The SARL works the opposite way: the statute, not the contract, runs the show. A SARL is managed by one or more gérants (managers) who must be natural persons, appointed by the associates in the articles or by an ordinary meeting. The official Service-Public Entreprendre guide states that the manager is obligatorily a natural person, appointed by the partners in the statutes or by a separate act adopted in an ordinary general meeting. From abroad, that means every appointment or replacement of the manager requires a formal associates’ decision with statutory majorities, not a flexible clause you drafted once. Strategic decisions that amend the articles need an even heavier vote: “Toutes autres modifications des statuts sont décidées par les associés représentant au moins les trois quarts des parts sociales.” And once a year the accounts must be approved collectively by the associates — whereas in a one-person SAS or SASU, “L’associé unique approuve les comptes, après rapport du commissaire aux comptes s’il en existe un, dans le délai de six mois à compter de la clôture de l’exercice.” A sole foreign shareholder therefore approves the accounts alone, on papers sent from Paris, with no meeting to organise.

B. Can you choose your partners, lock the capital and force an exit from abroad?

Bringing an investor in, or keeping an unwanted buyer out, is where the two forms diverge most. Start with the SARL, because the rule is statutory and strict. “Les parts sociales ne peuvent être cédées à des tiers étrangers à la société qu’avec le consentement de la majorité des associés représentant au moins la moitié des parts sociales, à moins que les statuts prévoient une majorité plus forte.” In plain English: parts sociales (the SARL’s units, which unlike shares cannot be traded) cannot be sold to an outsider without the company’s consent, given by associates holding at least half the units — and your articles can only make that lock harder, never lighter. If consent is refused, the statute forces a way out: “Si la société a refusé de consentir à la cession, les associés sont tenus, dans le délai de trois mois à compter de ce refus, d’acquérir ou de faire acquérir les parts à un prix fixé dans les conditions prévues à l’article 1843-4 du code civil, sauf si le cédant renonce à la cession de ses parts.” Within three months of the refusal, the remaining associates must buy the units or have them bought, at a price set by an independent expert where they disagree.

That expert-price mechanism regularly reaches the courts, which shows how seriously French judges police it. In a 6 February 2019 decision (Commercial chamber, appeal no. 16-13.636) arising from a refused approval in a SARL, where the president of the commercial court had appointed an expert on petition to value the units, the Cour de cassation held that “l’ordonnance du 3 décembre 2013 ayant été rendue sur requête sur le fondement des articles L. 223-14 et R. 223-11 du code de commerce, le référé aux fins de rétractation était recevable, peu important que cette ordonnance ait été rendue pour mettre en oeuvre l’expertise prévue à l’article 1843-4 du code civil auquel renvoie le premier de ces textes”. For a foreign founder, the practical message is double-edged: a SARL protects you against an unknown new co-owner, but if you fall out with your French partner and approval is refused, expect an expert valuation procedure with court involvement and its costs, run from Paris while you follow it from abroad.

The SAS reverses the logic: nothing is mandatory, everything is drafted. The statute offers a toolbox and you pick the tools. “Les statuts de la société peuvent prévoir l’inaliénabilité des actions pour une durée n’excédant pas dix ans.” Your articles can lock all transfers for up to ten years — ideal for a joint venture whose foreign and French partners want a stable start. “Les statuts peuvent soumettre toute cession d’actions à l’agrément préalable de la société.” You can require prior approval for every sale of shares (actions), on conditions you define: who votes, by what majority, within what time. And “Dans les conditions qu’ils déterminent, les statuts peuvent prévoir qu’un associé peut être tenu de céder ses actions.” You can write a forced-exit (exclusion) clause that compels a partner to sell on defined triggers — breach, deadlock, change of control of the foreign parent — with the price formula fixed in advance. None of this exists by default in a SARL. If your project involves investors, successive funding rounds or a future sale of the French subsidiary, the SAS lets you draft the whole journey in the articles and the shareholders’ agreement; a carefully drafted shareholders’ agreement alongside the articles carries that journey, from approval to drag-along.

Capital funding follows the same contrast. Both forms can start small: the official guide states that SAS capital is determined freely by the associates, with a one-euro floor. For the SARL, the statute stages the cash: “Les parts représentant des apports en numéraire doivent être libérées d’au moins un cinquième de leur montant.” Cash units must be paid up by at least one fifth at subscription, and “La libération du surplus intervient en une ou plusieurs fois sur décision du gérant, dans un délai qui ne peut excéder cinq ans à compter de l’immatriculation de la société au registre du commerce et des sociétés.” The balance is called by the manager within five years of registration with the Trade and Companies Register (registre du commerce et des sociétés, the RCS kept by the greffe, the registry office of the commercial court). A foreign founder wiring funds from abroad should therefore plan two wires for a SARL — the initial fifth plus later calls — while a SAS structures its subscription and calls entirely in the articles. One warning for ambitious fundraisers: “La société par actions simplifiée ne peut procéder à une offre au public de titres financiers ou à l’admission aux négociations sur un marché réglementé de ses actions.” No public offering and no stock-market listing for a SAS; if your roadmap ends at an IPO, convert to a public limited company (société anonyme) first.

II. What will each company form cost you in French tax and social charges?

A. Company tax and taking the profits out: corporate tax, dividends and the one-person option

For tax purposes the SAS, SASU, SARL and EURL with several or single owners start from the same gate. Article 206 of the General Tax Code (Code général des impôts, CGI) provides that “sont passibles de l’impôt sur les sociétés, quel que soit leur objet” the listed companies, including the SARL which has not elected for the partnership regime — the Code expressly contemplates that election, whose current conditions should be checked against the latest official wording before any filing. In the standard case, your French company pays French corporate income tax (impôt sur les sociétés, IS) on its French profits however small, and the current normal rate is set by article 219 CGI: “Le taux normal de l’impôt est fixé à 25 %.” Reduced rates exist for small companies on the first slice of profit, subject to capital-ownership and turnover conditions that change regularly, so confirm the current thresholds on impots.gouv.fr before modelling your business plan. Form choice changes almost nothing at this level: a euro of profit kept in the company bears the same IS whether the vehicle is a SAS or a SARL.

The difference appears when the money leaves the company toward you. If you are an individual resident in France for tax purposes and you take dividends from your SAS or SARL, article 200 A CGI applies a flat levy whose rate the statute states plainly: “Le taux forfaitaire mentionné au premier alinéa du présent 1 est fixé à 12,8 %”, before social levies, with an option for the progressive income-tax scale in defined cases. If you remain resident abroad, French withholding on dividends paid to non-residents and the tax treaty between France and your country decide who taxes what — the treaty allocation always beats any general article, so read the treaty first. Either way, dividends are voted by the associates out of distributable profit, which means the governance rules of Part I decide how fast you can actually pay yourself: sole shareholder of a SASU deciding alone, or associates’ vote at the required majority in a SARL. How the founder is paid — salary, dividends and social charges compared — is modelled in detail in our guide to manager remuneration.

Single-owner structures deserve a special word because most foreign founders start alone. A SASU has one associate who “exerce les pouvoirs dévolus aux associés lorsque le présent chapitre prévoit une prise de décision collective”, and the mirror rule in article L. 223-1 gives the sole member of a one-person SARL (EURL) the powers of the meeting: “L’associé unique exerce les pouvoirs dévolus à l’assemblée des associés par les dispositions du présent chapitre.” You decide everything alone — capital increase, manager appointment, dividend, transfer of the registered office — by written decisions recorded in a register, with no quorum and no co-associate to convince. The French system even provides, for a one-person company whose sole individual member chairs it personally, that filing the signed inventory and annual accounts with the companies register within the approval time counts as approval. From abroad, that single-owner design removes the whole layer of meeting logistics: no convocation letters, no proxies, no minutes of debates that never happened.

One-person companies can also, under conditions set by the Tax Code, elect for a time to be taxed like a partnership, with profits taxed directly in the hands of the individual owner rather than at company level. Because the conditions, duration and exit cost of that election move with each Finance Act, treat it as a modelling option to verify against the CGI wording in force on the day you incorporate — the default remains corporate tax at 25 %, and your choice of SASU or EURL does not change that default.

B. Your own status and pay: company officer, social cover and the practical Paris run

Founders living abroad often discover the French social system through an unpleasant letter from URSSAF — the body that collects social contributions (Unions de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales). Your company form decides which letter you might get. The president of a SAS, whether paid or not, belongs to the general social regime alongside employees for health and retirement purposes: article L. 311-3 of the Social Security Code lists among its beneficiaries “Les présidents et dirigeants des sociétés par actions simplifiées et des sociétés d’exercice libéral par actions simplifiées”. In the jargon, the SAS president is assimilé salarié — treated like an employee for social cover, without an employment contract: contributions are due on actual pay, so an unpaid president costs the company nothing in contributions, while a paid president accrues health, retirement and family rights close to an employee’s, though without unemployment insurance. That profile suits a foreign founder who wants a French pay slip later, or who simply wants zero social cost while the subsidiary ramps up.

The majority manager of a SARL lives in the opposite world: the independent workers’ regime. Contributions of non-farm independent workers sit on the base defined by article L. 131-6 of the Social Security Code, which provides that “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.” In practice the majority gérant — including the sole member-manager of an EURL — pays flat minimum contributions even in a year with no drawings, and his health cover, daily allowances and pension build more slowly than an employee’s for a higher contribution effort at low incomes. The boundary between the two regimes turns entirely on control of the capital, as the Cour de cassation confirmed on 31 May 2018 (Second Civil chamber, appeal no. 17-17.518): “les membres d’un collège de gérants de société à responsabilité limitée et de société d’exercice libéral à responsabilité limitée ne sont pas affiliés obligatoirement au régime général en application de ce texte, lorsqu’ils détiennent ensemble plus de la moitié du capital social, même si certains d’entre eux ne sont pas porteurs de parts”. Hold more than half the SARL with your co-managers and none of you belongs to the general regime, even the manager who personally holds no units. A minority or equal manager, by contrast, stays in the general regime like the SAS president. If you plan to manage the French company yourself while living abroad, model both bills before choosing: an unpaid SAS presidency can cost zero in French contributions, while a majority SARL management triggers minimum contributions from year one.

Running the Paris practicalities from abroad. Whatever form you choose, the incorporation road is the same and it runs through Paris when your registered office sits there: draft articles, deposit the capital with a bank, publish a formation notice, file for registration with the Trade and Companies Register kept by the greffe of the Paris commercial court, and collect the Kbis — the official identity certificate of your company, the document every bank, landlord and supplier will ask for. Entries are then public in BODACC, the official bulletin of civil and commercial announcements. The step-by-step path, including how to get the capital deposit certificate and the Kbis while living outside France, is detailed in our step-by-step formation guide for foreign founders. Two Paris-specific points matter for the form choice. First, commercial leases in Paris and the inner suburbs routinely require the tenant company’s Kbis plus a deposit or a parent guarantee, and landlords read articles before signing: SAS articles with clear powers for the president reassure them, while a SARL whose manager must seek associates’ approval for major commitments can slow the signature. Second, any dispute about the company’s life — approval refusal, expert valuation, challenge to a removal — goes to the commercial court of the registered office, so a Paris seat means Paris judges and Paris counsel. Choose the seat with that litigation geography in mind, not only for prestige.

Conclusion

For a founder living outside France, the SAS — alone as a SASU or with partners — is the default answer in most cases: capital fixed freely in the articles, governance and removal rules written to measure, transfers, lock-ups and forced exits drafted clause by clause, a president covered like an employee with no minimum contributions when unpaid, and sole-shareholder decisions taken without meetings. The SARL earns its place in narrower cases: a small family or artisan business with two partners who want the statute to do the heavy lifting, a majority manager who positively wants independent-worker status, or a project where the mandatory approval lock on outsiders matters more than fundraising flexibility. Tax does not separate them at the company level — both pay corporate tax, now at a 25 % normal rate, and both distribute dividends under the same flat levy for French-resident individuals — so decide on governance, transfers and social cost, model the manager’s contributions in both worlds, and draft SAS articles (or a shareholders’ agreement beside them) that organise removal, approval and exit before the first euro is wired. Made early and in writing, that choice turns the French subsidiary from a remote-control headache into an asset you steer from anywhere.