You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, your customers or partners are in France, and you have decided to open a French company without moving there. The first question your French contacts will ask is a simple one: SAS or SARL? Behind those four letters sit two different companies, two different director titles, two different social security regimes and two different tax bills. The SAS (société par actions simplifiée, the simplified joint-stock company) is flexible, investor-friendly and expensive in social charges when you pay yourself a salary. The SARL (société à responsabilité limitée, the limited liability company) is rigid, protective of existing owners and cheaper to run when the manager holds the majority. Choose badly and you pay for it every month in contributions, every year in tax, and on the day you try to sell or bring money home. This guide compares the two vehicles point by point for a founder who lives abroad, explains how to register the company and obtain the Kbis without travelling to France, sets out which French social security scheme covers a non-resident director and what happens if you ignore it, and shows how salary and dividends are each taxed when the money leaves France. Every rule below is anchored in the exact French statute or a September 2025 court decision you can open yourself.
I. Should a foreign founder living abroad choose an SAS or an SARL in France?
A. What changes in practice between an SAS and an SARL for a founder who lives abroad?
Start with what the two companies share, because the shared foundation is what makes both of them safe for a foreign investor. An SAS can be formed by one or several people whose liability is limited to their contributions: “Une société par actions simplifiée peut être instituée par une ou plusieurs personnes qui ne supportent les pertes qu’à concurrence de leur apport.” That sentence comes from Article L227-1 of the Commercial Code. The SARL offers the identical shield: “La société à responsabilité limitée est instituée par une ou plusieurs personnes qui ne supportent les pertes qu’à concurrence de leurs apports.” That is Article L223-1 of the Commercial Code. In both cases, a founder who lives abroad and pays up the subscribed capital does not answer for company debts on personal assets simply because the company loses money. The one-person versions exist in both families: the SASU (SAS with a single shareholder) and the EURL (SARL with a single shareholder), so a solo foreign founder is welcome in either form.
The differences begin with who runs the company and how much freedom the articles of association allow. The SAS is represented towards third parties by a president appointed as the articles provide: “La société est représentée à l’égard des tiers par un président désigné dans les conditions prévues par les statuts. 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.” That is Article L227-6 of the Commercial Code. Almost everything else — voting rights, approval of share transfers, the powers of a deputy or an investor director — can be written freely into the articles. For a foreign founder who plans to bring in a French or international partner later, or to sell to a buyer who wants tailored control clauses, that freedom is the SAS argument. The SARL works the other way round: the statute decides, the articles follow. The company is managed by one or more natural persons: “La société à responsabilité limitée est gérée par une ou plusieurs personnes physiques.” And towards third parties, “le gérant est investi des pouvoirs les plus étendus pour agir en toute circonstance au nom de la société”, as Article L223-18 of the Commercial Code provides. The title changes too: the SAS has a président, the SARL has a gérant. A foreign founder can hold either office without living in France; no statute requires the president or the gérant to be French resident.
The second practical difference is the one that surprises foreign sellers most: leaving the company is easy in an SAS and fenced in an SARL. In an SARL, shares (parts sociales) cannot be sold to an outside buyer without the consent of the existing owners: “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”. The draft sale must be notified to the company and to each shareholder, and “Si la société n’a pas fait connaître sa décision dans le délai de trois mois à compter de la dernière des notifications prévues au présent alinéa, le consentement à la cession est réputé acquis.” Both sentences come from Article L223-14 of the Commercial Code. If the owners refuse, they must buy the shares themselves within three months at a price set under Article 1843-4 of the Civil Code. In an SAS, by contrast, the articles decide whether transfers need approval at all, and most founder-drafted articles leave transfers between shareholders free and impose approval only for sales to outsiders — or nothing at all. A foreign founder who expects a resale, a buy-back by the French partner or an entry of an investor within three to five years should weigh this approval lock carefully. Our detailed walkthrough of selling from abroad, including the SAS and SARL approval mechanics, is set out in Selling Your Shares in a French Company From Abroad.
The third difference is money: the social security regime of the director, which decides what each euro of salary really costs. The president of an SAS and the minority or equal gérant of an SARL belong to the general social security scheme as assimilated employees. The statute lists them expressly. For SARL managers, Article L311-3 covers “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”, and for SAS leaders it covers “Les présidents et dirigeants des sociétés par actions simplifiées et des sociétés d’exercice libéral par actions simplifiées”. Both quotations come from Article L311-3 of the Social Security Code. The majority gérant of an SARL — the founder who holds more than half the capital alone or with family — falls instead into the independent-workers scheme, with lower contributions and thinner cover, especially for pensions and daily sickness benefits. Contributions for the self-employed are assessed on the base defined at Article L136-3: “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.” That is Article L131-6 of the Social Security Code. Roughly, an SAS president who draws a salary pays employer and employee charges comparable to a French executive, while a majority SARL gérant pays independent-worker contributions at a lower global rate. The trade is cover against cost, and it is examined euro by euro in Part II below.
So which one should the founder living abroad pick? As a working rule: choose the SAS (or SASU alone) if you want tailor-made articles, free entry and exit of investors, and a president’s status close to employee cover, and you accept higher salary charges. Choose the SARL (or EURL alone) if the owners are a stable family or a small circle, you want the statutory approval lock against outsiders, and the majority manager prefers the cheaper independent-worker scheme. If you already run a foreign company and hesitate between opening a branch and creating a subsidiary instead, the comparison is drawn in Branch vs Subsidiary in France. And the full setup sequence, from bank account to first hire, is mapped in our hub guide Setting Up a Company in France as a Foreign Founder.
B. How do you register the company and get the Kbis from abroad without travelling to France?
Nothing in the formation process requires the founder to be physically present in France, but every step must be documented exactly, because the clerk who checks the file never meets you. Since 2023 all formations pass through the Guichet unique, the single online filing portal operated by the INPI (Institut national de la propriété industrielle, the French industrial property office), reachable at formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr, with guidance published by the INPI. The file contains the signed articles, the list of directors, proof of the registered office (a lease, a domiciliation contract with an authorised provider, or the home of the director where allowed), the capital deposit certificate from the bank, and the identity documents of the shareholders and directors. Foreign documents in a foreign language generally need a sworn translation, and documents from outside the European Union often need an apostille or legalisation, so a founder in Dubai, New York or Singapore should start that paperwork before drafting anything else.
The two steps that block most foreign files are the registered office and the bank certificate. The greffe — the clerk’s office of the commercial court that keeps the company register (RCS, registre du commerce et des sociétés) — rejects vague addresses, shared mailboxes without a proper domiciliation contract, and accommodation certificates that do not match the portal’s checklist. The bank certificate, which proves the cash contributions were deposited and frozen until registration, is refused or delayed whenever the bank’s anti-money-laundering file is thin: foreign passport, no French tax number, funds arriving from a third country. If your bank will not issue the certificate, read French Bank Account Refused for Your Foreign-Owned SAS before refiling, because the order in which you present identity, source-of-funds and company documents changes the outcome.
Once the greffe accepts the file, the company is born as a legal person and the Kbis is issued. The Kbis is the official certificate of incorporation: company name, form, capital, registered office, director names and the RCS number on one page, signed by the greffe. A notice of formation is also published in the BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official gazette for company announcements). The legal birthday matters because personality starts at registration: “Les sociétés commerciales jouissent de la personnalité morale à dater de leur immatriculation au registre du commerce et des sociétés.” And anyone who acted for the company before that date stays personally on the hook unless the new company takes over the commitments: “Les personnes qui ont agi au nom d’une société en formation avant qu’elle ait acquis la jouissance de la personnalité morale sont tenues solidairement et indéfiniment responsables des actes ainsi accomplis”. Both sentences come from Article L210-6 of the Commercial Code. In plain terms, sign a lease or order stock before the Kbis arrives and the supplier can pursue you personally; wait for registration or have the company formally adopt the pre-formation acts afterwards.
Two filings that foreign founders discover late should be diarised from day one. First, the beneficial-owner register (RBE, registre des bénéficiaires effectifs): any natural person holding, directly or indirectly, more than 25 percent of the capital or voting rights, or exercising control, must be declared, with injunctions and strike-off procedures for late filers. The procedure from abroad is detailed in Beneficial Owner Filing From Abroad. Second, VAT: the intra-Community VAT number does not arrive automatically with the Kbis for every profile, and invoicing without it exposes the company to refused deductions and penalties. The unblocking sequence is covered in Your French Company Has No VAT Number Yet. Allow three to six weeks from a complete file to an operating company with bank account, Kbis and VAT number, and do not promise customers a start date before the Kbis is in hand.
II. How does a non-resident director get paid and covered in France?
A. Which French social security regime covers a foreign president or gérant, and what do you owe with no salary?
French social security follows the office, not the passport or the address. A president of an SAS who lives in London and a gérant of an SARL who lives in Dubai are affiliated in France as soon as they actually manage the French company and draw pay from it, under the regimes set out in Part I: general scheme as assimilated employees for the SAS president and the minority SARL gérant, independent-workers scheme for the majority SARL gérant. The URSSAF (Unions de recouvrement des cotisations de sécurité sociale et d’allocations familiales, the agencies that collect social contributions) is the body that checks, reassesses and enforces. Two court decisions from September 2025, both readable in full on the official case portal, show how unforgiving that control is.
The first decision concerns a majority SARL manager pursued by URSSAF Poitou-Charentes. The judges recall the starting principle that company directors are presumed not to be employees: “une présomption simple de non salariat des dirigeants des personnes morales immatriculées au registre du commerce et des sociétés, sauf à démontrer une situation de subordination juridique.” They draw the consequence directly: “Il en résulte que le gérant majoritaire de SARL a le statut de travailleur indépendant et doit être affilié au régime d’assurance maladie et d’assurance maternité des travailleurs indépendants des professions non agricoles. Il est seul redevable, à l’égard de l’organisme social, des cotisations et des contributions sociales, ainsi qu’il résulte de l’article R. 133-2-1 du code de la sécurité sociale.” And they add the declaration duty: “Conformément à l’article L. 613-2 du code de la sécurité sociale, les travailleurs indépendants sont tenus de déclarer leurs revenus pour le calcul de leurs cotisations et contributions sociales.” Because the manager had declared late and declared nil income for the deregistration year, contributions were assessed on minimum bases and could not be cancelled, and the court ordered payment in full: “CONDAMNE M. [U] à verser à l'[4] la somme totale de 2.971,00 euros au titre des cotisations et contributions sociales dues pour les années 2021 et 2022, dont 2.806,00 euros de cotisations et 165,00 euros de majorations de retard”. That is the judgment of the Tribunal judiciaire de La Rochelle, Pôle social, 30 September 2025, RG 24/00148. For a foreign majority gérant, the lesson is brutal and simple: even a year with no income produces a minimum bill, late declarations produce flat-rate assessments, and late payment adds surcharges that run until full payment.
The second decision shows the other side of the control: the audit of the company itself. An SAS was subjected by URSSAF to a payroll-base audit (contrôle comptable d’assiette) for 2019 and 2020, received a formal demand for 32,890 euros, challenged it, and lost on the main adjustment. The court “CONFIRME le chef de redressement n°1” and “CONDAMNE la société [5] à payer à l'[8] la somme de 32 890 euros au titre de la mise en demeure du 30 mars 2023, sous réserve, d’une part, des paiements, régularisations ou crédits qui auraient pu intervenir sur le compte [7] de la société [5] depuis l’émission de la mise en demeure et, d’autre part, des majorations de retard, lesquelles continuent à courir jusqu’à parfait paiement”. That is the judgment of the Tribunal judiciaire de Lille, Pôle social, 9 September 2025, RG 23/01844. For a foreign-owned SAS that pays its president irregularly, reclassifies benefits, or forgets the monthly and quarterly returns (DSN, déclaration sociale nominative, the monthly payroll return every employer files), the audit years later converts each error into principal plus surcharges.
Three practical answers follow for the founder living abroad. First, a director who takes no pay: under the general scheme, contributions follow remuneration, so an unpaid SAS president with genuinely zero remuneration voted and paid generates no contribution call — but the position must be real, documented in the articles or a shareholders’ decision, because URSSAF auditors treat unexplained transfers, benefits in kind and current-account credits as disguised pay. Under the independent-workers scheme, by contrast, the majority gérant can owe minimum contributions even with nil income, as La Rochelle demonstrates, so never assume that silence costs nothing. Second, a director who is also employed or insured in another European Union state: European coordination can keep the person under the home scheme with a portable A1 certificate for genuine postings, a mechanism explained step by step in Posting Your Employee to France; outside that frame, French affiliation applies and double contributions are resolved by treaty, not by ignoring one side. Third, a director who falls behind: regularise before the formal demand (mise en demeure), because once the constraint (contrainte) is issued and served, the fight moves to the courtroom with the meter running, exactly as both September 2025 cases show.
B. Salary, dividends or both: how is each euro taxed when the founder lives abroad?
Start with the company itself. French companies are liable for corporate income tax (IS, 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”, in the words of Article 206 of the General Tax Code, and the SAS belongs to the same list by its own provisions. The standard rate is now a single figure: “Le taux normal de l’impôt est fixé à 25 %.” That is Article 219 of the General Tax Code, with a reduced 15 percent band for small companies on the first slice of profit. Payment, returns and instalments run through the professional tax account on impots.gouv.fr, and the yearly calendar of accounts, returns and meetings is mapped in Corporate Tax, Annual Accounts and Legal Calendar. A salary paid to the director reduces that taxable profit when the conditions are met; a dividend never does.
Salary is the deductible, charged route. For the majority SARL gérant, the tax treatment is written into the statute: “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”, where the pay goes “Aux gérants majoritaires des sociétés à responsabilité limitée n’ayant pas opté pour le régime fiscal des sociétés de personnes”. That is Article 62 of the General Tax Code. For the SAS president, salary follows the ordinary employee-pay rules: deductible for the company, taxable for the person, and loaded with the general-scheme contributions described above. For a founder who lives abroad, the salary is then declared in the country of residence under the applicable treaty, usually with a credit for French tax. Salary makes sense when the founder needs contribution quarters, maternity or pension cover, or simply a regular income that banks understand for borrowing. It makes little sense as the only channel when the founder wants to move large profits home, because each additional euro of gross pay carries the full contribution load.
Dividends are the non-deductible, contribution-free route, taxed on the way out. They can only be voted from distributable profit after approval of the annual accounts, and when the recipient lives abroad France levies a withholding tax at source. The statute provides that “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”. That is Article 119 bis of the General Tax Code. The rate for dividends paid to non-treaty beneficiaries follows the standard corporate rate: Article 187 sends “Celui prévu au deuxième alinéa du I de l’article 219 pour tous les autres revenus”, which is Article 187 of the General Tax Code pointing back to the 25 percent of Article 219. Tax treaties then cut that rate — commonly to 15 percent or 5 percent for qualifying parents — through the treaty reclaim forms, a procedure detailed with forms and deadlines in Dividends Paid Abroad: Withholding, Treaty and Refund. Dividends carry no French social charges, which is why founders who need no French cover often combine a small salary with annual dividends. The trap to avoid is distributing without profit, without accounts or without a vote: an irregular distribution can be reclassified, taxed as salary, and challenged by creditors.
In practice, the foreign founder’s pay mix usually settles into one of three patterns. The SAS president who wants full French cover takes a real monthly salary, pays the full charge, and tops up with dividends treated at the withholding rate. The majority SARL gérant who wants low cost takes a modest pay within the independent-workers scheme, keeps the minimum-base risk in mind for lean years, and moves the surplus as dividends. The non-operating shareholder abroad who holds the company as an investment takes no salary at all and lives on dividends alone, with the treaty form filed to cut the withholding. Whichever pattern you choose, vote the pay, pay the contributions on time, approve the accounts within six months of year-end, and keep every transfer slip: the La Rochelle and Lille cases prove that URSSAF and the tax administration reconstruct the truth from bank movements years later, and undocumented money is always reclassified against you.
Conclusion
A foreign founder living abroad does not have to choose blind between SAS and SARL. The SAS offers contractual freedom, an investor-ready share structure and a president affiliated like an employee, at the price of heavy salary charges. The SARL offers statutory protection against unwanted newcomers, a manager with full powers towards third parties, and a cheaper independent-worker scheme for the majority gérant, at the price of the approval lock on every sale to an outsider. Registration runs entirely online through the Guichet unique, personality starts at RCS registration, and pre-registration acts stay personal unless adopted. Social affiliation follows the office from the first euro paid, minimum contributions can bite even in a nil year, and audits years later turn each forgotten return into principal plus surcharges, as the La Rochelle and Lille courts confirmed in September 2025. Salary deducts and charges; dividends do not deduct but escape contributions and suffer withholding on exit, reduced by treaty. Set the articles for the exit you plan, vote the pay you take, file the returns on time, and the French company becomes what it should be for a founder abroad: a calculable, financeable asset rather than a source of surprise bills.
Need a quick opinion on your case.
Hesitating between an SAS and an SARL from abroad, unsure which social regime your presidency or management triggers, or facing URSSAF or tax demands on your French pay? Our firm offers a phone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm. Call Maître Reda Kohen directly at +33 6 46 60 58 22, or write via our contact page with a short description of your project and your question. Early advice on company form, pay structure and filing deadlines is the cheapest protection a foreign founder can buy.