{"id":2120899,"date":"2026-09-13T18:53:12","date_gmt":"2026-09-13T16:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/2026\/09\/13\/foreign-founder-france-sas-president-pay-salary-social-charges-dividends\/"},"modified":"2026-09-13T18:53:12","modified_gmt":"2026-09-13T16:53:12","slug":"foreign-founder-france-sas-president-pay-salary-social-charges-dividends","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/09\/13\/foreign-founder-france-sas-president-pay-salary-social-charges-dividends\/","title":{"rendered":"Foreign Founder Named President of a French SAS: Salary, Social Charges or Dividends?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore and you have just incorporated a French soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e<\/em> (SAS, the flexible limited company most foreign founders choose). The Kbis<\/em> \u2014 the official company identity certificate issued by the greffe<\/em>, the registry office of the commercial court \u2014 names you as pr\u00e9sident<\/em> (chairman and legal representative). Now the practical questions arrive fast: do you have to pay yourself a salary in France, register with URSSAF<\/em> (the body that collects social contributions), issue yourself a payslip every month, and contribute to French health cover and pension even though you already pay tax and social cover at home? Can you simply take no salary the first year and live on dividends later? What does a payslip really cost the company, what protection does it buy you, and how do you get the money out without triggering a redressement<\/em> (a reassessment by URSSAF or the tax office) or, worse, a criminal case for misuse of company funds? This guide answers all of that in plain English, with the exact statutes and recent court decisions behind each answer, so you can decide from abroad with full knowledge of the consequences.<\/p>\n

French readers will forgive the reminder: every French acronym is explained the first time it appears. URSSAF<\/em> means the network of agencies collecting employee and employer social contributions. The DSN<\/em> (d\u00e9claration sociale nominative<\/em>) is the monthly online return through which the company declares salaries and pays the contributions. The BODACC<\/em> (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales<\/em>) is the official gazette where company registrations, insolvencies and sales of businesses are published. The Guichet unique<\/em> run by the INPI<\/em> (the French intellectual-property and business-registration institute) is the single online portal where companies are incorporated and most filings are made. With that vocabulary in hand, the position of a foreign president of a SAS becomes much easier to understand.<\/p>\n

If you are still choosing the vehicle itself, read our pillar guide setting up a company in France as a foreign founder: bank account, Kbis, VAT and first hire<\/a> before deciding on pay.<\/p>\n

I. Do you have to pay yourself a salary as president of a French SAS, and what social status comes with the job?<\/h2>\n

No statute forces a SAS to pay its president. But the moment any pay is voted or paid, a full social-security regime clicks into place automatically, and it works very differently from the regime of a g\u00e9rant<\/em> (manager) of a SARL<\/em> (the other classic French limited company). Understanding that fork in the road before you sign anything is what saves foreign founders from surprise bills.<\/p>\n

A. Can a foreign founder be president of a French SAS without a salary, a payslip or French social cover?<\/h3>\n

Yes. A president of a SAS can lawfully receive no remuneration at all, especially in the first months when the company earns nothing. The statutes (statuts<\/em>, the articles of association) or a later collective decision of the shareholders set the pay; silence means no pay is due. No payslip has to be issued, no DSN<\/em> filed for you, and no minimum wage applies to a company officer as such. Many foreign founders start exactly this way: they keep their executive income in their home country, leave the cash inside the French company to fund growth, and revisit the question once revenue arrives. That choice is legitimate, but three warnings come with it.<\/p>\n

First, the legal representation of the company does not depend on pay. Under Article L. 227-6 of the Commercial Code (Code de commerce)<\/a>, “La soci\u00e9t\u00e9 est repr\u00e9sent\u00e9e \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard des tiers par un pr\u00e9sident d\u00e9sign\u00e9 dans les conditions pr\u00e9vues par les statuts.” In plain terms, the company is represented toward third parties by a president appointed as the statutes provide, and the same article adds that “Le pr\u00e9sident est investi des pouvoirs les plus \u00e9tendus pour agir en toute circonstance au nom de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 dans la limite de l’objet social.” The president holds the widest powers to act in all circumstances in the name of the company within the limit of its corporate purpose. You therefore bind the company when you sign, even unpaid, and limitation clauses hidden in the statutes cannot be raised against third parties. An unpaid president is a fully liable president.<\/p>\n

Second, the way the company is run is fixed by the statutes, and the landmark decision of 2025 confirmed that shareholders cannot casually bypass them. The Commercial Code states, in Article L. 227-5 of the Commercial Code<\/a>, that “Les statuts fixent les conditions dans lesquelles la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 est dirig\u00e9e.” The statutes set the conditions under which the company is managed. On 9 July 2025 the Commercial Chamber of the Court of Cassation (Cour de cassation<\/em>, France’s supreme court for civil, commercial and criminal matters) drew the full consequence in Cass. com., 9 July 2025, No. 24-10.428, published in the Bulletin<\/a>: “Il r\u00e9sulte de ces textes que les statuts de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e fixent les conditions dans lesquelles celle-ci est dirig\u00e9e, notamment les modalit\u00e9s de r\u00e9vocation de ses dirigeants. Si une d\u00e9cision des associ\u00e9s peut compl\u00e9ter les statuts sur ce point, elle ne peut y d\u00e9roger, quand bien m\u00eame aurait-elle \u00e9t\u00e9 prise \u00e0 l’unanimit\u00e9.” A shareholders’ decision may supplement the statutes on management, but it can never contradict them, even if passed unanimously. For a foreign founder this means the appointment, powers, pay and removal rules written into the statutes on day one will govern you for years. Side letters, unanimous minutes and handshake deals that contradict the statutes do not survive a dispute, as the dismissed general manager in that very case discovered when the Court quashed the appeal ruling that had protected him.<\/p>\n

Third, an unpaid president builds no French social rights. No contributions means no French health cover, no maternity or daily sickness allowances, no basic or supplementary pension points, and no workplace-accident cover in France. If you live abroad and keep a foreign social regime, that may be exactly what you want, provided your foreign cover genuinely applies to you. But if you move to France, work daily from Paris for the SAS and take nothing, you may find yourself with no cover anywhere for that activity. The unpaid route is therefore a conscious trade: zero cost, zero French protection, and full representative liability from the day your name appears on the Kbis<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The contrast with the SARL sharpens the picture. A SARL<\/em> is managed, under Article L. 223-18 of the Commercial Code<\/a>, by one or more natural persons appointed as g\u00e9rants<\/em>, and a majority g\u00e9rant<\/em> falls into the independent-workers regime with its own contribution base. The SAS was deliberately built on the opposite model, as Article L. 227-1 of the Commercial Code<\/a> recalls: one or more persons may form a SAS and they bear losses only up to their contributions. Limited liability for the shareholder, and for the president, an employee-like social regime the moment pay exists. That is the fork: majority manager of a SARL means independent-worker contributions on professional income, while president of a SAS means the general employee scheme on salary. Foreign founders who hesitate between the two vehicles are often really choosing between these two social and tax destinies, and the choice deserves a calculation before incorporation rather than a correction after the first URSSAF audit.<\/p>\n

One more boundary matters. Being president is not being an employee. A president has no employment contract by virtue of the office alone, no right to unemployment insurance, and no protection against dismissal under employment law. An additional genuine employment contract for separate technical duties (for example chief engineer alongside the presidency) is possible only with a real position, real subordination for that position, and real separate pay \u2014 a structure the courts examine with suspicion when the same person controls the company. If you wanted French unemployment cover, the presidency alone will never give it to you, however much you pay yourself. That single sentence disappoints many foreign buyers, so it is better read here than discovered at the P\u00f4le emploi<\/em> (France’s unemployment agency) counter.<\/p>\n

B. How much does paying yourself actually cost: salary, social charges, DSN and what you get in return?<\/h3>\n

The moment the SAS pays its president, the president joins the general social-security scheme as a so-called assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9<\/em> (a person treated like an employee for social purposes without being one). The legal hook is Article L. 311-3 of the Social Security Code (Code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale)<\/a>, whose paragraph 23 covers “23\u00b0 Les pr\u00e9sidents et dirigeants des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s par actions simplifi\u00e9es et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s d’exercice lib\u00e9ral par actions simplifi\u00e9es ;” Presidents and managers of SAS companies are therefore compulsorily affiliated to the general scheme. The official English-language page of the public service confirms the consequence in plain words: the president of a SAS has the status of employee-equivalent, contributions are the same as those of an executive employee except unemployment insurance, and sickness, maternity, family, workplace-accident, basic and supplementary pension cover follow. The only structural gap is unemployment: no entitlement, and therefore no unemployment contribution. Supplementary private unemployment insurance for company officers exists on the market for those who want it.<\/p>\n

What is the money calculated on? Article L. 242-1 of the Social Security Code<\/a> covers “Les cotisations de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale dues au titre de l’affiliation au r\u00e9gime g\u00e9n\u00e9ral”, that is, contributions for persons affiliated under Articles L. 311-2 and L. 311-3, assessed on earned income as used for the base defined for social contributions. In practice that means gross salary plus bonuses, benefits in kind (company flat, car used privately, meals), and most allowances the company pays you. On top of the contributions come the two broad levies every French resident for tax purposes affiliated to a French health scheme knows: the CSG<\/em> (contribution sociale g\u00e9n\u00e9ralis\u00e9e<\/em>, general social contribution) and the CRDS<\/em> (contribution au remboursement de la dette sociale<\/em>, levy repaying the social debt). Article L. 136-1 of the Social Security Code<\/a> creates that contribution on earned income and replacement income for persons domiciled in France for income-tax purposes and covered by a compulsory French health scheme. A foreign president who becomes French tax-resident therefore pays CSG and CRDS on the SAS salary; a president who stays non-resident may escape them but must check the applicable treaty and the posted-worker rules rather than assume.<\/p>\n

How much, roughly? For an executive-level salary, employers commonly budget total charges of around 60 to 80 percent on top of net pay once employer and employee contributions, pension ceilings, AGS<\/em> (the wage-guarantee levy), housing levies, solidarity levies and the social package on certain benefits are combined \u2014 the exact figure moves every year with ceilings and rates, so any article quoting a single fixed percentage should be distrusted. The URSSAF online simulators and an accountant’s payslip model give the current number for your salary level before you vote the pay. What matters legally is the mechanism: the SAS withholds your employee share each month on the payslip, declares both shares through the DSN<\/em>, and pays by the 15th of the following month (quarterly declaration exists for very small headcounts). Missed or late DSNs generate penalties and, in an audit, the mise en demeure<\/em> (formal demand) that foreign companies so often discover too late. Paying yourself therefore means entering the full French payroll machine: payslip software or provider, monthly DSN, annual summary, workplace-accident rate notification, supplementary pension affiliation, and a personnel register even with a single officer on payroll.<\/p>\n

What do you get for that money? Immediate health and maternity cover in France, family allowances, workplace-accident annuities, basic state pension quarters and points plus supplementary executive pension points, and a documented payslip history that French banks, landlords and visa desks understand far better than foreign dividend vouchers. For a founder settling in Paris with a family, that bundle often justifies the cost. For a founder who stays in Dubai or New York with full local cover, it can look like an expensive duplicate \u2014 which is precisely why the unpaid presidency plus later dividends tempts so many, and why the second part of this article examines whether dividends really are the cheaper road.<\/p>\n

The independent-worker comparison closes the loop. Workers outside the general scheme pay on a different base: Article L. 131-6 of the Social Security Code<\/a> seats independent non-agricultural workers’ contributions on the base defined for their category, and Article L. 611-1 of the Social Security Code<\/a> lists the persons covered by the independent-workers book of the Code. A majority g\u00e9rant<\/em> of SARL lives in that world; a SAS president never does, even holding 100 percent of the shares. The 100-percent shareholder-president of a SASU (the one-person SAS) remains an assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9<\/em> on any salary, not an independent worker. Choosing SASU for simplicity while expecting independent-worker contribution levels is one of the most frequent and most expensive misunderstandings foreign founders bring to a Paris notary or accountant.<\/p>\n

For income tax, the salary follows the ordinary wages route. Article 79 of the General Tax Code (Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts)<\/a> states that “Les traitements, indemnit\u00e9s, \u00e9moluments, salaires, pensions et rentes viag\u00e8res concourent \u00e0 la formation du revenu global servant de base \u00e0 l’imp\u00f4t sur le revenu.” Salaries and similar payments form part of the global income subject to income tax. The SAS deducts the gross salary and the employer charges from its taxable profit under the ordinary deductibility rules, symmetrical to the treatment the Code organises for managers’ pay in Article 211 of the General Tax Code<\/a> and the taxation of certain managers’ pay in Article 62 of the General Tax Code<\/a>. Salary is therefore taxed twice in economic terms \u2014 company-level deduction then personal income tax plus social levies \u2014 while dividends follow a different path examined below. Neither route is always cheaper; the answer depends on the amounts, your residence, the applicable treaty, and whether you need French social cover.<\/p>\n

II. Salary or dividends: how should a foreign owner take money out of a French SAS without a tax or criminal reassessment?<\/h2>\n

Once the company earns profits, the foreign owner faces the classic arbitrage: salary (deductible, heavily charged, building rights) or dividends (paid from after-tax profit, no social contributions for an assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9<\/em> president, but personal tax and strict conditions). Both are lawful. Both become dangerous when the formalities are skipped, when cash leaves the company before profits exist, or when the president confuses the company till with a personal account.<\/p>\n

A. When can you lawfully vote dividends, interim dividends and who gets the cash?<\/h3>\n

Dividends are not a salary substitute you can help yourself to; they are a shareholder decision taken after the accounts prove distributable sums exist. Article L. 232-12 of the Commercial Code<\/a> provides that “Apr\u00e8s approbation des comptes annuels et constatation de l’existence de sommes distribuables, l’assembl\u00e9e g\u00e9n\u00e9rale<\/a> d\u00e9termine la part attribu\u00e9e aux associ\u00e9s sous forme de dividendes.” After approval of the annual accounts and confirmation that distributable sums exist, the general meeting sets the share paid to shareholders as dividends. Before that vote, the company must establish that a distributable profit exists after losses, legal and statutory reserves, and retained earnings carried forward. Acomptes sur dividendes<\/em> (interim dividends paid during the year) are possible only from a certified interim balance sheet showing a profit after depreciation, provisions, prior losses and required reserves \u2014 a document your accountant prepares and, where the company has one, the statutory auditor certifies. Paying yourself “an advance on future profits” by simple bank transfer, without that balance sheet and without a meeting, is not an interim dividend. It is an irregular withdrawal, and in a loss-making company it can be reclassified as fictitious dividends repayable to the company, with interest, at the request of a co-shareholder, a creditor or a liquidator.<\/p>\n

The authority of properly passed resolutions cuts both ways, as the Court of Cassation recalled on 12 February 2025 in Cass. com., 12 February 2025, No. 23-11.410<\/a>: “Il r\u00e9sulte de la combinaison de ces textes que les d\u00e9lib\u00e9rations d’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 commerciale s’imposent aux associ\u00e9s tant que la nullit\u00e9 n’en a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 prononc\u00e9e.” Resolutions of a commercial company bind the shareholders until annulled. A dividend resolution voted in due form must therefore be executed and can be relied upon; conversely, a shareholder who believes a distribution was irregular must actively seek annulment rather than simply ignore the vote. Foreign owners should read that sentence twice: minutes matter, and sloppy minutes signed from abroad without checking quorums, majorities and the statutes’ collective-decision clauses create paper that binds you until a court says otherwise.<\/p>\n

Tax treatment then decides the economics. Dividends are paid from profit already hit by French corporate income tax (imp\u00f4t sur les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s<\/em>, currently 25 percent as the standard rate), then taxed at the shareholder level: for a French-resident individual, the default single flat-rate levy (pr\u00e9l\u00e8vement forfaitaire unique<\/em>, 30 percent including income tax and social levies) or, on election, the progressive scale with the 40-percent allowance; for a non-resident shareholder, French withholding tax (retenue \u00e0 la source<\/em>) applies at the domestic rate unless the applicable double-tax treaty reduces it and the proper reclaim or exemption forms are filed with the paying agent.Jean, a treaty claim filed late is money left in Paris for months. No social contributions burden dividends paid to an assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9<\/em> president \u2014 the structural reason dividends often look cheaper than salary \u2014 but the company gets no deduction either, where salary and employer charges reduce taxable profit. The honest comparison is therefore total cost per euro in your pocket after corporate tax, personal tax, treaty relief and social cover, modelled on your figures, not a slogan that dividends always win.<\/p>\n

Practical discipline follows. Hold the annual accounts meeting within six months of year-end, approve the accounts, record the distributable sum and the dividend in dated minutes kept in the company register, pay by traceable transfer to the shareholder’s declared account, and file the tax forms for withholding where a non-resident is paid. For interim dividends, commission the certified interim balance sheet first and minute the decision with the exact profit figure. Keep the relev\u00e9 d’identit\u00e9 bancaire<\/em> (bank details), the withholding certificates and the treaty-residence certificate together: a foreign shareholder who cannot prove residence when the dividend is paid will suffer the full domestic withholding and chase the refund afterwards. And never paper a current-account advance (compte courant d’associ\u00e9<\/em>) as a dividend months later without advice \u2014 shareholder current accounts have their own blocking, interest and repayment rules, and a debit balance owed by a president who is a natural person is flatly prohibited in a SASU and SARL alike.<\/p>\n

B. How do you remove or replace the president from abroad without the dismissal blowing up?<\/h3>\n

Foreign ownership means presidents change from a distance: the founder-CEO in London is replaced by a Paris-based manager, co-founders fall out, or the fund that bought control wants its own person on the Kbis<\/em>. French SAS law gives the shareholders wide freedom to organise removal \u2014 and the 2025 Bulletin decision turned that freedom into a trap for anyone who improvises.<\/p>\n

The rule, again, is statutory primacy. Because “Les statuts fixent les conditions dans lesquelles la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 est dirig\u00e9e” (Article L. 227-5 of the Commercial Code<\/a>), the removal procedure, the body competent to remove (shareholders collectively, a specific committee, the president for a general manager), the notice, the right to be heard and any compensation clause must be read in the statutes first. The 9 July 2025 ruling holds that even a unanimous shareholders’ decision cannot contradict the statutes on these points (Cass. com., 9 July 2025, No. 24-10.428<\/a>). In that case the statutes allowed removal at any time without cause by the president, while the appointment minutes adopted at a unanimous meeting imposed different removal conditions; the Court held the minutes could not override the statutes. Before you fly to Paris to vote someone out, check whether your minutes, shareholders’ agreement or side letter quietly contradict the filed statutes \u2014 if they do, the statutes win and the removal can be annulled with damages.<\/p>\n

Compensation is the second front. Unlike a g\u00e9rant<\/em> of SARL or a director of a public limited company, a SAS president has no statutory right to severance; everything depends on the statutes or the appointment letter. Clauses range from removal at will without compensation, to removal with a fixed indemnity, to removal only for cause (juste motif<\/em>, such as fault or prolonged incapacity) with damages if no cause is shown. A president removed in breach of a for-cause clause can sue for damages, and the dispute will be heard by the commercial court with the company’s bankers reading the BODACC<\/em> over your shoulder. From abroad, the safe sequence is: re-read the statutes and the appointment terms, document the grounds factually, respect any notice and hearing rights in writing with translations the officer understands, vote the removal in the competent body, minute it, file the officer change at the Guichet unique<\/em> so a new Kbis<\/em> issues, notify the bank, and settle any indemnity by agreement with a receipt rather than by unilateral withholding. Each skipped step is a future exhibit.<\/p>\n

The criminal boundary is the third front, and it is absolute. Company money is not the president’s money, even holding 100 percent of the shares. On 10 September 2025 the Criminal Chamber rejected an appeal against convictions including misuse of company funds (abus de biens sociaux<\/em>), in Cass. crim., 10 September 2025, No. 23-82.847 (Rejet)<\/a>, where the appeal court had convicted the accused who “pour trafic d’influence passif, corruption active et abus de biens sociaux, l’a condamn\u00e9 \u00e0 deux ans d’emprisonnement dont six mois avec sursis, 250 000 euros d’amende et cinq ans d’interdiction de g\u00e9rer.” Two years’ imprisonment with six months suspended, a 250,000-euro fine and a five-year management ban. The facts there were extreme, but the principle reaches every SAS: fictitious invoices, private villas or school fees routed through the company, and personal expenses disguised as representation costs expose the president to criminal prosecution, a management ban (interdiction de g\u00e9rer<\/em>) that bars running any French company, and publication that destroys banking relationships. A foreign founder who treats the SAS account as a personal wallet because “it is my money anyway” misunderstands French company law at the most dangerous point. Salary voted and paid through payroll, dividends voted from proven profits, documented expense reports with receipts and a business purpose, loans only where lawful and minuted \u2014 those four channels are the only lawful ways out.<\/p>\n

Distance adds its own traps. A removal voted by videoconference is valid only if the statutes allow remote decisions for that matter and the convening formalities were respected; an apostilled (apostille<\/em>, the international authentication stamp on foreign public documents) and sworn-translated (traduction asserment\u00e9e<\/em>) power of attorney is needed when a foreign shareholder is represented; and the officer change must actually be filed, because until the new Kbis<\/em> issues, banks, landlords and courts continue to treat the former president as the company’s face. Budget two to six weeks between the vote and the updated Kbis<\/em> in a clean file, longer if the greffe<\/em> queries a foreign document. During that window, secure the bank mandates, the e-banking tokens and the company seals the same day as the vote \u2014 most damage in removal cases is done in the forty-eight hours after the meeting, not in the courtroom a year later.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

A foreign founder can preside over a French SAS without drawing a salary, and many do in year one. But the unpaid route buys no French social cover and changes nothing about representative liability, while the paid route enrolls you in the full general scheme \u2014 same contributions as an executive except unemployment \u2014 with monthly payslips, DSN<\/em> returns and real protection in return. Dividends can then complete the picture, but only from proven distributable profits voted in due form, with withholding and treaty paperwork handled for non-residents, and never as disguised advances. Above it all stands the lesson of the 9 July 2025 Bulletin decision: in a SAS, the statutes rule, and even unanimous improvisation cannot override them. Draft them carefully on incorporation, align every later minute with them, keep salary, dividends and expenses in their separate lawful channels, and your French company will do what you created it for \u2014 grow, hire and pay you \u2014 instead of feeding disputes, reassessments or a prosecutor’s file. When the amounts or your residence make the choice genuinely doubtful, a short calculation by your accountant and a review of your statutes by counsel cost a fraction of one URSSAF reassessment.<\/p>\n

Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n

Foreign founder, president of a SAS or about to become one? Get a telephone consultation within 48 hours with an attorney of the firm to review your statutes, your pay-or-dividends calculation and your first filings. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> or write via our contact page<\/a>. We assist clients in Paris and across \u00cele-de-France, as well as founders managing their French company from abroad.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Named president of your French SAS? 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