{"id":2124397,"date":"2026-09-18T20:59:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/2026\/09\/18\/foreign-owner-france-dividends-withholding-treaty-refund-abroad\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T20:59:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T18:59:32","slug":"foreign-owner-france-dividends-withholding-treaty-refund-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/09\/18\/foreign-owner-france-dividends-withholding-treaty-refund-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"Your French Company Wants to Pay You Dividends While You Live Abroad: Approval, Withholding Tax and How to Bring the Money Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

You live in London, New York or Dubai. Your French company, a SAS (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e, the flexible joint-stock company foreigners usually choose) or a SARL (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e, the limited liability company with stricter statutory rules), has finally turned a profit. The money sits in a French bank account, and you want it in yours. Two questions then decide everything: is your company legally allowed to pay you dividends right now, and how much French tax disappears between the vote and your foreign account? This guide answers both, step by step, with the exact statutes, the official tax doctrine and three recent rulings of the Cour de cassation (France’s supreme court for civil and criminal matters). If you are still setting up the structure, start with our complete setting-up guide for foreign founders: bank account, Kbis, VAT and first hire<\/a>, then come back here when the profits arrive.<\/p>\n

The trap most foreign owners fall into is treating dividends like a salary top-up: a quick transfer decided over email, taxed later, somewhere, somehow. French law works the other way round. Dividends can only come from precisely defined distributable profits, voted by the right meeting, at the right time. And when the shareholder lives abroad, France taxes the dividend at the source, before it leaves the country, through a withholding mechanism (retenue \u00e0 la source) whose rate depends on who you are, where you live and which tax treaty protects you. Get the order wrong and you face void resolutions, a 75% levy in the worst offshore cases, or money stuck in Paris while the paperwork catches up. Get it right and the path is clean: valid vote, correct levy, treaty relief, refund where available, transfer home.<\/p>\n

I. Can your French company legally pay you dividends while you manage it from abroad?<\/h2>\n

Before any euro moves, French company law asks one hard question: do distributable sums exist, and has the competent body voted them? Living abroad changes nothing about this test. Distance is not an excuse, and a foreign shareholder cannot simply order the president or the g\u00e9rant (the manager of a SARL) to wire the profits. The decision belongs to the shareholders’ meeting, under rules the supreme court enforces strictly.<\/p>\n

A. How do you check that distributable profits exist and vote them correctly from abroad?<\/h3>\n

Start with the definition. Article L.232-11 of the Commercial Code states the rule in one sentence: Le b\u00e9n\u00e9fice distribuable est constitu\u00e9 par le b\u00e9n\u00e9fice de l’exercice, diminu\u00e9 des pertes ant\u00e9rieures, ainsi que des sommes \u00e0 porter en r\u00e9serve en application de la loi ou des statuts, et augment\u00e9 du report b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaire.<\/a> In plain English: distributable profit means the profit for the financial year, minus prior losses, minus the sums that must go to reserves under the law or your articles (statuts), plus retained earnings carried forward (report \u00e0 nouveau). The same article adds that the meeting may also distribute sums taken from reserves at its disposal, provided the resolution states expressly from which reserve items the amounts are taken, and that dividends are taken first from the distributable profit of the year.<\/p>\n

Then comes the vote. Article L.232-12 of the Commercial Code provides: Apr\u00e8s approbation des comptes annuels et constatation de l’existence de sommes distribuables, l’assembl\u00e9e g\u00e9n\u00e9rale d\u00e9termine la part attribu\u00e9e aux associ\u00e9s sous forme de dividendes.<\/a> Only after the annual accounts are approved, and the existence of distributable sums is recorded, does the general meeting (assembl\u00e9e g\u00e9n\u00e9rale, the shareholders’ meeting, hereafter AGM) set the share paid out as dividends. The sequence is mandatory: approve the accounts first, record the distributable amount, then vote the dividend. A standalone decision to pay yourself, taken outside the meeting that approves the accounts, has no legal basis.<\/p>\n

The Cour de cassation confirmed this strictly in a ruling every foreign owner should know. On 12 February 2025, in case no. 23-11.410, the Commercial Chamber held: seule l’assembl\u00e9e approuvant les comptes de cet exercice pourra d\u00e9cider son affectation et, le cas \u00e9ch\u00e9ant, sa distribution. Il s’ensuit qu’encourt la nullit\u00e9 la d\u00e9lib\u00e9ration d’une assembl\u00e9e g\u00e9n\u00e9rale autre que celle approuvant les comptes de l’exercice et d\u00e9cidant la distribution d’un dividende pr\u00e9lev\u00e9 sur le report \u00e0 nouveau b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaire d’un exercice pr\u00e9c\u00e9dent.<\/a> Only the meeting approving the accounts for the year may decide how the retained earnings are allocated and distributed; any other meeting voting a dividend drawn on prior retained earnings is void. In that case, one meeting had parked the profits in retained earnings, and a later meeting, with different shareholders after a share sale, voted the dividend. The court quashed the appeal ruling and declared the second vote void, combining Articles 1103 of the Civil Code and L.235-1 of the Commercial Code to recall that company resolutions bind shareholders until annulled, and combining Articles L.232-11 and L.232-12, described as mandatory, to impose the single-competent-meeting rule.<\/p>\n

For you, living abroad, the lesson is concrete. Hold one proper AGM per year that approves the accounts and votes the dividend in the same session, and keep the minutes (proc\u00e8s-verbal) with both decisions. If you bought the company during the year, check what the previous meeting did with the profits before assuming you can vote them out. If you need cash before year-end, interim dividends (acomptes sur dividendes) are possible, but only under tight conditions set by the same Article L.232-12: lorsqu’un bilan \u00e9tabli au cours ou \u00e0 la fin de l’exercice et certifi\u00e9 par un commissaire aux comptes fait appara\u00eetre que la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 […] a r\u00e9alis\u00e9 un b\u00e9n\u00e9fice, il peut \u00eatre distribu\u00e9 des acomptes sur dividendes avant l’approbation des comptes de l’exercice.<\/a> An interim balance sheet, certified by a statutory auditor (commissaire aux comptes, the independent auditor appointed in larger companies), must show a real profit, and le montant de ces acomptes ne peut exc\u00e9der le montant du b\u00e9n\u00e9fice d\u00e9fini au pr\u00e9sent alin\u00e9a.<\/a> No certified interim profit, no interim dividend.<\/p>\n

Voting from abroad is a practical matter, not a legal privilege. Check your articles: most SAS articles allow video conference or written consultation, which lets you attend and vote from London or New York. If your articles are silent or impose physical presence, amend them before the meeting rather than improvising. Sign the attendance sheet and the minutes according to the agreed remote procedure, keep proof of convocation (notice) sent to every shareholder, and file the approved accounts with the court clerk’s office (greffe, the registry of the commercial court) through the INPI one-stop shop (guichet unique, the single online filing portal) within the statutory deadline after the meeting. Our guide on approving your French company’s accounts and dividends from abroad<\/a> walks through that filing chain in detail.<\/p>\n

B. Why can a rushed dividend voted on false figures become a criminal case?<\/h3>\n

Foreign owners under cash pressure sometimes vote dividends on accounts they have not really read: revenue booked too early, liabilities hidden, an interim situation dressed up for a buyer or a bank. French criminal law treats this as forgery territory, not as an accounting shortcut. In a ruling of 12 June 2025, case no. 24-81.263, the Criminal Chamber of the Cour de cassation upheld convictions for forgery (faux) where managers had omitted material deferred income and distorted an interim balance sheet. The judges noted that l’existence de produits constat\u00e9s d’avance n’\u00e9tait pas contestable au jour m\u00eame de l’\u00e9tablissement des comptes annuels puis de la situation interm\u00e9diaire<\/a>, and that aucun n’a \u00e9t\u00e9 comptabilis\u00e9 dans les comptes de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9, ni au 31 d\u00e9cembre 2014 ni au 23 juillet 2015, ce qui contredit les d\u00e9clarations d’ignorance<\/a> of the manager. Deferred income (produits constat\u00e9s d’avance, revenue received but not yet earned) that nobody could seriously dispute had simply never been booked, and the court treated the plea of ignorance as contradicted by the files.<\/p>\n

Translate this into your position as a non-resident shareholder. If you vote or receive dividends based on accounts you know, or should have known, to be inaccurate, you expose the managers, and potentially yourself as the instructing shareholder, to prosecution for presenting inaccurate accounts and forgery, on top of the civil nullity of the distribution. Dividends paid without genuine distributable profits are fictitious dividends (dividendes fictifs): shareholders who knew, or could not have ignored, the absence of profits can be forced to return them, and managers face fines and imprisonment. The practical shield is simple and cheap compared with a criminal file: have your French accountant (expert-comptable, the licensed accounting professional) close the year properly, reconcile deferred income and provisions, and, as soon as the figures look aggressive, ask the statutory auditor or an independent review before any distribution vote. Never sign minutes recording distributable sums you cannot trace to a real, reviewed balance sheet.<\/p>\n

A final warning for group structures: if your French company is the subsidiary of your foreign holding, do not confuse a management decision at group level with a French corporate decision. The French subsidiary’s AGM alone can vote the dividend, under French quorum and majority rules, with French minutes. A board resolution signed in Delaware or Dubai does not replace it. Keep both paper trails consistent, because the French tax administration will ask for the French minutes when it examines the withholding below.<\/p>\n

II. How much French tax is taken before the money reaches your foreign account?<\/h2>\n

Once the dividend is validly voted, France taxes it at the source. The mechanism is a withholding tax (retenue \u00e0 la source): the French company withholds a slice when paying you and remits it to the French Treasury. The amount depends on your status, your country of residence and the applicable treaty. Three layers stack: the domestic rule, the rate, and the reliefs that bring the money home.<\/p>\n

A. How does the French withholding on dividends paid to non-residents work?<\/h3>\n

The starting point is Article 119 bis of the General Tax Code (Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts, France’s main tax statute, hereafter CGI). Its second paragraph provides: Les produits vis\u00e9s aux articles 108 \u00e0 117 bis donnent lieu \u00e0 l’application d’une retenue \u00e0 la source dont le taux est fix\u00e9 par l’article 187 lorsque leurs b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaires effectifs sont des personnes qui n’ont pas leur domicile fiscal ou leur si\u00e8ge en France.<\/a> Income covered by Articles 108 to 117 bis, which includes dividends and other distributed income, triggers a withholding, at the rate set by Article 187, when the beneficial owners are persons with neither their tax domicile nor their registered seat in France. If you live abroad and your company sits abroad, you fall squarely in this net: your French SAS or SARL must withhold on every dividend it pays you.<\/p>\n

The rates come from Article 187 of the CGI. For corporate and similar beneficiaries, whatever their form, the levy on dividends, apart from specific EU cases, equals celui pr\u00e9vu au deuxi\u00e8me alin\u00e9a du I de l’article 219 pour tous les autres revenus<\/a>, meaning the standard corporate income tax rate (imp\u00f4t sur les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s, the French corporate income tax, hereafter IS), which the official enterprise portal confirms at 25% for other companies. For individual beneficiaries, the rate is flat and simple: 12,8 % pour les b\u00e9n\u00e9ficiaires personnes physiques.<\/a> So a French company paying 100,000 euros of dividends to its individual shareholder in London withholds 12,800 euros and transfers 87,200 euros, before any treaty reduction. By contrast, a shareholder who is an individual resident in France faces a different deposit, the 12.8% non-final flat levy (pr\u00e9l\u00e8vement forfaitaire non lib\u00e9ratoire): Article 117 quater of the CGI states that les personnes physiques fiscalement domicili\u00e9es en France […] qui b\u00e9n\u00e9ficient de revenus distribu\u00e9s […] sont assujetties \u00e0 un pr\u00e9l\u00e8vement au taux de 12,8 %<\/a>, a mere advance credited against the final income tax. Do not confuse the two: for you as a non-resident, the withholding is generally the final French tax, not an advance.<\/p>\n

The extreme case deserves a red flag. Where dividends are paid outside France into a non-cooperative state or territory (Etat ou territoire non coop\u00e9ratif, the French blacklist of uncooperative tax jurisdictions, hereafter NCST), Article 187 raises the levy to a punitive level: Le taux de la retenue \u00e0 la source pr\u00e9vue au 2 de l’article 119 bis est fix\u00e9 \u00e0 75 % pour les produits mentionn\u00e9s aux articles 108 \u00e0 117 bis […] et pay\u00e9s hors de France, dans un Etat ou territoire non coop\u00e9ratif au sens de l’article 238-0 A.<\/a> Seventy-five percent, unless the payer proves the payment there has neither the purpose nor the effect of locating the income in that territory for tax fraud. If your personal holding sits in a jurisdiction that appears on the French NCST list, take advice before routing dividends through it: the list moves every year, and a structure that was clean last year can turn confiscatory this year.<\/p>\n

Operationally, the French company does the work. It withholds at payment, declares and remits the levy to the Treasury, and documents the operation. The tax administration provides a dedicated form for this computation, the form no. 5001 for the computation (liquidation) of the withholding on dividends<\/a>, available in French, English and several other languages. Keep the dividend minutes, the bank proof of the gross amount, the proof of the withheld amount and the filed form together: your home-country bank, your home tax authority and, later, the French administration in case of a refund claim will each ask for part of this file. If the company misses the withholding, the Treasury pursues the French company first, then the pieces fall back on you through assessments and late-payment interest, so calendar this payment with the same seriousness as payroll.<\/p>\n

B. How do you lawfully reduce the levy and bring the money home?<\/h3>\n

Three relief channels exist, and they combine in a strict order: the European parent exemption, the bilateral tax treaty, and, at home, your own country’s treatment of the dividend received. Work through them before the payment date, because relief claimed upstream is always cheaper than a refund chased downstream.<\/p>\n

First, the European parent-subsidiary exemption. A qualifying EU or EEA parent company can receive French dividends with no withholding at all. The official tax commentary (BOFiP, Bulletin officiel des finances publiques, the binding published doctrine of the French tax administration) sets the doorway this way: La soci\u00e9t\u00e9 m\u00e8re doit d\u00e9tenir une fraction minimale du capital de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 distributrice r\u00e9sidente de France, dont le taux est fix\u00e9 \u00e0 10 % par la loi.<\/a> The holding must be direct and uninterrupted: la d\u00e9tention des actions ou parts de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 filiale en pleine propri\u00e9t\u00e9 ou en nue-propri\u00e9t\u00e9 doit \u00eatre directe et ininterrompue depuis deux ans au moins.<\/a> Shares held through a third company do not count toward the threshold, and the holding period is assessed on the dividend payment date, although a formal two-year retention undertaking (engagement de conservation) can bridge the gap: prendre l’engagement de conserver sa participation […] pendant un d\u00e9lai de deux ans au moins.<\/a> Break the undertaking and the exempted withholding becomes due, with the French company liable as the party responsible for payment. Notably, the doctrine adds a safety net for holdings between 5% and 10%: lorsqu’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 europ\u00e9enne b\u00e9n\u00e9ficie de dividendes de source fran\u00e7aise aff\u00e9rents \u00e0 une participation au moins \u00e9gale \u00e0 5 %, la restitution de la retenue \u00e0 la source peut \u00eatre demand\u00e9e<\/a> where the parent cannot credit the French levy at home. If your EU holding owns 7% of the French subsidiary, you pay the withholding first, then claim it back.<\/p>\n

Second, the bilateral tax treaty signed between France and your country of residence. Treaties are the main tool for non-EU owners, Americans, Britons, Emiratis, Singaporeans, and they typically cut the French levy to 15% or less for qualifying beneficiaries. The mechanism matters more than any single figure, because each treaty has its own rate, its own ownership thresholds and its own limitation clauses. The Cour de cassation recalled in a 11 February 2026 ruling, case no. 23-14.305 on the France-Canada treaty, that conventions expressly cover French levies at source: the treaty lists, for France, corporate and income taxes et toute retenue \u00e0 la source, tout pr\u00e9compte ou avance d\u00e9compt\u00e9s sur ces imp\u00f4ts<\/a>. Read your treaty before the payment: check the dividends article, the residence article, the beneficial-owner condition and any anti-abuse clause. Then claim the treaty rate at payment with a certificate of tax residence. France’s standard vehicle is the form no. 5000, the certificate of residence for the foreign administration<\/a>, which your home tax authority stamps to certify that you are its resident. Hand it to the French paying company before the dividend date so it can apply the reduced rate directly. Miss that window and you pay the full domestic rate first, then file a refund claim with the French administration, attaching the residence certificate, the dividend vouchers and proof of the levy: slower, but available.<\/p>\n

Third, the mirror regime worth knowing even though it does not apply to you directly: when the shareholder is itself a French company, the French parent-subsidiary regime (r\u00e9gime des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s m\u00e8res) largely exempts the dividend at the parent level. Article 145 of the CGI opens the regime to companies subject to corporate tax holding qualifying participations, specifying that les titres de participation doivent \u00eatre d\u00e9tenus en pleine propri\u00e9t\u00e9 ou en nue-propri\u00e9t\u00e9 et doivent repr\u00e9senter au moins 5 % du capital de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e9mettrice<\/a>. Article 216 then allows the parent to deduct the net dividends from its taxable profit, d\u00e9falcation faite d’une quote-part de frais et charges. La quote-part de frais et charges pr\u00e9vue au premier alin\u00e9a du pr\u00e9sent I est fix\u00e9e \u00e0 5 % du produit total des participations, cr\u00e9dit d’imp\u00f4t compris.<\/a> In practice the French parent pays tax on only 5% of the dividend, and 1% inside a tax group or for EU participations. Why does this matter to a foreign owner? Because it shapes two decisions: whether to interpose a French holding between your foreign group and the operating company, and how your home country will treat the French dividend, since most residence states either exempt foreign dividends from qualifying holdings or grant a credit for the French withholding. Coordinate both sides before voting: the cheapest French levy is worthless if your home state taxes the gross dividend without credit.<\/p>\n

Put the sequence on one page and follow it every year. First, close reliable accounts and confirm distributable profits with your accountant. Second, hold the AGM that approves the accounts and votes the dividend in the same session, with minutes that state the amounts and the reserve items used. Third, identify your relief before payment: EU exemption file, or treaty certificate of residence handed to the payer. Fourth, have the company withhold the correct amount, remit it and keep the form no. 5001 and bank proofs. Fifth, transfer the net dividend and declare it at home, claiming exemption or credit under your local rules. The official enterprise portal’s English guide to the taxation of dividends received by shareholders<\/a> is a useful cross-check for the domestic French side of each step.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Paying yourself dividends from France while living abroad is neither forbidden nor automatic. It is a two-gate process. The company-law gate asks whether genuine distributable profits exist and whether the meeting approving the accounts voted them, with nullity striking any shortcut and criminal law punishing false figures. The tax gate withholds at the source, 12.8% for individuals and the standard corporate rate for companies, rising to 75% toward blacklisted jurisdictions, then opens three relief doors: the EU parent exemption at 10% held directly for two years, the bilateral treaty with its residence certificate, and your home country’s exemption or credit. Run the checklist in order, keep every paper, and the dividend reaches your foreign account with its tax story clean on both sides of the border. Skip a gate and the money either cannot legally move or moves over-taxed, with a refund file that takes months to repair.<\/p>\n

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

Talk through your dividend project with a lawyer before you vote or transfer anything. Our firm offers a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a cabinet attorney, to check your distributable profits, your withholding rate and your treaty relief. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> (Ma\u00eetre Reda Kohen) or write via our contact page<\/a> with your company name, your country of residence and the dividend amount you are considering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Foreign owner of a French SAS or SARL? 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