Your French company needs 30,000 euros next week to pay a supplier, cover payroll or top up its cash, and you are sitting in London, Dubai, New York or Singapore wondering whether you can simply wire the money from your personal account. The answer is yes, and thousands of foreign founders do exactly that every year, but the wire itself is only the beginning. Under French law that transfer is a shareholder advance on current account, known as an apport en compte courant d’associ\u00e9, a genuine loan from you to your company with its own rules on paperwork, interest, repayment and tax. Get the paperwork right and the advance becomes cheap, flexible financing that you can reclaim at any time. Get it wrong and the interest is taxed twice, the repayment gets frozen when the company hits trouble, or the tax office reclassifies your payment as something far more expensive. This guide walks you through the full journey in plain English, with the exact French statutes and court decisions that govern each step, so you can fund your Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e (SAS, the flexible joint-stock company most foreigners choose) or your Soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e (SARL, the limited liability company with tighter rules) from abroad without creating a time bomb.<\/p>\n
French law expressly recognises the practice. The French General Tax Code allows the deduction of “Les int\u00e9r\u00eats servis aux associ\u00e9s \u00e0 raison des sommes qu’ils laissent ou mettent \u00e0 la disposition de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9, en sus de leur part du capital, quelle que soit la forme de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9”, which is the tax-law fingerprint of your wire: sums you leave or make available to the company on top of your share of its capital, whatever the company’s legal form. Read the full provision on the official L\u00e9gifrance site here: Article 39, 1, 3\u00b0 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts (General Tax Code)<\/a>. Neither your foreign residence nor your foreign bank account changes that analysis. What matters is that the advance is documented, recorded and approved as a loan, not confused with a capital contribution or a gift.<\/p>\n Start with a written advance agreement, even if you own one hundred percent of the company. A one-page convention de compte courant (current account agreement) signed before or at the same time as the wire should state the amount, the currency, whether the advance is repayable on demand or locked for a fixed period, the interest rate or its absence, and the repayment mechanics. Sign it electronically, keep the signed copy with the company’s legal records, and label the wire itself clearly, for example “shareholder advance on current account”, so that no one can later argue the money was extra capital, hidden salary or a donation. Your French accountant will book the advance as a liability on the company’s balance sheet, which is exactly where advances on current account belong: as one French court recently recalled, “Les avances en compte courant sont donc enregistr\u00e9es au passif du bilan de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9” (French court, 16 September 2025, case no. 25\/00688<\/a>). That accounting treatment protects you, because it makes your creditor status visible to banks, auditors and, if things ever go wrong, to the insolvency court.<\/p>\n One direction of travel is strictly forbidden, and foreign owners sometimes discover this the hard way. The company must never lend to you. In a SARL, “A peine de nullit\u00e9 du contrat, il est interdit aux g\u00e9rants ou associ\u00e9s autres que les personnes morales de contracter, sous quelque forme que ce soit, des emprunts aupr\u00e8s de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9, de se faire consentir par elle un d\u00e9couvert, en compte courant ou autrement, ainsi que de faire cautionner ou avaliser par elle leurs engagements envers les tiers”. Full text: Article L223-21 of the Code de commerce (Commercial Code)<\/a>. In a public limited company the mirror rule provides that “A peine de nullit\u00e9 du contrat, il est interdit aux administrateurs autres que les personnes morales de contracter, sous quelque forme que ce soit, des emprunts aupr\u00e8s de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9, de se faire consentir par elle un d\u00e9couvert, en compte courant ou autrement, ainsi que de faire cautionner ou avaliser par elle leurs engagements envers les tiers”. Full text: Article L225-43 of the Code de commerce<\/a>. Any such loan is void, meaning legally non-existent, and the ban extends to your spouse, parents, children and any intermediary. Money flows from shareholder to company, never the reverse, unless you want the contract annulled and the auditor to qualify the accounts.<\/p>\n If the lender is not you personally but your foreign parent company, a parallel channel exists for cash moving inside a corporate group. French banking-monopoly rules provide that “Les interdictions d\u00e9finies \u00e0 l’article L. 511-5 ne font pas obstacle \u00e0 ce qu’une entreprise, quelle que soit sa nature, puisse” “Proc\u00e9der \u00e0 des op\u00e9rations de tr\u00e9sorerie avec des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s ayant avec elle, directement ou indirectement, des liens de capital conf\u00e9rant \u00e0 l’une des entreprises li\u00e9es un pouvoir de contr\u00f4le effectif sur les autres”. Full text: Article L511-7 of the Code mon\u00e9taire et financier (Monetary and Financial Code)<\/a>. A foreign holding company that genuinely controls its French subsidiary can therefore organise treasury advances to it. The exemption covers companies linked by control, so document the control chain and keep the treasury agreement at arm’s length, because the tax deductibility of the interest then follows a separate set of rules examined below.<\/p>\n Finally, your advance must survive the related-party procedure, the conventions r\u00e9glement\u00e9es regime that polices deals between a company and its own insiders. In a SARL, “Le g\u00e9rant ou, s’il en existe un, le commissaire aux comptes, pr\u00e9sente \u00e0 l’assembl\u00e9e ou joint aux documents communiqu\u00e9s aux associ\u00e9s en cas de consultation \u00e9crite, un rapport sur les conventions intervenues directement ou par personnes interpos\u00e9es entre la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 et l’un de ses g\u00e9rants ou associ\u00e9s”, and “Le g\u00e9rant ou l’associ\u00e9 int\u00e9ress\u00e9 ne peut prendre part au vote et ses parts ne sont pas prises en compte pour le calcul du quorum et de la majorit\u00e9”. Full text: Article L223-19 of the Code de commerce<\/a>. In a SAS, “Le commissaire aux comptes ou, s’il n’en a pas \u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9sign\u00e9, le pr\u00e9sident de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 pr\u00e9sente aux associ\u00e9s un rapport sur les conventions intervenues directement ou par personne interpos\u00e9e entre la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 et son pr\u00e9sident, l’un de ses dirigeants, l’un de ses actionnaires disposant d’une fraction des droits de vote sup\u00e9rieure \u00e0 10 % ou, s’il s’agit d’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 actionnaire, la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 la contr\u00f4lant au sens de l’article L. 233-3”, and “Les conventions non approuv\u00e9es, produisent n\u00e9anmoins leurs effets, \u00e0 charge pour la personne int\u00e9ress\u00e9e et \u00e9ventuellement pour le pr\u00e9sident et les autres dirigeants d’en supporter les cons\u00e9quences dommageables pour la soci\u00e9t\u00e9”. Full text: Article L227-10 of the Code de commerce<\/a>. In practice this means a short report, a shareholder vote from which you abstain when you are the interested party, and a mention in the register of decisions if you are the sole shareholder. From abroad you can sign the written consultation and return it by email to the company’s registered office, the si\u00e8ge social, but do it every year the advance remains outstanding, because an undocumented insider loan is the first thing a tax inspector or a bankruptcy judge will attack.<\/p>\n Yes, your company can pay you interest, and that interest can reduce the company’s taxable profit, but only inside a strict ceiling and only if the company’s share capital is fully paid up. The rule, worth reading in full, states that deductible interest means “Les int\u00e9r\u00eats servis aux associ\u00e9s \u00e0 raison des sommes qu’ils laissent ou mettent \u00e0 la disposition de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9, en sus de leur part du capital, quelle que soit la forme de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9, dans la limite de ceux calcul\u00e9s \u00e0 un taux \u00e9gal \u00e0 la moyenne annuelle des taux effectifs moyens pratiqu\u00e9s par les \u00e9tablissements de cr\u00e9dit et les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s de financement pour des pr\u00eats \u00e0 taux variable aux entreprises, d’une dur\u00e9e initiale sup\u00e9rieure \u00e0 deux ans”, and it adds that “Cette d\u00e9duction est subordonn\u00e9e \u00e0 la condition que le capital ait \u00e9t\u00e9 enti\u00e8rement lib\u00e9r\u00e9”. Source: Article 39, 1, 3\u00b0 of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>. Three practical lessons follow for a founder wiring money from abroad.<\/p>\n First, check that the capital is fully liberated before you charge a single euro of interest. Capital is lib\u00e9r\u00e9 when every shareholder has actually paid in the full amount of the shares subscribed at incorporation, and the Kbis extract, the company’s official identity card issued by the greffe (the registry office of the commercial court) through the INPI single window, the guichet unique, will not tell you that: your accountant’s capital account will. Many foreign founders incorporate a SAS with 1,000 euros of capital, pay in only half at the start, which the law allows, and then advance 50,000 euros from London while charging interest. The interest on those 50,000 euros is then entirely non-deductible until the missing 500 euros of capital are paid in. If your company is still in that situation, complete the liberation first through the procedure our pillar guide describes for getting registered and operational: Setting Up a Company in France as a Foreign Founder: Bank Account, Kbis, VAT and Your First Hire<\/a>. It costs one wire and saves the whole deduction.<\/p>\n Second, cap the rate at the legal ceiling in force when the financial year closes. The ceiling is a floating average of the effective rates banks charge businesses for variable-rate loans longer than two years, recalculated on a rolling annual basis, so it moves with the credit market and you cannot simply copy last year’s figure. Ask your accountant for the rate applicable to the closing date, write exactly that rate, or a lower one, into the advance agreement, and apply it pro rata to the time the money was actually available to the company. Any excess over the ceiling stays taxable at the company level: it is added back to profit and taxed at the standard imp\u00f4t sur les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s (IS, French corporate income tax) rate. Charging zero interest is always allowed and is often the smartest move for a young company, because it avoids all computation, all withholding questions and all disputes, at the price of leaving money on the table.<\/p>\n Third, understand how your residence abroad affects the interest once it leaves France. Interest paid by a French company to a lender who lives outside France can suffer French withholding tax at source before it reaches your foreign account, and the rate depends on the tax treaty between France and your country of residence, which may reduce it or eliminate it entirely upon presentation of a certificate of tax residence. The mechanics are the same treaty-and-form machinery as for cross-border dividends, which we explain step by step here: How a Foreign Owner Is Taxed on French Dividends: Withholding, Treaties and Refunds From Abroad<\/a>. Tell your accountant before the first interest payment where you are tax-resident, keep a current residence certificate on file, and never assume the treaty rate applies automatically. And keep interest and dividends conceptually separate: interest rewards your loan and is deductible for the company within the ceiling, while dividends reward your shares, are never deductible, and follow the withholding-and-treaty path of that companion guide. Mixing the two, for example by relabelling a dividend as interest to deduct it, is exactly the kind of reclassification the tax office loves.<\/p>\n Where the lender is your foreign company rather than yourself, a second ceiling can apply on top of the first. Interest on sums made available to a French borrower by an associated company is deductible “Dans la limite de ceux calcul\u00e9s d’apr\u00e8s le taux pr\u00e9vu au premier alin\u00e9a du 3\u00b0 du 1 du m\u00eame article 39 ou, s’ils sont sup\u00e9rieurs, d’apr\u00e8s le taux que cette entreprise emprunteuse aurait pu obtenir d’\u00e9tablissements ou d’organismes financiers ind\u00e9pendants dans des conditions analogues”. Source: Article 212, I of the Code g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des imp\u00f4ts<\/a>. In plain terms, intra-group interest must survive comparison with what an independent bank would have charged the French subsidiary in similar circumstances, so keep evidence that the rate is arm’s length: a bank term sheet, a group treasury policy, or at minimum a written memo comparing the rate to market data. That file is your shield if the transfer-pricing team of the tax office ever opens the drawer.<\/p>\n The default rule is remarkably lender-friendly. Where neither the articles of association, the statuts, nor a current account agreement sets a term, your advance is repayable whenever you ask. A French court recently restated the principle in these terms: “En l’absence de pr\u00e9cision dans les statuts ou une convention de compte courant, la cr\u00e9ance de l’associ\u00e9 \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 est remboursable \u00e0 tout moment”. The same decision adds the striking corollary that “Lorsque l’associ\u00e9 r\u00e9clame le remboursement de son compte courant, la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 ne peut pas le refuser (m\u00eame en raison de difficult\u00e9s financi\u00e8res)”, and that “Elle ne peut pas non plus limiter le remboursement au montant que sa tr\u00e9sorerie peut supporter”. Source: judgment of 16 September 2025, case no. 25\/00688, full text on the official Cour de cassation portal: Tribunal judiciaire, 16 September 2025, no. 25\/00688<\/a>. Note the two safety valves the court preserves in the same breath: “En revanche, la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 peut r\u00e9clamer des d\u00e9lais de paiement (limit\u00e9s \u00e0 2 ans) pour rembourser le compte courant”, and “Une limite est toutefois pr\u00e9vue\u00a0: la demande de remboursement doit \u00eatre effectu\u00e9e de bonne foi et ne doit pas \u00eatre abusive au d\u00e9triment de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9”. In practice, then, a demand for immediate repayment of the full balance on the eve of payroll, designed to sink a company you are fighting with, can backfire, while a documented demand followed by reasonable negotiation almost always succeeds.<\/p>\n Before that, anchor the legal nature of your claim, because everything about limitation periods and insolvency ranking flows from it. The same court explains that “Le compte courant d’associ\u00e9 s’analyse en un pr\u00eat qui donne \u00e0 l’associ\u00e9 ou au dirigeant pr\u00eateur la qualit\u00e9 de cr\u00e9ancier social” (French court, 16 September 2025, case no. 25\/00688<\/a>). You are a creditor like any other, your claim sits among the company’s liabilities, and you enforce it with a creditor’s remedies. The Cour de cassation confirmed the other half of the equation this year: an advance with no agreed term is a loan of undetermined duration, and the limitation clock for suing to recover it starts only when you formally demand payment. Ruling on a disputed 1.6 million euro balance, the court held that “la cr\u00e9ance de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Loma \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 Fleur’s Flat n’\u00e9tait pas une cr\u00e9ance de compte courant mais une cr\u00e9ance rattach\u00e9e \u00e0 une participation et donc un pr\u00eat \u00e0 dur\u00e9e ind\u00e9termin\u00e9e, et que l’action en remboursement introduite par Mme [Z] [X] le 19 janvier 2016 n’\u00e9tait pas prescrite, le d\u00e9lai de prescription n’ayant commenc\u00e9 \u00e0 courir qu’\u00e0 compter de la mise en demeure d\u00e9livr\u00e9e le 15 janvier 2016” (Cass. com., 18 June 2025, no. 24-14.829<\/a>). Source: Cour de cassation, commercial chamber, 18 June 2025, appeal no. 24-14.829, ECLI:FR:CCASS:2025:CO00344<\/a>. The general civil limitation rule behind that outcome is that “Les actions personnelles ou mobili\u00e8res se prescrivent par cinq ans \u00e0 compter du jour o\u00f9 le titulaire d’un droit a connu ou aurait d\u00fb conna\u00eetre les faits lui permettant de l’exercer”. Source: Article 2224 of the Code civil (Civil Code)<\/a>. Concretely, your five years run from the formal demand, the mise en demeure, not from the day you wired the funds, which is why the demand letter is the most important document of the whole process.<\/p>\n From abroad, run the recovery as a disciplined three-step sequence. First, send a written demand for repayment to the si\u00e8ge social by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt, the lettre recommand\u00e9e avec accus\u00e9 de r\u00e9ception, which La Poste delivers internationally and which French courts treat as the gold standard of proof, stating the exact balance from the company accounts, the agreement it rests on, and a payment deadline of fifteen to thirty days. Second, if the deadline passes, have a French lawyer serve a formal mise en demeure and immediately file an injonction de payer, the fast-track payment-order procedure before the commercial court that forces the debtor to pay or object within a short window; the full playbook, written for foreign creditors chasing French debtors, is here: French Customer Won’t Pay Your Invoice? How a Foreign Company Recovers the Debt in France<\/a>. Third, if the company genuinely cannot pay rather than will not pay, read the next section before seizing anything, because forcing payment from an insolvent company can be unwound and can drag you into the insolvency as a person of interest rather than a simple creditor.<\/p>\n Two drafting choices made today decide how easy step one will be tomorrow. If you want maximum flexibility, write “repayable on demand” into the agreement and keep the five-year clock dormant until you choose to start it with a demand letter. If the company needs stability to borrow from a bank, agree a compte courant bloqu\u00e9, a locked advance that neither you nor the company can call for, say, three or five years, often in exchange for a higher rate within the tax ceiling. Banks love locked advances because they behave like quasi-equity, and some loan agreements even require the shareholder to lock the advance as a condition of the bank’s own lending. Either choice is valid; what is dangerous is silence, because silence means repayable at any time, including the worst possible time for the company, and that surprise is what turns a friendly founder loan into a shareholder dispute.<\/p>\n The day a French court opens sauvegarde (safeguard), redressement judiciaire (court-supervised restructuring) or liquidation judiciaire (court-ordered liquidation), your repayment rights freeze by operation of law. The statute provides that “Le jugement ouvrant la proc\u00e9dure emporte, de plein droit, interdiction de payer toute cr\u00e9ance n\u00e9e ant\u00e9rieurement au jugement d’ouverture, \u00e0 l’exception du paiement par compensation de cr\u00e9ances connexes”. Source: Article L622-7 of the Code de commerce<\/a>. Because your advance was necessarily born before the opening judgment, the company is forbidden from repaying you, even voluntarily, even partially, even though you live abroad and the money feels like yours. Any payment made in breach of the freeze can be unwound, and a director who authorises it faces personal criticism from the court. So the moment you hear that a French insolvency has been opened against your company, stop pressing for a wire and switch to declaration mode.<\/p>\n Declaration is mandatory and time-sensitive. The law states that “A partir de la publication du jugement, tous les cr\u00e9anciers dont la cr\u00e9ance est n\u00e9e ant\u00e9rieurement au jugement d’ouverture, \u00e0 l’exception des salari\u00e9s, adressent la d\u00e9claration de leurs cr\u00e9ances au mandataire judiciaire dans des d\u00e9lais fix\u00e9s par d\u00e9cret en Conseil d’Etat”. Source: Article L622-24 of the Code de commerce<\/a>. The mandataire judiciaire is the court-appointed insolvency representative who collects and verifies claims, and the opening judgment is published in the BODACC, the Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official gazette where French insolvency notices appear. From abroad, instruct a French lawyer the week the judgment appears: the declaration must state the exact balance, attach the advance agreement, the wire slips and the company accounts showing the liability, and elect domicile in France for service of court documents, because notices will not chase you to your foreign address. Miss the declaration deadline and your claim is shut out of any distribution, which for an unsecured shareholder advance usually means losing everything. Declare on time and you at least sit at the table, generally alongside the ordinary unsecured creditors, with a vote on the restructuring plan and a dividend if the plan or the liquidation produces one.<\/p>\n Paris-based founders should picture the concrete circuit. A company whose si\u00e8ge social is in Paris is handled by the Paris commercial court, filings and claims pass through court-appointed representatives practising in Paris, and every procedural notice lands at the si\u00e8ge social, not at your home abroad. Keep a reliable address for service in France, whether your lawyer’s office, your accountant or a domiciliation company, and check it weekly once difficulties appear. The earlier companion guide on blocked registrations shows how unforgiving French registries and courts are with paperwork served from abroad: Your French Kbis Is Blocked and You Live Abroad: INPI Single Window, Greffe Rejection and How to Get Registered From Abroad<\/a>. The same discipline applies here, with money rather than registration on the line.<\/p>\n Finally, understand the personal-exposure line if you are both lender and director. As a pure shareholder-lender you risk only the money advanced. But if you are also the pr\u00e9sident of the SAS, the g\u00e9rant of the SARL, or a de facto manager giving the orders from abroad, a liquidation that reveals a shortfall can reach your personal assets where management fault contributed to it. The statute warns that “Lorsque la liquidation judiciaire d’une personne morale fait appara\u00eetre une insuffisance d’actif, le tribunal peut, en cas de faute de gestion ayant contribu\u00e9 \u00e0 cette insuffisance d’actif, d\u00e9cider que le montant de cette insuffisance d’actif sera support\u00e9, en tout ou en partie, par tous les dirigeants de droit ou de fait, ou par certains d’entre eux, ayant contribu\u00e9 \u00e0 la faute de gestion”. Source: Article L651-2 of the Code de commerce<\/a>. Funding the company with documented shareholder advances is the opposite of management fault: it shows an owner supporting the business. What draws liability is the shadow side, continuing loss-making trading with no prospect, paying yourself back in preference to other creditors, or keeping no accounts that record the advance at all. Keep the loan file clean, stop taking repayments the moment insolvency looks likely, and file for court protection within the legal deadline once the company cannot meet its due debts with available cash, and your advance remains what it should be: a creditor’s claim, not a rod for your own back.<\/p>\n A shareholder advance on current account is the most natural way for a foreign owner to finance a French company: fast, flexible and repayable on demand when the paperwork says so. Make it a real loan with a signed agreement, a recorded balance-sheet liability and a shareholder vote, keep interest inside the statutory ceiling with capital fully paid up, and start the five-year clock with a proper demand letter when you want the money back. Treat the advance with the same seriousness as a bank loan file, because every French authority you may one day face, the tax inspector checking the interest deduction, the commercial court judge freezing payments, the insolvency representative verifying your declaration, will read that file before deciding your fate. Fund boldly, document relentlessly, and declare immediately if protection proceedings open: those three reflexes turn a simple wire from abroad into financing your French company can build on.<\/p>\n You lent money to your French company, or you are about to, and you want the paperwork, the interest and the repayment secured. Call 06 46 60 58 22<\/a> for a telephone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer of the firm, or write via our contact page<\/a>. Bring your advance agreement, your company accounts and your latest Kbis: we will tell you what is deductible, what is repayable, and what to file first.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Foreign owner funding a French SAS or SARL from abroad? How shareholder advances work, when interest is deductible, how to get repaid, and what freezes in insolvency.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":16441,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_kj_source_type":"","_kj_official_id":"","_kj_official_url":"","_kj_judilibre_id":"","_kj_jur":"","_kj_lieu":"","_kj_chambre":"","_kj_rg":"","_kj_date":"","activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[80314,80313],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2124879","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decryptage","category-doing-business-in-france"],"yoast_head":"\nB. Can your French company pay you interest, deduct it from taxable profit, and what does your life abroad change<\/h3>\n
II. Getting Your Money Back From Abroad, Even When the Company Struggles<\/h2>\n
A. When can you demand repayment from abroad, how does the five-year clock work, and what forces the company to pay<\/h3>\n
B. What happens to your advance if the company enters safeguard, restructuring or liquidation, and how a director-owner can become personally exposed<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n
Need a quick opinion on your case<\/h2>\n