{"id":2127309,"date":"2026-09-22T02:57:34","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T00:57:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/2026\/09\/22\/foreign-company-france-close-sell-dissolve-liquidate-shares-tax-abroad\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T02:57:34","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T00:57:34","slug":"foreign-company-france-close-sell-dissolve-liquidate-shares-tax-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/09\/22\/foreign-company-france-close-sell-dissolve-liquidate-shares-tax-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"You Need to Close or Sell Your French Company From Abroad: Dissolution, Liquidation, Share Sale and the Tax Bills to Clear"},"content":{"rendered":"

You formed a French company from abroad, obtained the Kbis company certificate, opened the bank account and registered for VAT<\/a>, and for a while the structure served you well. Then the project changed: the French activity never took off, the subsidiary costs more than it earns, the co-founder left, or you simply want to cut your losses and move on. From London, New York, Dubai or Singapore, one question keeps you awake: how do I close or sell this French company without flying to Paris, and what will the French tax office still claim from me before the company disappears? French law gives you two clean exits, and both can be handled remotely. You either close the company through a voluntary dissolution followed by a liquidation and a strike-off from the trade register, or you sell your shares to a buyer and walk away while the company survives. Each path has its own votes, filings, deadlines and tax bills, and choosing the wrong one costs months and thousands of euros. This guide explains both routes in practical order: how a foreign owner dissolves and liquidates from abroad, which final tax and social charges must be cleared, how a non-resident sells SAS shares or SARL parts without travelling, and what registration duty and capital gains tax France levies on the seller. Every French acronym is explained, every decisive rule is linked to its official text, and every step can be done with a lawyer holding your power of attorney.<\/p>\n

I. How Do I Close My French Company From Abroad: Dissolution, Liquidation and Strike-Off<\/h2>\n

A. How Do I Dissolve and Liquidate My French Company Without Coming to France<\/h3>\n

Closing a solvent French company is a three-stage procedure: dissolution, then liquidation, then strike-off (radiation) from the trade register. Dissolution is the decision to stop; liquidation is the winding-up period during which the assets are sold, the creditors are paid and the remaining cash is shared; strike-off is the administrative death of the company. The Civil Code lists the possible endings of any company, including “Par la dissolution anticip\u00e9e d\u00e9cid\u00e9e par les associ\u00e9s” (Article 1844-7 of the Civil Code<\/a>), which is the voluntary route a foreign owner uses when the business no longer makes sense. Before anything else, read your own articles of association, because the Commercial Code provides that “Sous r\u00e9serve des dispositions du pr\u00e9sent chapitre, la liquidation des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s est r\u00e9gie par les dispositions contenues dans les statuts” (Article L237-1 of the Commercial Code<\/a>). Your statutes may set specific quorums, majorities or liquidator-appointment rules that override the default regime.<\/p>\n

The dissolution decision itself is taken by the shareholders, and the majority rules depend on the company form. In a SARL (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e, the French limited liability company with parts sociales), dissolution requires the majority needed to amend the statutes. In a SAS (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e, the flexible joint-stock company with actions favoured by foreign founders), the statutes freely define who votes and with which majority, so check the clause before convening anyone. The meeting can be held by videoconference if the statutes allow it, and a foreign shareholder votes remotely or through a written power of attorney sent to the lawyer in Paris. The minutes must record two things: the dissolution itself and the appointment of the liquidator (liquidateur amiable), who can be the former president or manager, one of the shareholders, or an outside professional such as your lawyer. The appointment is limited in time and cannot exceed three years, renewable if the winding-up drags on. From the moment of dissolution, every letter, invoice and legal notice issued by the company must carry the words “soci\u00e9t\u00e9 en liquidation” (company in liquidation) followed by the liquidator’s name; forgetting this mention exposes the company to a 1,500 euro fine. A foreign owner who stays abroad simply signs the powers and the minutes prepared by counsel and never boards a plane.<\/p>\n

Within one month of the vote, the liquidator files the dissolution with the French one-stop business formalities portal, the Guichet unique, operated by the INPI (Institut national de la propri\u00e9t\u00e9 industrielle, the French intellectual property office that runs company registrations). The filing includes the signed minutes, proof that the dissolution decision was published in a legal announcements journal (support habilit\u00e9 \u00e0 recevoir des annonces l\u00e9gales, the authorised press outlet for legal notices), and the liquidator’s sworn declaration of no criminal conviction with family details. The clerk of the commercial court (the greffe, the registry office attached to each commercial court) then records the dissolution in the RCS (Registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s, the French trade and companies register) and the notice appears in the BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official gazette where company events are published). This publication step is not a formality: “La dissolution d’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 ne produit ses effets \u00e0 l’\u00e9gard des tiers qu’\u00e0 compter de la date \u00e0 laquelle elle est publi\u00e9e au registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s” (Article L237-2 of the Commercial Code<\/a>). As long as the dissolution is not published, creditors and contracting parties can still treat the company as fully alive. The same article adds that “La soci\u00e9t\u00e9 est en liquidation d\u00e8s l’instant de sa dissolution pour quelque cause que ce soit sauf dans le cas pr\u00e9vu au troisi\u00e8me alin\u00e9a de l’article 1844-5 du code civil”, which means the liquidation period opens automatically the day the shareholders vote, except in the special single-owner shortcut described below.<\/p>\n

During liquidation the liquidator replaces the former management entirely: the president of the SAS or the g\u00e9rant (manager) of the SARL loses all powers the day the liquidator is appointed. The liquidator sells the stock, equipment and receivables, terminates the office lease and the service contracts, dismisses or transfers any remaining employees under French employment rules, collects what customers owe, and pays the suppliers, the landlord, the URSSAF (Unions de recouvrement des cotisations de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale et d’allocations familiales, the French social-security collection agency), the VAT office and the corporate tax office in the legal order of priority. Secured and priority creditors come first; shareholders come last and only share what remains. Within six months of appointment the liquidator must convene the shareholders to report on the assets, the liabilities and the time still needed, and each year the liquidation accounts are approved the same way as ordinary annual accounts. Throughout this period the company legally survives for the needs of the winding-up: “La personnalit\u00e9 morale de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 subsiste pour les besoins de la liquidation jusqu’\u00e0 la publication de la cl\u00f4ture de celle-ci” (Article 1844-8 of the Civil Code<\/a>). That survival is useful because the liquidator can still sue a debtor or be sued by a creditor in the company’s name, but it also means the foreign owner cannot simply walk away and consider the company gone before the closing publication.<\/p>\n

There is one major shortcut that many foreign founders can use. If your French company is a SASU or an EURL (the one-person versions of the SAS and the SARL) whose single shareholder is itself a company rather than an individual, there is no liquidation at all: “En cas de dissolution, celle-ci entra\u00eene la transmission universelle du patrimoine de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 l’associ\u00e9 unique, sans qu’il y ait lieu \u00e0 liquidation” (third paragraph of Article 1844-5 of the Civil Code<\/a>). This mechanism, called the TUP (transmission universelle du patrimoine, universal transfer of all assets and debts to the sole shareholder), moves every asset and every debt to the parent company in one step after a simple filing. It is fast and cheap, but creditors are protected: “Les cr\u00e9anciers peuvent faire opposition \u00e0 la dissolution dans le d\u00e9lai de trente jours \u00e0 compter de la publication de celle-ci.” A recent case shows how strictly courts apply this thirty-day shield. A supplier of a dissolved hair-salon company filed its opposition in time, and the commercial court of Grenoble recorded that “Le 10 mars 2026, le BODACC publie la dissolution sans liquidation de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 WHY NOT, par application du m\u00e9canisme de transmission universelle du patrimoine au profit de son associ\u00e9 unique”, then declared the creditor “recevable et bien fond\u00e9e” in its opposition and ordered payment or guarantees (Judgment of the Grenoble Commercial Court of 28 August 2026, no. 2026J00186<\/a>). The lesson for a foreign parent company is clear: publish the TUP, diary the thirty days, and expect any French creditor who wakes up to freeze the transfer until it is paid or secured. Note that when the sole shareholder is an individual living abroad rather than a company, the TUP shortcut is unavailable and the ordinary liquidation described above applies in full.<\/p>\n

Two traps deserve a warning before you start. First, if the company’s equity has fallen below half of its share capital because of accumulated losses, French law forces a preliminary decision: “Si, du fait de pertes constat\u00e9es dans les documents comptables, les capitaux propres de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 deviennent inf\u00e9rieurs \u00e0 la moiti\u00e9 du capital social, les associ\u00e9s d\u00e9cident, dans les quatre mois qui suivent l’approbation des comptes ayant fait appara\u00eetre cette perte s’il y a lieu \u00e0 dissolution anticip\u00e9e de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9” (Article L223-42 of the Commercial Code<\/a>). A dormant French subsidiary that keeps paying rent, an accountant and the CFE local tax often drifts into this zone without the foreign owner noticing, and any interested party can then ask a court to dissolve the company if the shareholders never voted. Second, never confuse voluntary closure with insolvency: if the company cannot pay its due debts with its available cash, it is in cessation des paiements and the directors must file for insolvency within forty-five days instead of voting a friendly dissolution. A voluntary dissolution voted while the company is actually insolvent can be reclassified, and the directors’ personal liability engaged. When in doubt, ask your accountant for a solvency certificate before the shareholders vote, and keep it with the minutes.<\/p>\n

B. What Tax and Social Bills Must I Clear Before the Company Disappears<\/h3>\n

Closing the company on paper is only half the job; the French tax and social administrations must be told, paid and given proof, otherwise bills keep arriving at the registered office long after the shareholders voted. The starting gun is a strict information deadline. The Tax Code provides that “Les contribuables doivent, dans un d\u00e9lai de quarante-cinq jours d\u00e9termin\u00e9 comme il est indiqu\u00e9 ci-apr\u00e8s, aviser l’administration de la cession ou de la cessation et lui faire conna\u00eetre la date \u00e0 laquelle elle a \u00e9t\u00e9 ou sera effective, ainsi que, s’il y a lieu, les nom, pr\u00e9noms, et adresse du cessionnaire” (Article 201 of the General Tax Code<\/a>). For a company subject to corporate income tax, the sister provision adds that “l’imp\u00f4t sur les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s est \u00e9tabli dans les conditions pr\u00e9vues aux 1 et 3 de l’article 201” as soon as dissolution occurs (Article 221 of the General Tax Code<\/a>). In practice your accountant files a final corporate tax return (IS, imp\u00f4t sur les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s) covering the period from the first day of the current financial year to the dissolution date, within sixty days, and pays any balance immediately because dissolution accelerates taxation of profits that had not yet been taxed, including provisions that become unnecessary. A foreign owner who misses this window faces automatic assessment (taxation d’office), where the administration reconstructs the base without your documents, plus late-payment interest and surcharges. Give your accountant the dissolution minutes the day they are signed and diary the sixty-day filing date yourself.<\/p>\n

VAT (TVA, taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e) requires its own closing sequence. The liquidator files a final VAT return (CA3) covering the period up to the cessation of taxable activity, repays any VAT credit conditions permitting or claims the refund, and deregisters the company from VAT with the SIE (service des imp\u00f4ts des entreprises, the local business tax office). If the company sells its remaining stock or equipment during liquidation, those sales are normally subject to VAT like any other sale, and the liquidator must charge it on the invoices even though the company carries the “soci\u00e9t\u00e9 en liquidation” mention. When the company had opted for VAT on an activity that later stopped, check whether the option must be formally revoked. Keep every VAT filing receipt until the strike-off, because a missing final return is the most common reason the tax office blocks the radiation filing at the very end of the procedure. The same discipline applies to the CFE (cotisation fonci\u00e8re des entreprises, the annual French local business tax): the company owes the CFE for the full calendar year in which it closes, with only narrow exemptions for the very first year of activity, so budget one last bill even if the premises were vacated in January.<\/p>\n

On the social side, the URSSAF account must be closed cleanly. If the company still employs anyone, including the foreign founder who drew a French salary as president, the liquidator issues the final payslips, files the last DSN (d\u00e9claration sociale nominative, the monthly electronic payroll return), pays the final contributions, and delivers the work certificate and the P\u00f4le emploi attestation to each departing employee. Final settlement payments and any severance are declared normally; there is no shortcut for the last payroll. Then ask the URSSAF for a closing statement and an attestation de vigilance (the certificate proving the company is up to date with social contributions), which buyers, landlords and the court clerk often demand. If the company employed nobody and the director was unpaid and affiliated to nothing, still obtain a written nil-balance confirmation rather than assuming silence means zero. Self-employed directors (travailleurs non salari\u00e9s) affiliated to the SSI (S\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale des ind\u00e9pendants) must separately close that account. Any dispute about the final contribution bill follows the standard route: a written complaint to the URSSAF, then the CRA (commission de recours amiable, the internal appeals board) within the statutory deadlines, then the judicial social court (p\u00f4le social du tribunal judiciaire) if needed. From abroad, all of this runs through your lawyer or accountant with powers of attorney; nothing requires your physical presence.<\/p>\n

Only when the money is sorted can the liquidation be closed. The liquidator draws up the final liquidation accounts, convenes the shareholders one last time, and asks them to approve the accounts, grant the liquidator discharge (quitus) for the management of the winding-up, and vote the formal closure (cl\u00f4ture de liquidation). The closure minutes, like the dissolution minutes, are published in a legal announcements journal and filed on the Guichet unique with a request for strike-off. The greffe checks the file, the company is removed from the RCS, and the closure notice appears in the BODACC. At that moment, and only at that moment, the legal personality that had survived for the needs of the liquidation finally ends, and the foreign owner receives the Kbis de radiation (the certificate proving the company has been struck off), which is the document banks, landlords and foreign parent-company auditors will ask for. Keep the full file, minutes, tax receipts, URSSAF attestations and the final Kbis for at least ten years: French tax and social audits can revisit closed periods, and a former director living in London or New York can still receive a reassessment notice at the company’s last known address. If an extra bill does arrive after closure, do not ignore it: file a written claim (r\u00e9clamation contentieuse) with the tax office within the deadline printed on the notice, escalate to the administrative court (tribunal administratif) if rejected, and ask your lawyer whether the liquidator’s closed accounts or the buyer’s guarantees change who ultimately pays.<\/p>\n

II. Should I Sell My French Shares From Abroad Instead of Closing the Company<\/h2>\n

A. How Do I Sell My SAS Shares or SARL Parts as a Non-Resident<\/h3>\n

Selling is often faster and cheaper than liquidating: there is no legal announcements journal, no liquidator, no final payroll and no strike-off file, and the price you receive can exceed the net liquidation bonus, especially if the company holds a lease, a licence, a brand or a customer base. The procedure depends entirely on whether you hold actions in a SAS or parts sociales in a SARL, because the two instruments transfer under opposite default rules. In a SAS, shares are freely transferable as a matter of principle; restrictions exist only if the statutes created them, typically an approval clause (clause d’agr\u00e9ment) forcing the seller to obtain the company’s consent, a pre-emption clause (droit de pr\u00e9emption) giving existing shareholders first refusal, or an inalienability clause (clause d’inali\u00e9nabilit\u00e9) temporarily freezing all transfers. Read the statutes and any shareholders’ agreement (pacte d’associ\u00e9s) before promising anything to a buyer: the Court of Cassation holds that “la transaction, qui ne met fin au litige que sous r\u00e9serve de son ex\u00e9cution, ne peut \u00eatre oppos\u00e9e par l’une des parties que si celle-ci en a respect\u00e9 les conditions” (Court of Cassation, Commercial Chamber, 24 January 2024, no. 21-25.416<\/a>), and the same logic governs shareholders’ pacts in a sale context: a party that never performed its own undertakings under the pact cannot use that pact against the others. Concretely, if your pact required you to offer the shares to the co-founders first, make that offer in writing and keep the proof before signing with an outsider, or the buyers may unwind your sale.<\/p>\n

In a SARL the statute itself imposes the approval procedure, and no statute can remove it for transfers to outsiders: “Les parts sociales ne peuvent \u00eatre c\u00e9d\u00e9es \u00e0 des tiers \u00e9trangers \u00e0 la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 qu’avec le consentement de la majorit\u00e9 des associ\u00e9s repr\u00e9sentant au moins la moiti\u00e9 des parts sociales, \u00e0 moins que les statuts pr\u00e9voient une majorit\u00e9 plus forte” (Article L223-14 of the Commercial Code<\/a>). As the foreign seller you must notify the transfer project to the company and to each shareholder individually, usually by bailiff service (signification par commissaire de justice, the reformed title of the former huissier) or by registered letter if the statutes allow it. The company then has three months to approve or refuse. Silence works in your favour: “Si la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 n’a pas fait conna\u00eetre sa d\u00e9cision dans le d\u00e9lai de trois mois \u00e0 compter de la derni\u00e8re des notifications pr\u00e9vues au pr\u00e9sent alin\u00e9a, le consentement \u00e0 la cession est r\u00e9put\u00e9 acquis.” If the company expressly refuses, the remaining shareholders must, within a further three months, buy your parts themselves or procure another buyer at a price set by expert valuation under Article 1843-4 of the Civil Code, unless you withdraw and keep your shares. This refusal-and-buyout mechanism is the SARL seller’s safety net: a hostile majority cannot simply block your exit and leave you trapped. For partnerships such as the SNC (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 en nom collectif), where unanimous approval is required, the sanction for skipping approval is narrower than many sellers fear: “le d\u00e9faut d’agr\u00e9ment unanime des associ\u00e9s \u00e0 la cession des parts sociales d’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 en nom collectif n’entra\u00eene pas la nullit\u00e9 de la cession, laquelle est seulement inopposable \u00e0 la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 et aux associ\u00e9s” (Court of Cassation, Commercial Chamber, 16 May 2018, no. 16-16.498<\/a>). The sale stands between buyer and seller but the company can ignore the buyer until approval arrives, which is exactly why buyers insist on the approval being secured before they pay.<\/p>\n

The mechanics of the sale itself are fully manageable from abroad. The transfer deed (acte de cession) identifies the parties, the number and class of shares or parts, the price and its adjustments, the representations and warranties (garantie d’actif et de passif, the French equivalent of a tax and liabilities warranty under which the seller compensates the buyer if hidden debts surface), and any non-compete or earn-out. For SAS shares, ownership moves through an account-to-account transfer order (ordre de mouvement) recorded in the company’s share registers; for SARL parts, the deed must be served on the company or accepted by it in a notarial deed, then filed with the greffe together with updated statutes, and the RCS entry is amended to show the new shareholder. The price is freely negotiated, but when shareholders deadlock the Code refers them to an independent expert valuation under Article 1843-4, whose decision binds the parties absent gross error. A foreign seller signs remotely: the deed can be executed as a private agreement (acte sous seing priv\u00e9) with electronic signature, or before a French notary with a power of attorney authenticated with an apostille under the Hague Convention when the buyer’s bank or the authorities demand stronger form. Funds normally pass through the lawyer’s escrow account (compte s\u00e9questre CARPA) against delivery of the signed transfer order and the updated shareholder register, so neither side pays before the other performs. Your practical checklist from abroad is therefore short: KYC documents (passport, proof of address, company chain up to the ultimate beneficial owner), the signed transfer documents, the approval proof, and a French bank or CARPA account able to receive the price.<\/p>\n

B. What French Tax Do I Pay When I Sell From Abroad<\/h3>\n

Two French taxes can bite the seller or the deal: registration duty on the transfer deed and French tax on the capital gain, and the rules change depending on what you sell and where you live. Registration duty (droits d’enregistrement) is the starting point because it applies to almost every sale: “Les cessions de droits sociaux sont soumises \u00e0 un droit d’enregistrement dont le taux est fix\u00e9” (Article 726 of the General Tax Code<\/a>). For SAS shares the standard rate is 0.1 percent of the price, which makes selling a SAS cheap to register. For SARL parts the rate is 3 percent after a standard allowance computed on the fraction sold, which can make the same economic deal noticeably more expensive to transfer. Sales of shares in companies whose assets are predominantly French real estate (soci\u00e9t\u00e9s \u00e0 pr\u00e9pond\u00e9rance immobili\u00e8re) face a 5 percent rate with their own declaration duties. The duty is normally paid by the buyer at registration of the deed, but a smart seller prices it in: a buyer comparing a SAS target with a SARL target will discount the SARL price for the heavier duty. Deeds signed abroad covering shares of a company headquartered in France are still caught, and must be registered in France within one month, so signing in London or Dubai does not escape the duty. Keep the registered deed: the greffe, the banks and any future litigator will treat it as the definitive proof of who owns what.<\/p>\n

Capital gains are the second layer, and residence is decisive. As a non-resident individual or a foreign company selling a small stake, France generally leaves the gain to your country of residence under the applicable tax treaty, and you declare nothing in France. The exception that traps many foreign owners is the substantial-stake levy. French law taxes gains on rights giving access to French company profits when the seller’s family group held a heavy interest: the levy applies to gains “r\u00e9alis\u00e9s par des personnes physiques qui ne sont pas domicili\u00e9es en France au sens de l’article 4 B ou par des personnes morales ou organismes quelle qu’en soit la forme, ayant leur si\u00e8ge social hors de France” (Article 244 bis B of the General Tax Code<\/a>), precisely “lorsque les droits dans les b\u00e9n\u00e9fices de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 d\u00e9tenus par le c\u00e9dant ou l’actionnaire ou l’associ\u00e9, avec son conjoint, leurs ascendants et leurs descendants, ont d\u00e9pass\u00e9 ensemble 25 % de ces b\u00e9n\u00e9fices \u00e0 un moment quelconque au cours des cinq derni\u00e8res ann\u00e9es”. If you owned your French SASU outright for the last five years, you are squarely inside this test. The levy runs at the standard corporate rate for foreign companies and at 12.8 percent for non-resident individuals, collected by withholding (pr\u00e9l\u00e8vement) with the buyer or the paying agent often liable to operate it, and it can reach 75 percent for sellers established in a non-cooperative jurisdiction. Before assuming the worst, read the tax treaty between France and your country: many treaties give the exclusive right to tax share gains to the seller’s residence state for non-real-estate companies, which neutralises the levy when properly claimed with a residence certificate. The practical sequence is therefore: measure your five-year family holding percentage, check the treaty article on capital gains, obtain the residence certificate early, file the French forms through your representative, and only then release the price from escrow net of any withholding actually due.<\/p>\n

Individual foreign shareholders face a parallel question on dividends and liquidation bonuses received just before the exit. A liquidation bonus (boni de liquidation, the surplus distributed when the company’s net assets exceed the share capital) is taxed like a dividend in the hands of a French-resident recipient, with withholding tax (retenue \u00e0 la source) commonly at treaty-reduced rates for non-residents, plus potential tax in the residence country with a foreign tax credit. This is precisely why the choice between closing and selling is also a tax computation: liquidating crystallises a bonus taxed as a distribution, while selling crystallises a capital gain that a treaty may exempt in France. Run both numbers with your accountant before the shareholders vote, because once the dissolution is published or the transfer deed is signed, the tax character of the cash you take home is fixed. If the administration later reassesses the sale price as understated or recharacterises the deal, contest it the standard way: a written claim to the tax office (r\u00e9clamation contentieuse) within the deadline on the notice, supporting valuation reports attached, then the administrative court if the claim is rejected, with the official impots.gouv.fr<\/a> portal as the filing channel and the service-public.fr guide on voluntary company closure<\/a> and the service-public.fr guide on universal asset transfers<\/a> as the public procedure references your foreign adviser can read. Never let a reassessment notice sit unanswered while you are abroad: French tax deadlines run regardless of where you live, and a missed claim deadline makes even a wrong assessment final.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

Closing and selling are both realistic from abroad, but they answer different situations. Choose dissolution and liquidation when the company has no buyer, when its value sits below the cost of finding one, or when you want a definitive administrative death with a Kbis de radiation to show your auditors. Expect three to nine months, one shareholders’ meeting to dissolve, a liquidator phase with annual reporting, final corporate tax, VAT and URSSAF filings inside forty-five to sixty days, and a closing meeting followed by strike-off. Choose the TUP shortcut when a foreign parent wholly owns a French SASU or EURL and accepts to inherit every asset and debt directly, remembering the thirty-day creditor opposition window that a single unpaid supplier can use to freeze everything. Choose the sale when the company still has a lease, contracts, staff or know-how a buyer will pay for, when the SAS transfer is free of approval clauses, or when the treaty computation shows the capital gain escapes French tax while a liquidation bonus would be taxed as a dividend. In every case the remote-execution recipe is the same: powers of attorney to your Paris lawyer, videoconference votes allowed by the statutes, electronic or apostilled signatures, price or liquidation funds through a CARPA escrow, and a diary of the three deadlines that kill files when missed, namely the one-month Guichet unique filing, the forty-five-day tax notice with the sixty-day final return, and the thirty-day creditor opposition period for TUPs. Start with a solvency check and a treaty check before you vote or sign anything, keep every filing receipt until the radiation or the registered deed is in hand, and contest any late bill in writing within its deadline rather than from memory months later.<\/p>\n

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

Closing or selling a French company from abroad raises one urgent question: which exit costs you less and closes faster in your exact situation. Our firm gives you a phone consultation within 48 hours with a lawyer who handles foreign-owned French companies every week. Call +33 6 46 60 58 22<\/a> or write through our contact page<\/a> with your Kbis, your latest accounts and the buyer’s offer or your dissolution minutes, and you will leave the call with a clear exit plan, a fee quote and the filings started.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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