You have just been appointed president of your French SAS (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e, the flexible joint-stock company most foreign founders choose) or manager (g\u00e9rant) of your SARL (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e, the French limited liability company), and you run the business from London, New York, Dubai or Singapore. One question then decides how much money leaves your pocket every year and which administration sends you bills: under which French social security regime are you covered as a company director living abroad?<\/p>\n
France gives two opposite answers depending on your corporate title. The president of a SAS is an “assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9” \u2014 a director treated like an employee for social security purposes, affiliated to the r\u00e9gime g\u00e9n\u00e9ral (the general social security scheme covering employees) and paying contributions strictly on the remuneration the company actually pays. The majority manager of a SARL is a TNS (travailleur non salari\u00e9, self-employed worker), affiliated to the r\u00e9gime des ind\u00e9pendants (the self-employed social security scheme) and paying provisional contributions every year, including during the first years on a flat-rate basis and even in years when the company pays nothing. The wrong assumption \u2014 for example believing that an unpaid mandate means no obligations, or that dividends replace a salary without consequences \u2014 leads to URSSAF (Union de recouvrement des cotisations de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale et d’allocations familiales, the agency that collects social contributions) reassessments, formal notices and enforceable orders that reach you abroad. This article explains which regime applies to you, what each one costs, how to affiliate and prove compliance from another country, and how to react when URSSAF challenges your position.<\/p>\n
French law does not ask where you live or which passport you hold. Article L. 311-2 of the Social Security Code states: “Sont affili\u00e9es obligatoirement aux assurances sociales du r\u00e9gime g\u00e9n\u00e9ral, quel que soit leur \u00e2ge et m\u00eame si elles sont titulaires d’une pension, toutes les personnes quelle que soit leur nationalit\u00e9, de l’un ou de l’autre sexe, salari\u00e9es ou travaillant \u00e0 quelque titre ou en quelque lieu que ce soit, pour un ou plusieurs employeurs et quels que soient le montant et la nature de leur r\u00e9mun\u00e9ration, la forme, la nature ou la validit\u00e9 de leur contrat ou la nature de leur statut.” (Article L. 311-2, Code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale<\/a>). Affiliation follows the work performed for a French company, whatever your nationality. What changes everything is the list in Article L. 311-3, which extends compulsory general-regime affiliation to named categories of directors \u2014 and the mirror rule that pushes majority SARL managers into the self-employed regime. The company’s Kbis (the official registration certificate issued by the greffe, the clerk’s office of the commercial court, proving the company exists and who runs it) states your title, and URSSAF reads that title first.<\/p>\n The president of a SAS \u2014 and, where the articles of association (statuts) create them, the directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral and directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral d\u00e9l\u00e9gu\u00e9 \u2014 is covered by Article L. 311-3, 23\u00b0 of the Social Security Code: “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” (Article L. 311-3, Code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale<\/a>). This single sentence is the foundation of your position: whatever percentage of the shares you hold \u2014 100 percent or 1 percent \u2014 the president of a SAS belongs to the general regime as an assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9, not to the self-employed regime. The commercial side mirrors this special status: under Article L. 227-6 of the Commercial Code, “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. 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.” (Article L. 227-6, Code de commerce<\/a>). You hold the widest powers to bind the company, yet for social security you are treated like an employee.<\/p>\n In practice, the official entreprendre.service-public.fr guide confirms that the director holds assimil\u00e9-salari\u00e9 status with general-regime coverage and pays contributions on remuneration received for the corporate mandate plus benefits (Revenus du dirigeant d’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9, service-public.fr<\/a>). Two consequences matter for a founder abroad. First, contributions are strictly proportional to remuneration actually paid: an unpaid first year means no general-regime contributions on a zero base, because Article L. 242-1 provides that “Les cotisations de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale dues au titre de l’affiliation au r\u00e9gime g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des personnes mentionn\u00e9es aux articles L. 311-2 et L. 311-3 sont assises sur les revenus d’activit\u00e9 tels qu’ils sont pris en compte pour la d\u00e9termination de l’assiette d\u00e9finie \u00e0 l’article L. 136-1-1” and that “Elles sont dues pour les p\u00e9riodes au titre desquelles ces revenus sont attribu\u00e9s.” (Article L. 242-1, Code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale<\/a>). Second, assimilation is not employment: the same official guide warns that the director does not contribute to unemployment insurance and has no rights under it You pay almost like an employee, but you build no unemployment insurance rights on your mandate income \u2014 a frequent and expensive misunderstanding among foreign founders who assume the French “payroll charges” automatically buy the full employee package.<\/p>\n The Cour de cassation drew this line sharply in a recent ruling every SAS president should know. On 15 May 2025 (Second Civil Chamber, appeal no. 23-13.763), after an URSSAF audit of a SAS covering 2014 and 2015, the Court held that “ce dirigeant \u00e9tait assujetti par assimilation au r\u00e9gime g\u00e9n\u00e9ral en sa qualit\u00e9 de pr\u00e9sident d’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e, de sorte qu’il ne pouvait pr\u00e9tendre \u00e0 ce titre au service l’indemnit\u00e9 conventionnelle de d\u00e9part \u00e0 la retraite pr\u00e9vue pour les salari\u00e9s de la cat\u00e9gorie des cadres dirigeants” (Cass. 2e civ., 15 mai 2025, n\u00b0 23-13.763<\/a>). Assimilation brings contributions; it does not convert the mandate into an employment contract and does not open rights reserved to genuine employees, such as the contractual retirement indemnity for executive employees at issue in that case. If you also want a true employment contract on top of your mandate \u2014 for example as chief financial officer with duties distinct from the presidency \u2014 that combination (cumul) is possible only under strict conditions of a real subordinate position with separate functions, grading and pay, and it is examined in detail in our companion guide on the director’s employment contract. For most foreign founders, the mandate alone plus, where useful, dividends is the cleaner structure: dividends, which escape social contributions and bear instead the 30 percent flat tax (pr\u00e9l\u00e8vement forfaitaire unique, 12.8 percent income tax plus social levies) or, on option, progressive income tax after a 40 percent allowance.<\/p>\n The SARL works the other way round, and the threshold is arithmetic. Under Article L. 223-18 of the Commercial Code, “La soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e est g\u00e9r\u00e9e par une ou plusieurs personnes physiques. Les g\u00e9rants peuvent \u00eatre choisis en dehors des associ\u00e9s.” (Article L. 223-18, Code de commerce<\/a>). Any individual can manage, partner or not \u2014 but the social regime splits on the share of capital held. Article L. 311-3, 11\u00b0 affiliates to the general regime only “Les g\u00e9rants de soci\u00e9t\u00e9s \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e et de soci\u00e9t\u00e9s d’exercice lib\u00e9ral \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e \u00e0 condition que lesdits g\u00e9rants ne poss\u00e8dent pas ensemble plus de la moiti\u00e9 du capital social, \u00e9tant entendu que les parts appartenant, en toute propri\u00e9t\u00e9 ou en usufruit, au conjoint, au partenaire li\u00e9 par un pacte civil de solidarit\u00e9 et aux enfants mineurs non \u00e9mancip\u00e9s d’un g\u00e9rant sont consid\u00e9r\u00e9es comme poss\u00e9d\u00e9es par ce dernier” (Article L. 311-3, Code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale<\/a>). Read a contrario, the rule is simple: a manager who, alone or together with the co-managers, the spouse or PACS partner and minor children, holds more than half of the capital is not an assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9. That manager is a TNS affiliated to the self-employed regime, whose scope Article L. 611-1 defines starting with “Le pr\u00e9sent livre s’applique aux personnes suivantes : 1\u00b0 Les travailleurs non salari\u00e9s qui ne sont pas affili\u00e9s au r\u00e9gime mentionn\u00e9 au 3\u00b0 de l’article L. 722-8 du code rural et de la p\u00eache maritime” (Article L. 611-1, Code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale<\/a>).<\/p>\n Three practical points follow for founders abroad. First, the family aggregation rule surprises many couples: if you hold 40 percent and your spouse holds 15 percent, you are a majority manager and therefore self-employed, even though you personally own less than half. The shares of a spouse, PACS partner and non-emancipated minor children count as yours. Second, the Cour de cassation applies the majority test collectively, not manager by manager. On 31 May 2018 (Second Civil Chamber, appeal no. 17-17.518), the Court ruled that “les membres d’un coll\u00e8ge de g\u00e9rants de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e et de soci\u00e9t\u00e9 d’exercice lib\u00e9ral \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e ne sont pas affili\u00e9s obligatoirement au r\u00e9gime g\u00e9n\u00e9ral en application de ce texte, lorsqu’ils d\u00e9tiennent ensemble plus de la moiti\u00e9 du capital social, m\u00eame si certains d’entre eux ne sont pas porteurs de parts” (Cass. 2e civ., 31 mai 2018, n\u00b0 17-17.518<\/a>). In a two-manager SARL where the pair jointly holds 60 percent, both managers are self-employed \u2014 including the one who personally holds no shares at all. Third, minority, egalitarian (exactly 50 percent) and non-partner managers are assimil\u00e9s salari\u00e9s under the same Article L. 311-3, 11\u00b0, with the same contribution logic and the same exclusion from unemployment insurance as a SAS president.<\/p>\n The self-employed status also starts from a legal presumption that protects genuine directors but punishes disguised employment. Labour Code Articles L. 8221-6 and L. 8221-6-1 create a simple presumption that directors of entities registered with the companies register are not employees, unless a position of legal subordination is demonstrated \u2014 and a very recent first-instance judgment applied it to a majority SARL manager pursued by URSSAF. On 30 September 2025, the Judicial Court of La Rochelle (case no. 24\/00148) recalled that “Il r\u00e9sulte des articles L. 8221-6 et L. 8221-6-1 du code du travail, L. 311-11 du code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale, une pr\u00e9somption simple de non salariat des dirigeants des personnes morales immatricul\u00e9es au registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s, sauf \u00e0 d\u00e9montrer une situation de subordination juridique. Il en r\u00e9sulte que le g\u00e9rant majoritaire de SARL a le statut de travailleur ind\u00e9pendant”, substituted its judgment for a May 2024 enforcement order and reduced the claim to 2,971 euros of contributions (TJ La Rochelle, 30 sept. 2025, n\u00b0 24\/00148<\/a>). The lesson for a founder abroad is double-edged: your director status presumptively keeps you out of employee reclassification, but it squarely places the majority manager inside the self-employed contribution net, where URSSAF collects through formal notices and enforceable constraints that courts review euro by euro.<\/p>\n One last boundary inside the SARL: unlike the assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9, the majority manager stays affiliated to the self-employed regime even when unpaid. The official guide states that a majority manager holds self-employed status and remains covered by the self-employed social security regime even when unpaid. (Revenus du dirigeant d’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9, service-public.fr<\/a>). A SAS president who takes nothing in year one generates no general-regime contributions; a majority SARL manager who takes nothing still receives contribution calls. Choosing between SAS and SARL is therefore also choosing between a regime that sleeps when the company pays nothing and a regime that bills every year \u2014 a difference our pillar guide on choosing between a SAS, a SARL, a branch and a subsidiary from abroad<\/a> places at the heart of the vehicle decision.<\/p>\n Once the regime is identified, two operational questions remain: on which base and at what rhythm contributions are calculated, and how a director who never sets foot in France completes affiliation, keeps proof and answers an audit. Both answers differ sharply between the two regimes, and living abroad adds documentary steps without changing the underlying liability: French-source director remuneration is affiliated in France, and distance is no defence.<\/p>\n For the assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9 \u2014 SAS president, general manager, minority or egalitarian SARL manager \u2014 the mechanism is proportional and annual on actual income. Article L. 242-1 ties contributions to activity income as defined for the CSG\/CRDS base and allocates them to the periods when the income is granted, as quoted above. Concretely, the company withholds the employee share and pays the employer share through the payroll (bulletin de paie) and the monthly or quarterly social declarations (d\u00e9claration sociale nominative, the DSN, the electronic payroll return every French employer files). Rates are set by decree and change almost every year, so this article states no percentage: the figure to budget must be read from the current URSSAF rate tables at the time remuneration is paid. What is structurally stable, and therefore safe to rely on, is the base: salary, bonuses, benefits in kind (company housing, car) and director fees all enter it, while dividends stay outside it. The official guide confirms that dividends “ne sont pas soumis \u00e0 cotisations sociales”, which is why many foreign founders combine a modest taxable salary \u2014 preserving health, pension and daily-allowance coverage under the general regime \u2014 with dividends taxed at the flat rate. The combination must still reflect genuine work and reasonable amounts: a purely symbolic salary paired with massive dividends, or remuneration voted without a proper shareholders’ decision, attracts URSSAF and tax scrutiny, and the shareholders’ meeting minutes (proc\u00e8s-verbal d’assembl\u00e9e g\u00e9n\u00e9rale) fixing the remuneration are the first document an inspector requests.<\/p>\n For the TNS \u2014 the majority SARL manager \u2014 the mechanism is annual, provisional and self-declared. Article L. 131-6 provides: “Les cotisations de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale dues par les travailleurs ind\u00e9pendants non agricoles ne relevant pas du dispositif pr\u00e9vu \u00e0 l’article L. 613-7 sont assises sur l’assiette d\u00e9finie \u00e0 l’article L. 136-3.” (Article L. 131-6, Code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale<\/a>), meaning contributions follow professional income as defined for social levies, after deduction of sums allocated under employee savings schemes where applicable. Article L. 131-6-2 then organises the rhythm for these same workers, whose contributions are due annually: “Leurs taux respectifs sont fix\u00e9s par d\u00e9cret. Elles sont calcul\u00e9es, \u00e0 titre provisionnel, sur la base de l’assiette de cotisations pr\u00e9vue \u00e0 l’article L. 131-6 pour l’avant-derni\u00e8re ann\u00e9e. Pour les deux premi\u00e8res ann\u00e9es d’activit\u00e9, les cotisations provisionnelles sont calcul\u00e9es sur la base d’une assiette forfaitaire fix\u00e9e par d\u00e9cret apr\u00e8s consultation des conseils d’administration des organismes de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale concern\u00e9s.” (Article L. 131-6-2, Code de la s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale<\/a>). In plain terms, a foreign founder who becomes majority manager in 2026 pays provisional contributions computed on a government flat-rate base during the first two years, then provisional bills based on income from two years earlier, with a final regularization once the actual income of the year is known. Overpaying in a good year and recovering the difference later, or underpaying and receiving a balancing bill, is the normal life of a TNS \u2014 not a malfunction \u2014 and cash planning from abroad must include it. Founders starting out can also examine the micro-entrepreneur route (the Article L. 613-7 simplified scheme excluded from these provisions) or the ACRE startup reduction where eligible, but those options depend on thresholds and personal conditions verified at affiliation, not on assumptions carried from another country.<\/p>\n A final cost warning concerns the unpaid mandate, the most common foreign-founder configuration in year one. The SAS president who draws nothing owes no general-regime contributions on that empty mandate \u2014 but also earns no coverage from it, and the company must still be able to show that no disguised remuneration (unreported benefits, personal expenses paid by the company) replaced the salary. The majority SARL manager who draws nothing remains in the self-employed net and keeps receiving calls, as the official guide confirms. And in both vehicles, living abroad does not suspend the calendar: DSN deadlines for the assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9’s pay, annual income declarations for the TNS, and the company’s own obligations \u2014 approving accounts within six months of year-end and filing them with the greffe \u2014 run identically whether the director sits in Paris or in another time zone, as explained in our guides on the French company’s annual legal calendar from abroad<\/a> and on answering an URSSAF audit from abroad<\/a>.<\/p>\n Affiliation starts at incorporation, not when the first salary is paid. When the company is registered through the guichet unique (the single online company-registration portal run by the INPI, the French intellectual property and companies institute), the director’s details flow to URSSAF, which opens the employer’s account for an assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9 and the self-employed account for a majority manager. From abroad, the founder should secure three things immediately: a French social security number (num\u00e9ro de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale) or at least the registration that triggers it, access to the online URSSAF employer and personal accounts (adresse \u00e9lectronique and postal address abroad accepted, with a reliable French correspondence address where possible), and the corporate paper that proves the regime \u2014 Kbis extract, statuts showing the title and shareholding, shareholders’ minutes fixing or waiving remuneration, and the payroll records or TNS income declarations that follow. For Paris and \u00cele-de-France companies, which concentrate most foreign incorporations, the competent bodies are the greffe of the Paris Commercial Court for registration and the Paris Kbis, and URSSAF \u00cele-de-France for collection and control; practical delays there follow the same national rules, but files move faster when the shareholding table (r\u00e9partition du capital) and the director’s identity documents are complete from day one, because an incomplete foreign file is the standard cause of duplicate accounts and double billing.<\/p>\n Control is where distance hurts most, and preparation must assume it will come. An URSSAF audit (contr\u00f4le) ends with a formal observations letter (lettre d’observations) listing each reassessment (chef de redressement), then a formal notice (mise en demeure) and, if unpaid, an enforceable order (contrainte) served even abroad. The La Rochelle case above shows the pattern: a May 2024 constraint challenged before the judicial court’s social division, with the judge substituting its own assessment. To challenge usefully, the director needs the reverse file: proof of the exact capital percentages on the audited dates (cap tables, share transfer deeds, family holdings), proof of remuneration actually paid versus dividends distributed (pay slips, DSN receipts, dividend minutes and tax returns), and, for any claimed employment contract alongside the mandate, proof of distinct duties performed under subordination. Objections follow strict deadlines counted from receipt of each document, and the competent court is the p\u00f4le social of the judicial tribunal of the company’s registered office \u2014 for a Paris company, the Paris Judicial Court. Missing a deadline from abroad forfeits the argument regardless of its merits, which is why designating a reachable representative and monitoring both the company mailbox and the URSSAF online account belongs in the setup checklist, not in the crisis plan.<\/p>\n The social security of a foreign founder directing a French company from abroad reduces to a short decision tree. President or general manager of a SAS, or minority, egalitarian or non-partner manager of a SARL: you are an assimil\u00e9 salari\u00e9 under Article L. 311-3, paying general-regime contributions strictly on remuneration paid, with no unemployment rights on the mandate and no employee-only benefits \u2014 as the Cour de cassation confirmed on 15 May 2025. Majority manager of a SARL, counting family holdings and co-managers’ shares together: you are a self-employed worker under Articles L. 611-1 and L. 131-6, paying annual provisional contributions on a flat-rate base in the first two years even when the company pays you nothing \u2014 as the Cour de cassation confirmed for joint holdings on 31 May 2018. Fix the remuneration or its waiver in proper minutes at incorporation, open and monitor the URSSAF accounts from abroad, keep capital and pay proof for every audited year, and treat each URSSAF letter as the start of a deadline. The regime is chosen once, at the articles stage; the bill arrives every year after.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Appointed president of a French SAS or manager of a SARL while living abroad? Your corporate title decides whether you join the general regime as an assimile salarie or the self-employed regime as a TNS \u2014 what each costs, how to affiliate from abroad, and how to answer an URSSAF audit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":251031309,"featured_media":16558,"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-2142527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-decryptage","category-doing-business-in-france"],"yoast_head":"\nA. President of a SAS: You Are an Assimil\u00e9 Salari\u00e9 Under the General Regime<\/h3>\n
B. Manager of a SARL: Majority Means Self-Employed, Minority Means Assimil\u00e9 Salari\u00e9<\/h3>\n
II. What You Pay and How You Affiliate While Living Abroad<\/h2>\n
A. Contribution Base and Rhythm: Provisional Bills for the TNS, Strict Proportionality for the Assimil\u00e9 Salari\u00e9<\/h3>\n
B. Affiliating, Proving and Defending Your Position From Another Country<\/h3>\n
Conclusion<\/h2>\n