{"id":2147096,"date":"2026-10-13T16:54:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T14:54:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/2026\/10\/13\/foreign-company-france-sas-vs-sarl-foreign-founder-choice-abroad\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T16:54:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T14:54:29","slug":"foreign-company-france-sas-vs-sarl-foreign-founder-choice-abroad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kohenavocats.fr\/en\/2026\/10\/13\/foreign-company-france-sas-vs-sarl-foreign-founder-choice-abroad\/","title":{"rendered":"SAS or SARL in France as a Foreign Founder Living Abroad: Social Regime, Cost and Control"},"content":{"rendered":"

You live in London, New York, Dubai, Singapore or Montreal, and you want a real French company: a French registration number (SIREN, the nine-digit identifier every French business receives), a Kbis<\/a> (the official extract of the trade and companies register that proves your company exists), a French corporate bank account and the right to invoice French clients from a French vehicle. The first question every foreign founder asks is whether to pick the SAS (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e, the simplified joint-stock company) or the SARL (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e, the limited-liability company). Comparison tables on the internet all say the SAS is flexible and the SARL is cheap, and then they stop. That advice misses the point that matters most when you live abroad: your own social status as director. The company form you choose decides whether you belong to the general social-security regime as an assimilated employee or to the self-employed regime as an independent worker, and that single answer changes what you pay every year, what protection you get, and whether you can leave the company dormant for months at zero cost. French law defines the SAS as a company that “Une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e peut \u00eatre institu\u00e9e par une ou plusieurs personnes qui ne supportent les pertes qu’\u00e0 concurrence de leur apport” (article L227-1 of the Commercial Code<\/a>), while the SARL is the company where “La soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e est institu\u00e9e par une ou plusieurs personnes qui ne supportent les pertes qu’\u00e0 concurrence de leurs apports” (article L223-1 of the Commercial Code<\/a>). Both shield your personal assets in the same way. Everything that follows \u2014 charges, control, paperwork \u2014 is where they differ, and this guide works through each difference with the exact legal texts, so you can choose from abroad with full knowledge of the bill.<\/p>\n

I. Your social status sets the real price of your French company<\/h2>\n

A. SAS president living abroad: an assimilated employee who costs nothing when unpaid<\/h3>\n

The president of a SAS belongs to the general social-security regime by assimilation, exactly like an employee, even though he or she is a company director. The text is explicit: the general regime covers “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 L311-3, 23\u00b0 of the Social Security Code<\/a>). Assimilated does not mean employed: the president has no employment contract, no protection against dismissal and no unemployment insurance, but contributions on any remuneration are computed and collected like payroll charges through the DSN (d\u00e9claration sociale nominative, the monthly online payroll return) and paid to URSSAF (union de recouvrement des cotisations de s\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale et d’allocations familiales, the agency that collects social contributions). The Cour de cassation confirmed the mechanism in plain terms: where a company director is concerned, the provisions of article L311-3 apply “en ce qu’elles assimilent son statut \u00e0 celui d’un salari\u00e9” (second civil chamber, 15 May 2025, appeal no. 23-13.763, published on courdecassation.fr<\/a>), and the court added 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”. In that case the appeal court of Amiens had treated an SAS director as an ordinary executive for a retirement bonus, and the Cour de cassation answered “CASSE ET ANNULE, en toutes ses dispositions, l’arr\u00eat rendu le 24 janvier 2023, entre les parties, par la cour d’appel d’Amiens”. The lesson for a foreign founder is direct: pay yourself as president and you enter the French general regime with its broad cover for health, family and basic plus supplementary pension; pay yourself nothing and you owe nothing, because with no remuneration there is no base and therefore no contribution. A SAS with an unpaid president can sit for a year costing only its accounting and filing fees, which is exactly what a founder testing the French market from abroad usually wants. The official service-public guide to the SAS describes the vehicle in English and confirms this architecture (SAS: what you need to know<\/a>). One caution follows from living abroad: social coverage follows the country where you actually work under European coordination rules and bilateral treaties, so if you take pay from the French SAS while working from another country, confirm with URSSAF and your home system which country collects before the first payslip, because double affiliation is the classic and expensive mistake.<\/p>\n

The second advantage of the SAS for a non-resident is the concentration of power in one pair of hands. The Commercial Code provides that “Le pr\u00e9sident est investi des pouvoirs les plus \u00e9tendus pour agir en toute circonstance au nom de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 dans la limite de l’objet social” (article L227-6 of the Commercial Code<\/a>), and limits written into the articles cannot be used against third parties. From abroad, that means the president signs contracts, opens the bank relationship, hires and represents the company in court without needing a co-signature from a partner in France. The articles of association (statuts) can add deputy managers (directeurs g\u00e9n\u00e9raux) or restrain internal powers, but outsiders rely on the president alone. For a solo foreign founder who will fly in four times a year and run everything else by video call, that single-signature design removes a whole layer of practical friction that the SARL, with its meeting-based governance, keeps.<\/p>\n

B. Majority SARL manager: a self-employed worker with a bill that starts early<\/h3>\n

The g\u00e9rant (manager) of a SARL who holds the majority of the capital belongs to the opposite world: the regime of independent workers, run through the SSI (S\u00e9curit\u00e9 sociale des ind\u00e9pendants, the social-security fund for the self-employed, whose collection is handled by URSSAF). The dividing line is mathematical and sits in the same article L311-3: the general regime takes “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” (article L311-3, 11\u00b0 of the Social Security Code<\/a>). Read the other way round, a manager who holds more than half the shares with his or her family is excluded from the general regime and falls into the independent-workers regime. That regime is defined by its own book of the Social Security Code, whose scope covers non-agricultural self-employed workers (article L611-1 of the Social Security Code<\/a>), and its contributions are computed under a dedicated rule: “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 L131-6 of the Social Security Code<\/a>). In practice the contribution rate as a share of income looks lower than the payroll charges of the general regime, which is why accountants sometimes present the SARL as cheaper, but three corrections matter for a foreign founder. First, the independent regime applies minimum bases published each year by URSSAF, so a manager with small or zero drawings still receives a bill for health, daily allowances and basic pension minimums, whereas an unpaid SAS president owes nothing at all. Second, the cover is narrower: daily sickness allowances start only after a waiting period and under conditions, the pension accrues on a different scale, and there is still no unemployment insurance. Third, the tax code treats the majority manager’s pay as a special category: remuneration is taxable in the manager’s hands when it is deductible at company level for managers described as “Aux g\u00e9rants majoritaires des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e n’ayant pas opt\u00e9 pour le r\u00e9gime fiscal des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s de personnes” (article 62 of the General Tax Code<\/a>), with deductible social charges under article 154 bis. The official service-public guide to the SARL walks through the vehicle in English (SARL: what you need to know<\/a>), and its companion tax page details the default company-tax treatment (tax treatment of the SARL<\/a>). None of this makes the SARL a bad choice; it makes it a choice for a founder who will actually draw regular pay from the French company and live with the independent regime, not for one who wants a zero-cost dormant vehicle.<\/p>\n

Power in a SARL is framed by statute in a way the SAS is not, and the g\u00e9rant lives inside that frame. The Code states that “Dans les rapports avec les tiers, le g\u00e9rant est investi des pouvoirs les plus \u00e9tendus pour agir en toute circonstance au nom de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9, sous r\u00e9serve des pouvoirs que la loi attribue express\u00e9ment aux associ\u00e9s” (article L223-18 of the Commercial Code<\/a>), and managers are appointed by the shareholders under article L223-29, with their names removable from the articles when they leave. Day-to-day signature power looks similar to the SAS president’s, but the real difference is collective life: capital increases, profit allocation, manager appointment and most strategic moves require shareholder meetings with statutory majorities and formal minutes, and a founder living abroad must organise proxies, remote votes and filings with the greffe (the registry office of the commercial court) for each step. With two or three foreign partners in different time zones, that meeting machinery becomes a recurring cost in lawyer time that the SASU (soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e unipersonnelle, the one-person SAS) avoids by design, since the sole shareholder simply records decisions in a register.<\/p>\n

A final trap in the SARL deserves its own warning because foreign couples fall into it regularly. The majority test of article L311-3, 11\u00b0 counts family shares with the manager’s: shares held in full ownership or usufruct by the spouse, the civil-union partner and minor children are deemed held by the manager. A founder who takes 40 percent, gives 15 percent to his wife and appoints himself manager is therefore a majority manager in social-security law and belongs to the independent regime, even though he holds less than half in his own name. Couples who split 50-50 with an outside minority manager, or who place the management in the hands of the minority spouse, stay in the general regime \u2014 but the articles and the share register must reflect the real arrangement, because URSSAF reads the register, not the family’s intentions. SAS founders face no equivalent computation: the president is assimilated whatever the shareholding, 100 percent or 1 percent.<\/p>\n

II. Control, money out and paperwork from abroad<\/h2>\n

A. SASU freedom against SARL framing: decisions, capital and dividends<\/h3>\n

Once the social-regime question is settled, the second layer of the choice is how the company is run and how money leaves it. In a SAS, collective life is whatever the articles say it is: “Les statuts d\u00e9terminent les d\u00e9cisions qui doivent \u00eatre prises collectivement par les associ\u00e9s dans les formes et conditions qu’ils pr\u00e9voient” (article L227-9 of the Commercial Code<\/a>), with only a short list of reserved matters \u2014 capital changes, mergers, dissolution, transformation, appointment of auditors, annual accounts and profits \u2014 that must stay collective. A foreign founder can therefore write articles that allow written consultation by email, video meetings with electronic signature and a sole-president decision register, and then run the company for years without a single physical meeting in France. In a one-person SASU the simplification goes further: the president prepares the management report and the accounts, and the sole shareholder approves them within six months of year-end under the same article L227-9. In a SARL, by contrast, the meeting rules, quorums and majorities are set by statute and cannot be contracted away, so distance always costs procedure. Capital follows the same contrast in flexibility. In a SARL, “Les parts repr\u00e9sentant des apports en num\u00e9raire doivent \u00eatre lib\u00e9r\u00e9es d’au moins un cinqui\u00e8me de leur montant”, with the balance callable by the manager “dans un d\u00e9lai qui ne peut exc\u00e9der cinq ans \u00e0 compter de l’immatriculation de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 au registre du commerce et des soci\u00e9t\u00e9s” (article L223-7 of the Commercial Code<\/a>). In practice a foreign founder wires at least one fifth of the cash capital to the blocked-capital bank account before registration, receives the deposit certificate (attestation de d\u00e9p\u00f4t des fonds), and releases the rest within five years. SAS cash shares follow a one-half-upfront rule under article L227-2-1 with the same five-year horizon, which means a slightly larger initial wire for the same capital \u2014 a detail to budget when the funds travel across borders and exchange control or transfer delays apply. Either way the capital stays the company’s money, and recovering it means dividends, salary or a formal capital reduction, never a simple withdrawal.<\/p>\n

Taking money out is where founders living abroad most often confuse salary with dividends, and the confusion is expensive. Salary to the president or the manager is deductible at company level and taxed in the hands of the recipient with social charges on top; dividends are paid from after-tax profit, carry no social charges for a non-managing shareholder, and require a prior legal finding: “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” (article L232-12 of the Commercial Code<\/a>). No distributable sums, no dividends \u2014 voting them anyway exposes the directors to criminal liability for fictitious dividends and to a withholding-tax reassessment, with the paying agent on the hook. The company itself pays corporation tax (IS, imp\u00f4t sur les soci\u00e9t\u00e9s) on its profit, and “Le taux normal de l’imp\u00f4t est fix\u00e9 \u00e0 25 %” (article 219-I of the General Tax Code<\/a>), before any distribution. For a foreign shareholder the French payer then applies the withholding tax of the applicable treaty, and the founder reclaims or credits it at home \u2014 a chain this firm has already mapped for SAS dividends paid abroad, whose reclaim mechanics apply equally here. The practical grid therefore reads as follows: SASU with an unpaid president for the testing phase, salary later when French activity justifies French cover; SARL with a majority manager only when the founder accepts the independent regime and steady drawings; equal multi-founder teams that want tailor-made vesting, preferred shares or exclusion clauses belong in the SAS, because only the SAS articles can carry that engineering.<\/p>\n

B. How a founder abroad chooses and registers without flying in<\/h3>\n

The choice made, registration runs through one single door. Since January 2023 every creation, modification and closure in France passes through the Guichet unique (the single online company-formalities window), operated by the INPI (Institut national de la propri\u00e9t\u00e9 industrielle, the French intellectual-property and business-registers office), which forwards the file to the greffe and feeds the RNE (registre national des entreprises, the national business register) \u2014 see the INPI page on the Guichet unique and the national register<\/a>. A founder living abroad can file entirely online with electronic signature: draft bilingual-compatible articles (the filed version must be in French, with an English working translation alongside), deposit the capital with a French bank or notary from abroad, publish the creation notice in a legal gazette (JAL, journal d’annonces l\u00e9gales), and receive the SIREN, the SIRET (the fourteen-digit establishment identifier) and the Kbis within days if the file is clean. The three files that most often bounce for non-residents are proof of the registered office (a domiciliation contract with an approved provider works, and the greffe checks the address), proof of identity with apostille or legalised translation where required, and the capital-deposit certificate whose beneficiary name must match the draft articles to the letter. The administration’s own comparison of legal forms helps finalise the choice before filing (choosing the legal form of your business<\/a>), and the full post-registration road \u2014 corporate bank account, VAT (TVA, taxe sur la valeur ajout\u00e9e) number activation, and the first French hire \u2014 is mapped step by step in this firm’s setting-up guide for foreign founders: bank account, Kbis, VAT and first hire<\/a>, which continues exactly where this article stops. After registration, the calendar takes over: approve the accounts within six months of year-end, file them with the greffe, pay the IS instalments (acomptes) and the CFE (cotisation fonci\u00e8re des entreprises, the local business premises tax) \u2014 each with its own deadline and its own penalty for lateness.<\/p>\n

One question returns in every consultation with founders abroad: can the form be changed later if the choice proves wrong. The answer is yes in both directions \u2014 a SARL can convert into a SAS and a SAS into a SARL \u2014 but conversion is a full corporate operation with its own reports, shareholder votes, tax elections and fresh filings with the Guichet unique and the greffe, plus a BODACC (Bulletin officiel des annonces civiles et commerciales, the official gazette where company events are published) notice, and it restarts parts of the administrative clock, including the bank’s know-your-customer review. Founders who expect their situation to change within eighteen months \u2014 testing unpaid this year, drawing salary next year, bringing in an investor the year after \u2014 usually pick the SASU from day one precisely because its articles can absorb those changes without conversion: add a pay slip, issue new share classes, admit a partner by amending the articles. Choosing the SARL to save a few hundred euros in drafting and then converting a year later costs a multiple of the initial saving, so the cheap form is only cheap when it matches the three-year plan.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h2>\n

For a foreign founder living abroad, the SAS-or-SARL question is really three questions in a trench coat. First, what social regime do you want: the general regime by assimilation with zero cost when unpaid, through a SAS presidency under article L311-3, 23\u00b0, confirmed by the Cour de cassation on 15 May 2025, or the independent-workers regime with its early billing through a majority SARL management under articles L311-3, 11\u00b0 and L131-6. Second, how do you want to govern from a distance: tailor-made written articles and single-signature management under articles L227-6 and L227-9, or statutory meetings and majorities under articles L223-18 and L223-7. Third, how will money leave the company: deductible salary now, or after-tax dividends voted from distributable sums under article L232-12 once the 25 percent company tax of article 219-I is paid. Answer those three honestly and the form picks itself \u2014 most testing-phase founders land in the SASU, most steady-pay owner-managers land in the SARL. File through the Guichet unique, keep the deposit certificate name identical to the articles, confirm your social affiliation before the first payslip, and diarise the accounts deadline: France rewards founders who file early and punishes those who discover the calendar from a penalty notice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAS or SARL for a founder living abroad? 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