You live in London, New York, Dubai or Singapore and you have just created your French company. The registration agent sends you the draft articles, the INPI one-stop shop asks for the name of the president or the manager, and your bank asks who will sign. You appoint yourself, which seems obvious: you own the company, you run the company. Then a second set of questions arrives from your accountant. Will you receive a salary. Will you pay French social charges while you live abroad. What happens if you take no pay at all. Can you keep your foreign health cover and pension, or does France claim you from day one. This article answers those questions for the foreign founder who directs a French SAS or SARL from abroad, with the exact statutory language that decides your regime, how each base is calculated, and how to stay compliant without moving to France.<\/p>\n
France does not have one single status for company directors. It has two social worlds that live side by side. On one side, the general regime for employees and persons treated as employees, collected by URSSAF, the network of unions for the recovery of social security and family allowance contributions, and giving access to the general health, retirement and family system. On the other side, the regime for self-employed non-agricultural workers, with its own contribution rules and its own pension organisation. Your company form, your title, the share of capital you hold with your family, and whether you actually receive pay decide which world claims you. Your nationality and your residence abroad do not exempt you by themselves. The company itself has its own markers you will meet at every step: the Kbis, the official extract that proves the company exists and who may bind it, issued by the greffe, the registry office of the commercial court; the RNE, the National Register of Enterprises held by INPI, the National Institute for Industrial Property, which now acts as the single entry point for business formalities; and the BODACC, the Official Bulletin of Civil and Commercial Announcements, where creations, moves and certain judgments are published. Understanding your director status means linking those company markers to your personal social position.<\/p>\n
This guide is the compliance companion to our overview of how a foreign founder-director is taxed on salary versus dividends in France<\/a>: that overview helps you choose between pay and dividends, while the pages below explain which social regime applies to each office, how each contribution base is calculated, and how to register, declare and answer an URSSAF notice from abroad.<\/p>\n The simplified joint-stock company, the SAS, is the vehicle most foreign founders choose because the statute leaves the internal organisation to the articles. The Commercial Code states 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 L.227-1 of the Commercial Code<\/a>). Shareholders lose only what they put in, and the articles decide who does what, with one mandatory organ: a president who represents the company vis-a-vis third parties. That flexibility on powers does not mean flexibility on social protection. For social security, the president is named expressly.<\/p>\n The general affiliation rule is deliberately broad. The Social Security Code provides that “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 of the Social Security Code<\/a>). Read carefully, this sentence already answers two anxieties of foreign founders. Nationality does not remove you. Working outside the premises of the employer does not remove you. The question is whether your office falls inside the list that the next article adds to this principle.<\/p>\n It does. The same Code states that among the persons covered by that obligation are “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 of the Social Security Code<\/a>). In practice, the president of an SAS, the general manager and the delegated general manager designated under the articles are treated as assimilated employees for social security when they receive remuneration for their office. They are not employees under labour law: they have no employment contract for that office, no protection against dismissal, no overtime, no paid-leave rights attached to the mandate itself. They are assimilated only for the calculation and collection of social contributions and for the benefits attached to the general regime. The distinction matters because founders sometimes argue that, as shareholders, they are outside any regime. Shareholding alone indeed creates no affiliation. Directing and being paid as president does.<\/p>\n Three practical consequences follow for a founder living abroad. First, if you are president of your SAS and you pay yourself a salary for that office, French social contributions on that salary go to URSSAF under the general regime, even if you spend only a few days per year in France. Second, if you take no remuneration at all for the office, no proportional contributions are due on zero, but you build no rights for that period in France and you remain liable for the flat minimums and administrative duties that apply to the company as an employer only when it actually employs someone. Many holding SAS structures therefore start with an unpaid president and document the decision properly in the minutes, so that a later URSSAF auditor does not reconstruct a hidden salary from regular withdrawals. Third, if a legal entity rather than you personally is appointed president of the SAS, the individuals who manage that legal entity bear the same duties. The statute provides that “Lorsqu’une personne morale est nomm\u00e9e pr\u00e9sident ou dirigeant d’une soci\u00e9t\u00e9 par actions simplifi\u00e9e, les dirigeants de ladite personne morale sont soumis aux m\u00eames conditions et obligations et encourent les m\u00eames responsabilit\u00e9s civile et p\u00e9nale que s’ils \u00e9taient pr\u00e9sident ou dirigeant en leur nom propre, sans pr\u00e9judice de la responsabilit\u00e9 solidaire de la personne morale qu’ils dirigent.” (article L.227-7 of the Commercial Code<\/a>). A foreign parent company that appoints itself president does not escape the analysis; the natural person who acts for it in France must be identified for liability and, when paid by the French company, for affiliation.<\/p>\n Foreign founders often ask whether they can combine the presidency with a genuine employment contract for separate technical duties, for example as a developer, designer or sales director, alongside the mandate. French practice allows cumulation only under strict conditions developed by the courts and the administration: a real job distinct from the mandate, performed under subordination to the company, with separate pay and working time, and, for an SAS president who controls the company, effective control by another organ that can sanction the employment relationship. A sole shareholder who is also sole president and claims to be his own subordinate employee will normally be rejected. The file must show two different realities: board minutes and representation on one side, tasks, schedules, reporting lines and a salary grid on the other. When the employment contract is recognised, the salary under that contract also falls under the general regime, while the mandate follows the assimilated-employee rule described above. When it is rejected, all sums are treated as mandate remuneration, with the same social treatment but without labour-law protection.<\/p>\n Your health cover while you live abroad does not change this classification by itself. European coordination rules, bilateral social security treaties, and secondment or multi-state arrangements can designate another State as competent for a period, but they operate as exceptions that must be proved with a portable document or certificate of coverage, not as an automatic exemption because you hold a foreign passport or pay tax elsewhere. If no treaty or European rule designates another State for your French mandate income, the French general regime applies to that income. Keep the two questions separate in your files: which State taxes the income under the treaty, and which State insures the activity. The answers can point to different countries.<\/p>\n The limited liability company, the SARL, works differently. The Commercial Code provides that “La soci\u00e9t\u00e9 \u00e0 responsabilit\u00e9 limit\u00e9e est g\u00e9r\u00e9e par une ou plusieurs personnes physiques.” (article L.223-18 of the Commercial Code<\/a>). Only a natural person can be manager, and the same article adds 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.” In other words, the outside world sees the manager as the company. For social security, the inside reality that counts is capital control.<\/p>\n The Social Security Code draws the line at half the capital. It includes among persons covered by the general regime “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 of the Social Security Code<\/a>). The test aggregates all managers together, then adds, for each manager, the shares held outright or in usufruct by the spouse, the partner under a civil solidarity pact, and minor unemancipated children. If the managers together, with those family attributions, hold half or less, a remunerated manager belongs to the general regime as an assimilated employee. If they hold more than half, the manager belongs to the self-employed regime for that office.<\/p>\n Take three common foreign-founder patterns. You create a SARL with a French partner who holds sixty percent and you, the foreign minority manager, hold forty percent with no family holdings in France. The managers together hold forty percent, which is not more than half, so your paid mandate falls under the general regime. Reverse the split: you hold seventy percent and you manage alone. You exceed half, so the same paid mandate falls under the self-employed regime, with different rates, different pension bodies, and daily allowances that work differently. Third pattern: you hold forty-nine percent, your spouse holds two percent, and you manage. The statute attributes your spouse’s shares to you, bringing you to fifty-one percent, so you cross into the self-employed regime even though your personal holding looked minority. Founders who split capital between spouses for succession reasons discover this aggregation at the first URSSAF control, when the auditor adds the family holdings and reclassifies two years of contributions.<\/p>\n The self-employed world to which a majority manager belongs is defined by its own book of the Social Security Code. That book states that “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 of the Social Security Code<\/a>). Majority managers of SARL, with the family aggregation just described, are the textbook example of non-salaried workers covered there. They contribute on professional income, they do not contribute to the unemployment insurance for employees on that mandate income, and they accrue pensions in the self-employed organisations. They can, like SAS presidents, hold a separate genuine employment contract for distinct technical work, but the same strict test applies, and it is even harder to satisfy when the manager controls the majority of votes that would have to sanction his own employment.<\/p>\n Unpaid mandates deserve a clear statement because they generate the most correspondence with URSSAF. An unpaid president of an SAS or an unpaid manager of a SARL who receives no remuneration and no disguised benefits for the office owes no proportional contributions on that office, in either regime, because the base is zero. That does not authorise systematic cash withdrawals labelled as loans, travel or advances that function as pay. Auditors recharacterise regular, undocumented transfers as remuneration, then apply the corresponding regime retroactively with surcharges. If you genuinely want an unpaid start, record it: shareholders’ decision fixing zero remuneration for the office, no monthly transfers, separate reimbursement of proven business expenses against receipts only, and dividends, if any, voted separately as distributions on shares rather than as consideration for work.<\/p>\n Once the regime is settled, the next question is arithmetic. Both regimes tax professional income, but they do not define the base in the same article and they do not call the same bodies.<\/p>\n For assimilated employees, which covers paid SAS presidents and minority SARL managers, the base rule sits in the general-regime chapter. The Code states 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 .” (article L.242-1 of the Social Security Code<\/a>). In plain terms for a founder, the company declares the gross remuneration for the office, withholds the employee share, pays the employer share on top, and transfers both to URSSAF through the payroll and the nominative social declaration, the DSN, the monthly electronic return that carries each individual’s pay data to the social bodies. Rates combine health, family, retirement within the ceiling and beyond, work-accident for the mandate where applicable, and the general social contribution and debt-repayment contribution that follow the same base with their own rules. Employer cost in France is therefore visibly higher than gross pay, and gross pay is visibly higher than net before income tax. A foreign founder who budgets a net amount in London or New York and copies it into a French pay slip will understate the company cost by a large margin. Ask your accountant for a gross-to-super-gross simulation before you vote your own pay.<\/p>\n For self-employed majority managers, the base rule sits in the independent-workers chapter. The Code states that “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 of the Social Security Code<\/a>). The reference to the micro or simplified device aside, the standard case taxes professional income as determined for income tax, with specific reintegrations and deductions that your accountant reconciles once the tax return is filed. Contributions are called provisionally during the year on the last known income, then adjusted when the real income is known. Health and maternity, basic and supplementary retirement, invalidity and death, family allowances, and the general social contribution each follow their own rate and, for some, their own ceiling or floor. Because the cycle runs with a one-year lag, a highly profitable first year creates a painful adjustment in year two, precisely when the founder wants to invest. Provision for that adjustment from month one, rather than distributing everything the company earns.<\/p>\nI. Which French social regime covers you when you direct from abroad<\/h2>\n
A. President of an SAS and other SAS leaders: why you belong to the employee-linked regime when you are paid<\/h3>\n
B. Manager of a SARL: why the share held with your family decides between self-employed and assimilated-employee treatment<\/h3>\n
II. What you actually pay and how to stay compliant while living abroad<\/h2>\n
A. How your contributions are calculated: the employee-linked base and the self-employed base<\/h3>\n