After company registration in France: the 30-day checklist

The Kbis gives your company a legal existence, not an organisation that actually runs. Between releasing the share capital, confirming the tax regime, taking out insurance and setting up e-invoicing, the first month shapes the whole first year. This checklist is written for companies registered with the Trade and Companies Register (registre du commerce et des sociétés, RCS), such as an SAS, SASU, SARL or EURL, and puts the post-registration steps in order, with the deadlines that cannot be made up later.

Quick answer. After registering a company in France, you should, within 30 days, release the share capital and activate the business bank account, check the corporate tax and VAT regime on record, take out insurance and choose an approved e-invoicing platform, since receiving electronic invoices has been mandatory since 1 September 2026. Any hire requires a DPAE before the employee starts.

The 30-day window is not a statutory deadline: it is the window our firm recommends for handling what everything else depends on, some legal deadlines being shorter and others longer. The steps that come before the Kbis are covered in our complete guide to setting up a business in France.

After receiving the Kbis, the company director should first check the entries on the extract, then deal, in order, with the bank, tax, invoicing, insurance and employment matters. The Kbis extract (extrait Kbis) is the document issued by the commercial court registry (greffe) that certifies the company's registration with the RCS. To see which sections to check, read our annotated example of a Kbis extract: an error in the company name, registered office or corporate purpose is easier to correct before the bank and your first customers have recorded the wrong details.

The recommended order is as follows:

1. Check the entries on the Kbis.
2. Release the share capital and start operating the company's bank account.
3. Request the creation of the business account (espace professionnel) on impots.gouv.fr.
4. Check the tax and VAT regime, then exercise any tax election within the deadlines.
5. Choose an approved platform to receive electronic invoices.
6. Take out the insurance that is mandatory for your business activity.
7. Open the corporate registers and update the mandatory company details.
8. Organise payroll for the director and, where relevant, the first employee.

Share capital deposited in a blocked account is released by the bank, the notary or the Caisse des dépôts on presentation of proof of registration, in practice the Kbis extract. The Commercial Code prohibits withdrawing the funds before registration (article L225-11 for joint-stock companies, article L223-8 for the SARL). If the company is not registered within six months of the first deposit, contributors may apply to the court for their contributions to be returned, under the conditions set by those same articles.

The capital has not always been paid up in full. In an SARL, at least one fifth of cash contributions is paid up on incorporation and the balance must be called within a maximum of five years from registration (article L223-7 of the Commercial Code); in an SAS, at least half of each cash share is paid up on subscription and the rest within five years of registration (article L225-3, which applies to the SAS). Put that deadline in your corporate calendar now.

The documents banks ask for are listed in our checklist of documents for opening a business bank account. From day one, keep personal and company flows strictly separate: every company expense paid from a personal account will have to be documented and then reimbursed.

In practice. Expenses incurred before registration only become the company's once they have been taken over: the people who acted on behalf of the company in formation remain liable for them, unless the registered company takes over the commitments, which are then deemed to have been entered into by the company from the outset (article L210-6 of the Commercial Code). Gather the invoices paid personally, check that they appear in the schedule of pre-incorporation acts annexed to the articles of association, or have them taken over by a shareholders' decision, then have them reimbursed against receipts. The tax treatment of these expenses is covered in our article on costs incurred before registration.

The tax regime of a newly created company is determined by its legal form and by the elections made in the incorporation filing: an SAS and an SARL are subject to corporate income tax (impôt sur les sociétés, IS) by default, whereas an EURL whose sole shareholder is an individual is subject to personal income tax (impôt sur le revenu, IR), unless it expressly elects for IS.

IS or IR election: the deadlines not to miss#

An EURL or a sole proprietor can elect for IS in the incorporation filing itself, or with the business tax office (service des impôts des entreprises, SIE) before the end of the third month of the financial year for which the election is to apply (article 239 of the CGI). The election can be revoked up to the fifth financial year following the one for which it was made; after that, it becomes irrevocable.

The IR election provided for in article 239 bis AB of the CGI is open to SAs, SASs and SARLs less than five years old whose main activity is industrial, commercial, craft, agricultural or professional, and whose voting rights are held at least 34% by directors, subject to further conditions on size and shareholding. It must be notified to the SIE within the first three months of the first financial year concerned, requires the agreement of all shareholders and applies for five financial years at most. Its main advantage: shareholders can offset start-up losses under the rules for partnerships, without waiting for the company to become profitable.

VAT: small business exemption, simplified regime or standard regime#

Three VAT regimes coexist in 2026: the small business exemption (franchise en base), the simplified regime (régime simplifié) and the standard regime (régime réel normal). The small business exemption is the regime under which a business neither charges nor files VAT, in exchange for being unable to recover any VAT paid on its purchases; it applies below turnover thresholds of €85,000 for sales and accommodation and €37,500 for services. Tolerance thresholds and exit cases are covered in our analysis of the VAT small business exemption and its trade-offs.

Under the simplified regime, a new business pays its first VAT instalment in July if its financial year opens between January and July, and in December if it opens between August and December. The business sets the amount itself, which must cover at least 80% of the tax actually due for the half-year.

Points to watch. The 2025 Finance Act (loi n° 2025-127 of 14 February 2025) abolishes the simplified VAT regime on 1 January 2027, a deadline the tax authorities still maintain after the 2026 Finance Act: businesses that are not exempt will then file under the standard regime, monthly or quarterly depending on their turnover. A company set up in autumn 2026 under the simplified regime will therefore change filing frequency in 2027. If its first financial year does not match the calendar year, check the transition arrangements published on impots.gouv.fr. The businesses affected are reviewed in our article on the end of the simplified VAT regime in 2027.

Our view. In incorporation files, the tax choice is often made by default at the time of filing, without a costed forecast. At the firm, we advise revisiting that choice in the month after the Kbis, with a first-year budget in hand: it is the last period in which an IS or IR election can still be made on time for the first financial year.

The insurance a company must carry depends on its activity: professional liability insurance is mandatory for regulated professions, ten-year builder's liability insurance (garantie décennale) for construction businesses, and third-party liability insurance for every motor vehicle. Beyond these legal requirements, a commercial lease often requires premises insurance, and some customers ask for a professional liability certificate before placing an order.

The director is covered separately. Protection against losing the corporate office relies on optional private insurance, described in our article on unemployment cover for company directors and GSC or ATI insurance. If you have just left a salaried job, also read the options for leaving a permanent job to start a business before setting your pay.

Declaring beneficial owners is mandatory for every company and is done together with the registration application, on the INPI single business formalities portal (guichet unique) (article R561-55 of the Monetary and Financial Code): it is therefore not a step that comes after the Kbis. A beneficial owner is an individual who directly or indirectly holds more than 25% of the capital or voting rights, or who exercises control over the company by any other means; failing that, it is the legal representative.

After the Kbis, your task is to check that the "beneficial owners" section of the guichet unique was completed and that it reflects the actual split of the capital. Any later change (a new shareholder, a transfer of shares, an agreement altering control) requires a new filing within 30 days. The identification method is set out in our article on declaring beneficial owners when setting up a company.

A company set up in 2026 must be able to receive electronic invoices through an approved platform (plateforme agréée) since 1 September 2026, whatever its size; the obligation to issue them will only apply to SMEs, very small businesses and micro-businesses from 1 September 2027, whereas it already applies to large companies and mid-sized companies (ETI). An approved platform is an operator authorised by the tax authorities to send and receive electronic invoices and to transmit transaction and payment data to the administration.

The tax authority (DGFiP) publishes the list of approved platforms on impots.gouv.fr; the first list contained 101. Each business is free to choose its platform and designates it as its receiving platform in the e-invoicing directory (annuaire de la facturation électronique), which shows each business's platform and invoicing addresses. The full timetable and special cases are covered in our article on the reception obligation from 1 September 2026.

The underestimated risk. A company registered after 1 September 2026 is born into the reception obligation. Its first purchase invoices arrive within weeks, those from suppliers already required to issue electronically (large companies and ETIs) travel through the platforms, and all of them carry the deductible VAT of the first financial year. Without a platform designated in the directory, that flow starts without a framework. Choose the platform at the same time as your invoicing software and your accounting tool, and check that all three connect.

Add the new mandatory details introduced by the reform to your templates now: the customer's SIREN number, the delivery address if it differs from the billing address, the nature of the transactions (goods, services or both) and, where applicable, the statement "Option pour le paiement de la taxe d'après les débits" (option to pay VAT on an invoice basis).

From incorporation, a company must organise how its shareholders' decisions are recorded, and an SAS must also keep registers of its shares. In an SARL, the register of minutes of shareholders' decisions is numbered and initialled (coté et paraphé) before first use, by the court registry, a judge or the town hall (free of charge at the town hall); it can also be kept electronically with an advanced electronic signature, under décret n° 2019-1118 of 31 October 2019. In an SAS, shares are recorded in the holder's name in registers kept by the company, on paper or on a durable medium, which trace transfers (article R228-8 of the Commercial Code).

Documents intended for third parties must show the company's identification details. The Commercial Code requires the company name followed by its legal form and the amount of share capital, and, on invoices, correspondence and the website, the SIREN number, the letters RCS followed by the name of the registry town and the registered office (article R123-237). Update invoices, quotes and the website legal notice in one go.

Finally, every legal entity that is a trader must record in its accounts the movements affecting its assets (article L123-12 of the Commercial Code). Decide within the month who will keep the books and how often supporting documents will be sent.

Before hiring its first employee, the company must send the pre-hiring declaration (déclaration préalable à l'embauche, DPAE) to Urssaf at the earliest 8 days before hiring and at the latest before the employee starts work. The DPAE bundles several formalities, including registering the employee with the local health insurance fund (Caisse primaire d'assurance maladie), registering the employer with unemployment insurance and applying to join an occupational health and prevention service. Common mistakes are covered in our article on DPAE deadlines and penalties.

The first hire also triggers other obligations:

• Open the single staff register (registre unique du personnel), which lists all employees of the establishment in order of hiring.
• Draw up the occupational risk assessment document (document unique d'évaluation des risques professionnels, DUERP), mandatory from the first employee and kept for at least 40 years in its successive versions.
• Set up the collective health insurance plan, which the employer must offer and co-fund.
• Arrange the information and prevention medical visit, due within three months of the employee starting.
• Complete the membership files with the supplementary pension and benefits (prévoyance) bodies.
• Put up the mandatory workplace notices, the list of which depends on headcount.

For the director, the question is different. In an SAS, a paid president is covered by the general social security scheme as an "assimilated employee" (assimilé salarié), and their pay goes through payroll. The timing of the first payment is covered in our article on whether you can pay yourself a salary from the first month in an SASU.

The business tax account on impots.gouv.fr is essential, because the main returns and payments of business taxes (VAT, IS, CFE) must be made online, whatever the turnover. In simplified mode, the account is created with the SIREN number, then an activation code is sent by post to the registered office, to be used within 60 days of the request. If your registered office is with a domiciliation provider, make sure that letter is forwarded to you.

The business property tax (cotisation foncière des entreprises, CFE) is not due for the year in which the establishment is created, whatever the date of creation. The company must, however, file the initial return, form no. 1447-C-SD, no later than 31 December of that year with its SIE, by post or through the secure messaging service of the business tax account. The tax base is then halved for the first year of assessment (article 1478 of the CGI).

Joining an approved management body (organisme de gestion agréé, OGA) is no longer an urgent tax decision. The 2025 Finance Act (article 11) repealed the approval and statutory duties of OGAs and abolished the income tax reduction for bookkeeping and membership costs, which now only applies to financial years ended on or before 31 December 2024; the 25% uplift on the profits of non-members had already been removed from the taxation of 2023 income. These abolished advantages only ever concerned businesses subject to IR; for an SAS or an SARL subject to IS, the question does not arise in those terms.

The week-by-week split is our firm's recommendation, not a legal timetable: it puts first what blocks the rest.

Day 1 to day 7

• Review the Kbis and have any error corrected straight away.
• Send the Kbis to the depositary of the funds and obtain release of the capital.
• Request the creation of the business tax account on impots.gouv.fr.
• Check that the beneficial ownership filing is in the file.

Day 8 to day 15

• Revisit the IS or IR choice and the VAT regime on the basis of a forecast.
• Take out mandatory insurance and ask for the certificates.
• Choose the approved platform and the invoicing software.
• Gather the costs incurred before registration and arrange for them to be taken over.

Day 16 to day 30

• Activate the business tax account and review the tax account statement.
• Open the register of decisions and, for an SAS, the share registers.
• Update the details on invoices, quotes and the website.
• Prepare the director's payroll and, if needed, the DPAE for the first employee.
• Put the longer deadlines in the calendar: tax election (3 months), CFE (31 December), capital balance (5 years).
• Organise bookkeeping and how often supporting documents are sent.

• The Kbis opens a 30-day window in which banking, the tax choice, insurance and invoicing are settled.
• Capital is released on presentation of the Kbis; any unpaid balance must be called within 5 years of registration.
• An IS or IR election must be notified within the first three months of the financial year concerned.
• Since 1 September 2026, every VAT-registered business must be able to receive electronic invoices through an approved platform.
• The simplified VAT regime ends on 1 January 2027: a company set up in autumn 2026 should prepare for it.
• No CFE in the year of creation, but an initial return must be filed before 31 December.

This article sets out the general rules; a decision suited to your company requires a review of your articles of association, your forecast and the law in force.

Informational content reviewed by a chartered accountant (expert-comptable) registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables d'Île-de-France.