Starting a business as a French civil servant: the rules on combining activities

A public-sector employee in France who wants to start or take over a business runs into an authorisation question before any question of legal form: which door of the General Civil Service Code (code général de la fonction publique, CGFP) to open, and in what order. This guide is for tenured civil servants (fonctionnaires) and public-law contract staff (agents contractuels) alike. It sets out the four routes available in 2026, the ethics checks involved and the business structure that fits each one.

Quick answer. A French civil servant can start a business in 2026 through four routes: an authorised side activity (often as a micro-entrepreneur), part-time work (at least 50%) for 3 years plus 1 (article L123-8 CGFP), up to 2 years of leave to set up a business, or permanent departure, including mutual termination made permanent on 21 February 2026.

A French civil servant can start a business, but only in the cases the General Civil Service Code expressly allows, because the starting principle is a ban. Article L123-1 CGFP provides that a public employee may not carry on a profit-making private activity on a professional basis, subject to the exceptions in articles L123-2 to L123-8.

The same article prohibits, among other things, creating or taking over a business registered with the trade and companies register (RCS), the trades register or a social security scheme, and sitting on the management bodies of a profit-making company. These rules on combining activities (règles de cumul) apply to tenured civil servants and to public-law contract staff.

The regulatory provisions of the former decree no. 2020-69 of 30 January 2020 on combining activities now sit in articles R123-1 to R123-16 CGFP, in force since 1 February 2025 (decree no. 2024-1038 of 6 November 2024). Forms or internal memos that still refer to the 2020 decree therefore point to rules carried over into the code, not to a new text.

Some activities remain free. Producing intellectual works (writing a book, composing, creating an artwork) is freely allowed under article L123-2, subject to the duties of discretion and professional secrecy. Managing your personal and family assets also remains possible, which covers, for example, letting a property you own, provided no commercial activity is organised around it.

The four routes to entrepreneurship for a public employee in France are the side activity, part-time work for business creation or takeover, leave to start a business and permanent departure. They differ in the time you can devote to the project, the type of activity allowed and how secure your return is.

A French civil servant can be an auto-entrepreneur, that is a micro-entrepreneur under article L613-7 of the Social Security Code, when the activity is on the list of side activities and the line manager (autorité hiérarchique) has authorised it. A side activity is an activity carried on alongside a full-time public post that must not harm the running of the service or the employee's neutrality.

Article R123-8 CGFP lists eleven categories of side activity that may be authorised:

1. expert advice and consulting;
2. teaching and training;
3. sporting or cultural activity, including coaching and leading groups;
4. farming;
5. working as a collaborating spouse in a craft, commercial or liberal business;
6. home help for a parent, child, spouse or partner;
7. minor jobs at private individuals' homes;
8. public-interest activity for a public body or a non-profit private organisation;
9. public-interest international cooperation assignments;
10. personal services within the meaning of article L7231-1 of the Labour Code;
11. selling goods the employee has made personally.

Activities 1 to 9 may be carried on as a micro-enterprise; for personal services and the sale of self-made goods, the micro-entrepreneur scheme is mandatory. The line manager must notify a decision within one month of receiving the request (two months in some cases), and no written answer means refusal (article R123-9). If the file is incomplete, the administration asks you to complete it within fifteen days at most of receiving your request (this deadline binds the administration, not you).

The basics of the scheme (thresholds, contributions, returns) are covered in our guide on what to know before becoming an auto-entrepreneur and in our article on micro-enterprise thresholds in 2026.

The underestimated risk. The authorisation covers a specific activity, not a status. An employee authorised to run training sessions who starts selling business consulting to companies steps outside the scope granted. At the firm, we recommend drafting the request as precisely as a company's corporate purpose: type of services, target clients, estimated hours, and requesting a new authorisation as soon as the activity changes.

Part-time work for business creation or takeover allows a full-time public employee to be authorised to work at least half-time in order to create or take over a business, or practise a liberal profession, for three years renewable once for one year (article L123-8 CGFP). It is the only route that allows you to set up a real business, including a company you would manage, while keeping your post.

The authorisation is granted subject to the needs of continuity and running of the service: it is not an automatic right. The period runs from the creation or takeover of the business. A new authorisation for another project cannot be granted less than three years after the end of a previous part-time period for business creation.

In practice, the procedure follows this order:

1. You file a written request for authorisation with your line manager before the activity starts (article R123-14), describing the business: legal form, purpose, sector, target clients.
2. The line manager checks that the project is compatible with the duties you performed over the previous three years; where there is serious doubt, the ethics adviser (référent déontologue) is consulted.
3. If you hold or have held one of the posts listed in article R123-15 (senior management posts in particular), the request goes to the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (Haute Autorité pour la transparence de la vie publique, HATVP) for a prior opinion.
4. You register the business once the authorisation is granted, which starts the three-year clock.
5. For the fourth year, you file a new request at least one month before the end of the first period.

The ethics adviser is the person each administration appoints to advise staff on their ethical obligations. The HATVP is the independent administrative authority that reviews moves between the public and private sectors for the most exposed posts.

Our view. Three years go by quickly. We recommend building the financial forecast over that horizon: by the end of year three, the business should be able to pay you, or you should have decided to return to full-time work. A project that has not broken even by month 36 forces a decision under pressure at renewal time.

A public employee in a permanent post whose working time is 70 % or less of statutory or regulatory hours (temps non complet or incomplet) may carry on a profit-making private activity on a simple declaration (article L123-5 CGFP). This often concerns staff of small municipalities or bodies that recruit on reduced hours.

The written declaration goes to the line manager and states the nature of the activity and, where relevant, the legal form and corporate purpose of the business, its sector and branch. The activity must take place outside working hours and remain compatible with the employee's duties. The 70 % threshold applies to the public post: an employee at 80 % falls under the general rules, not this exception.

Leave to start or take over a business (disponibilité pour créer ou reprendre une entreprise) allows a tenured civil servant to stop working temporarily, for up to two years, to devote themselves fully to the project. Disponibilité is the position in which a civil servant, placed outside their administration, stops receiving pay and stops accruing civil service pension rights.

Any temporary or permanent cessation of duties to take up a profit-making private activity triggers an ethics check: the employee must first refer the matter to the line manager, who checks compatibility with the duties performed over the previous three years (article L124-4 CGFP). This check applies for three years after leaving, and the HATVP steps in for the most sensitive posts.

Mutual termination (rupture conventionnelle), trialled from 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2025, has been permanent for tenured civil servants in all three branches since 21 February 2026, when the 2026 Finance Act came into force. It also applies to contract staff on open-ended contracts. Decree no. 2026-746 of 6 August 2026 lowered the floors and ceilings of the specific mutual termination payment (indemnité spécifique de rupture conventionnelle, ISRC): check the amount with your HR department before building your funding plan.

An employee who received the ISRC must repay it if recruited within six years of the termination to a post in the same branch of the civil service. An employee left without a job after mutual termination may receive unemployment benefit (allocation d'aide au retour à l'emploi, ARE), which opens the trade-offs described in our article on combining ARE with starting a business.

Unauthorised combining of activities exposes a public employee to repaying the sums earned from the prohibited activity, by deduction from salary, without prejudice to disciplinary proceedings (article L123-9 CGFP). The repayment covers the earnings from the activity, not just any profit, which can amount to several years of revenue.

There is also a criminal risk. Unlawful taking of interest (prise illégale d'intérêts, article 432-12 of the Criminal Code) carries five years' imprisonment and a €500,000 fine. Article 432-13 punishes with three years' imprisonment and a €200,000 fine a former employee who works for a company they supervised, contracted with or gave opinions on, before a three-year period has elapsed.

The business structure is chosen after the administrative route, because the authorisation obtained defines what you may create. For a side activity, the micro-enterprise is the natural framework, and sometimes the only one allowed. For part-time creation, leave or after departure, all forms remain open and the choice follows the usual logic: investment, partners, expected income.

When to move from a micro-enterprise to a company is covered in our article micro-enterprise or company: when to switch.

In practice. Most of the difficulties we see in public employees' projects come down to timing, not structure: registering before authorisation, a first client from the former professional remit, or an activity that expands without a new request. Get the administrative route approved, then choose the legal form, then register.

A public employee's position differs from that of a private-sector employee: the latter is free to start a business subject to the employment contract (exclusivity clause, duty of loyalty), whereas a public employee starts from a ban lifted by authorisation. The employee case is covered in our article on starting a business while keeping your job, and the ways out of a permanent private-sector contract in our comparison on leaving a permanent job to start a business.

• Identify the route: side activity, part-time for creation, part-time post ≤ 70 %, leave or departure.
• Check that the activity involves no company you supervised, contracted with or gave an opinion on over the last three years.
• Write a precise description of the activity: nature, clients, hours, intended legal form.
• Ask the ethics adviser for an opinion upstream if in doubt.
• Wait for written authorisation before any registration or invoicing.
• Build a forecast over the length of the authorisation (3 years + 1 year for part-time).
• Note the deadlines: renewal at least one month before the end, end of leave, six-year window for the ISRC.

• The principle is a ban on combining: a French civil servant can only start a business through a route provided by the CGFP.
• The side activity covers a closed list of 11 categories; the micro-enterprise is possible, and mandatory for personal services and the sale of self-made goods.
• Part-time work for creation lasts 3 years renewable once for 1 year, at 50 % or more, after authorisation and an ethics check.
• Since 21 February 2026, mutual termination is permanent for civil servants; the ISRC must be repaid on return to the same branch within six years.
• Unauthorised combining leads to repayment of sums by salary deduction, disciplinary proceedings and, in some cases, criminal exposure.

Informational content reviewed by a chartered accountant registered with the Ordre des experts-comptables d'Île-de-France. It does not replace your administration's opinion or an analysis of your situation.