Paying yourself as the manager of an optical store in France: salary, dividends and social status

There is no standard salary. In a company, the shareholders vote the manager's pay, in the articles of association or at a general meeting, and may add dividends once the accounts are approved. Its cost and the protection it opens depend on the status: majority manager of a SARL, self-employed, or president of a SAS, an assimilated employee. In a sole proprietorship, the optician's income is the profit.

No average is given here: it would mix stores of different size and debt levels.

As a sole proprietor, there is no salary. Selling frames and lenses means buying goods in order to resell them, a commercial act (article L. 110-1 of the French Commercial Code): the profit falls within industrial and commercial profits, known as BIC (article 34 of the French Tax Code). That profit is taxed and serves as the basis for social contributions (articles L. 131-6 and L. 136-3, I, 1°, of the French Social Security Code); your withdrawals from the business account reduce neither of them. Outside the micro-entrepreneur scheme, electing corporate income tax (article 1655 sexies of the French Tax Code) brings you back to the company case. Under the micro-entrepreneur scheme, contributions are calculated on turnover, with no deduction for expenses (Urssaf), which weighs on a shop that buys its stock.

In a company (SARL, EURL, SAS or SASU), the manager can receive pay for the office, dividends if he or she is a shareholder, and benefits voted by the shareholders (Entreprendre Service Public, "Revenus du dirigeant d'une société" page).

In both cases, the starting point is the store's accounts, read by a chartered accountant for opticians: margin by product family, third-party payment receivables, turnover of the frame stock, loan repayments. What the store can pay out is measured in available cash.

• SARL and EURL. Managers who together hold more than half of the capital are self-employed (travailleurs non salariés, TNS); the shares of a manager's spouse, civil partner and unemancipated minor children count as his or her own (article L. 311-3, 11°, of the French Social Security Code). If the managers together hold half of the capital or less, each of them, whether minority, equal or non-shareholder, is an assimilated employee (assimilé salarié).
• SAS and SASU. The president and the officers are assimilated employees, whatever their share of the capital (article L. 311-3, 23°).

Example: two opticians who are equal partners. If both are co-managers of the SARL, their shares are added together, as the Urssaf explains for a board of managers: each of them is TNS. If only one of them is manager, with half of the shares, that manager holds an equal stake and is therefore an assimilated employee. The allocation of the offices is thus decided before the articles of association are signed.

Pay for the corporate office is an expense of the company, deductible if it corresponds to actual work and is not excessive (article 39, 1, 1°, of the French Tax Code). It is taxed as wages and salaries (article 62 for the majority manager of a SARL) and bears social contributions.

Dividends are paid out of profit after corporate income tax and are voted when the accounts are approved. In 2026, they bear the single flat-rate levy (PFU) at an overall rate of 31.4%: 12.8% income tax (article 200 A of the French Tax Code) and 18.6% social levies (CSG 10.6%, CRDS 0.5%, solidarity levy 7.5%, according to service-public). Under an overall election for the progressive scale, dividends benefit from a 40% allowance (article 158, 3, 2°). The company withholds a 12.8% advance payment at source (article 117 quater).

The 10% rule for a majority manager

For a TNS manager of a company subject to corporate income tax, contributions also apply to the portion of dividends above 10% of the share capital held, including share premiums, plus the sums in the shareholder's current account (articles L. 131-6 and L. 136-3, II, 2°, of the French Social Security Code). Dividends and capital of the spouse, the civil partner and unemancipated minor children are included in the calculation. That portion escapes the CSG on investment income (article L. 136-7, I, 1°) and enters the contribution base, like pay; it remains subject to income tax as a dividend.

Illustrative case. An optical SARL has share capital of €10,000. The manager holds 60% of the shares (€6,000) and €14,000 in his current account. Out of €15,000 distributed, he receives €9,000.

• Reference amount: €6,000 + €14,000 = €20,000; 10% threshold: €2,000.
• The €7,000 above it enters the contribution base; the remaining €2,000 bears the 18.6% social levies.
• The full €9,000 remains subject to income tax, at 12.8% or at the progressive scale under the election.

With modest capital, the rule brings most of the dividend back into the social contribution base: in a SARL, the gap between pay and dividend is narrower than the 31.4% rate alone suggests.

• Assimilated employee. According to the Urssaf, a paid assimilated employee manager has social protection identical to that of an employee with executive status, but is not covered by labour law and does not contribute to unemployment insurance. A president paid in dividends only does not contribute: in respect of the office, he or she acquires neither pension rights nor daily sickness allowances.
• Self-employed. The majority manager falls under the regime for independent workers even without pay and, if his or her income is low or negative, owes minimum contributions. He or she contributes to the basic pension and to the complementary pension for independent workers, the one for craftspeople and traders (Urssaf), without unemployment insurance.

And if the business stops? The self-employed workers' allowance (allocation des travailleurs indépendants) is open to both statuses, but only after a judicial liquidation, certain judicial reorganisations or the permanent cessation of a non-viable business, subject to conditions on resources and prior activity (articles L. 5424-24 and L. 5424-25 of the French Labour Code).

A point specific to optics. If you are the store's only qualified optician, your sick leave suspends the dispensing of corrective lenses and contact lenses, which is reserved to persons authorised to practise the profession (article L. 4362-9 of the French Public Health Code). How that period is covered (allowances, provident insurance, a replacement) needs to be looked at before taking everything as dividends.

Entreprendre Service Public provides for an employment contract separate from the office only for a minority, equal or non-shareholder manager, under three conditions: technical and actual work separate from the office, a relationship of subordination to the company, and not holding the widest powers. The majority manager of a SARL and the majority officer of a SAS are not among these cases: it is hard to be subordinate to a company you control.

In optics, the technical function can be that of the qualified optician, carried out under real oversight by the shareholders and paid separately. This contract can give access to unemployment insurance in respect of that job.

The collective agreement for employees. The store's employees fall under the national collective agreement for retail optics of 2 June 1986 (IDCC 1431), which has been extended, where the employer's activity falls within its scope. Before any hire, the job classification and minimum salary are read in the version in force of the agreement and its amendments. The manager's corporate office falls outside its scope.

If the manager is not an optician, the store must have a qualified and registered optician, as a partner or an employee, to dispense corrective lenses (articles L. 4362-1, L. 4362-2 and L. 4362-9 of the French Public Health Code). That person's cost comes before the manager's pay in the forecast.

1. Start from cash: profit before the manager's pay, minus loans, renewal of the collections and the collection delay on third-party payment from complementary insurers and the national health insurance.
2. Have a sustainable monthly pay voted: in a SARL, in the articles of association or by a shareholders' decision, in which the shareholder manager may take part; in a SAS, under the management conditions set by the articles of association (article L. 227-5 of the French Commercial Code).
3. At year end, decide on dividends with the 10% threshold if you are TNS, and compare the flat-rate levy with the progressive scale: the election applies to all of the household's income in scope.
4. Adjust provident insurance and pension to the share of pay you keep.

A first order of magnitude can be worked out with our director pay simulator; the costed trade-off on your own accounts falls within the director remuneration optimisation engagement.

• Choose the company's legal form according to the social protection and governance you want. In a SARL with small capital, the 10% rule reduces the advantage of the dividend; in a SAS, the dividend escapes contributions but opens no entitlement.
• Reread the rates every year: a forecast built on an overall rate of 30% for dividends needs updating.

Your amount is decided on your accounts, your articles of association and the rules in force.