SCI or direct ownership of business premises: the comparison

Quick answer. Three paths exist to hold your business premises: personal ownership, the operating company's balance sheet, or a dedicated SCI. Personal ownership is simple but exposes your estate. The balance sheet locks the property into the business and burdens the sale. The SCI shields the walls and eases transmission.

You are buying the premises of your business and the same question returns at every meeting: should you use an SCI, buy in your own name, or place the property on the balance sheet of the operating company? This choice is not merely structural: it governs your asset protection for twenty years, the tax bill the day you sell, and how easily you will pass the walls on to your children. Let us compare the three paths on concrete criteria.

Holding your own premises is never a neutral decision. Each setup answers a different logic depending on whether you favour simplicity, current-tax efficiency, or risk separation.

Personal ownership means buying the property as an individual, then leasing it to your company. It is the simplest path to put in place. In return, the property belongs to your private estate with no partition from your business.

Recording the property on the operating company's balance sheet places the building inside the business that runs the trade. The property is depreciated for accounting purposes, which reduces current tax while you hold it. In return, the property becomes a frozen asset inside the professional tool.

A dedicated SCI creates a separate civil property company that buys the walls and leases them to the operating business. It legally isolates the property from the activity and organises transmission through the sale or gift of shares. It is the most structured path, and therefore the most demanding in formality.

Asset protection is the first criterion we examine with a business owner.

In personal ownership, the property is exposed to professional creditors and remains mixed with your private estate. If the business hits difficulty, the property is not shielded by design.

On the operating company's balance sheet, the property bears the activity's risk directly: an operating liability can reach the real-estate asset since both live within the same legal entity.

The SCI legally isolates the walls from the business. In principle, the operating risk does not reach the property held in a separate structure. This separation is the central argument for owners who choose the SCI, as explained on our page dedicated to accounting support for SCIs.

Taxation during ownership pits two logics against each other.

Under income tax (personal name or SCI taxed at income tax), the rents you collect are taxed as property income, and you deduct actual costs and loan interest, but no depreciation of the building.

Under corporate tax (SCI taxed at corporate tax or property on the balance sheet of a company subject to corporate tax), the building is depreciated, except the land. This depreciation lowers taxable profit, and therefore current tax, throughout the holding period. Profit is taxed at corporate tax of 15% up to 42,500 EUR of profit, then 25% beyond (French Tax Code art. 219 I-b).

This current-tax gain is not free: it is paid back on exit. The choice between income tax and corporate tax is so decisive that it deserves its own analysis, detailed in our comparison SCI at corporate tax or income tax.

The resale is the blind spot of setups chosen too quickly. Yet this is where most of the value is decided.

In personal name or SCI taxed at income tax, the sale falls under the individual capital gains regime (French Tax Code art. 150 U). The rate is 19% income tax plus 17.2% social levies. A holding-period allowance applies: for income tax, 6% per year from the 6th to the 21st year then 4% in the 22nd year, that is full income-tax exemption at 22 years. For social levies, 1.65% per year from the 6th to the 21st year, 1.60% in the 22nd year, then 9% per year from the 23rd to the 30th year, that is full social-levy exemption at 30 years. Above 50,000 EUR of capital gain, a progressive surtax of 2% to 6% applies (French Tax Code art. 1609 nonies G), in force in 2026.

In an SCI taxed at corporate tax, or with the property on the balance sheet of a company subject to corporate tax, the exit follows the professional capital gains regime. The taxable gain equals the sale price less the net book value. Since the property was depreciated, its net book value has fallen: the depreciation deducted during ownership increases the taxable gain by the same amount. This gain receives no holding-period allowance and remains taxed at corporate tax. If the net proceeds are then distributed to the partners, those dividends bear the flat tax of 31.4% (12.8% income tax and 18.6% social levies in 2026). This is the double layer of taxation.

One specific case deserves attention: the sale of the SCI shares themselves. Registration duties are 5% with no allowance, the SCI being a company with a preponderance of real estate (French Tax Code art. 726 I 2).

Placing the walls on the operating company's balance sheet looks convenient, but this choice creates a delayed trap.

The property inflates assets and mechanically increases the value of the shares to be sold. The day you sell the business, the buyer also pays for the real estate, which raises the share price and narrows the pool of solvent buyers.

The property is also frozen inside the professional tool: pulling it out before the sale generally triggers a tax cost, because the exit is treated as a disposal. Many owners discover this constraint at the very moment they want to sell the business while keeping the walls, and by then it is too late to reorganise without friction. The logic of separating operations from real estate is developed in our article on the ways to hold your premises: SCI, direct or operating company.

Transmission is the strongest argument in favour of the SCI.

A property held in personal name passes through joint ownership, which complicates management between heirs and often freezes decisions. The SCI turns the property into shares, easier to allocate and to gift gradually.

The gift of shares can be spread over time and combined with split ownership: you keep the usufruct, you transmit the bare ownership. This mechanism is detailed in our article on the split ownership of SCI shares to pass on to children. For families, the form of the SCI also matters, as we explain in our comparison family SARL or SCI.

In most files of owners buying their walls, we rule out from the start the recording on the operating company's balance sheet. The immediate depreciation gain is paid back dearly on exit, and the property frozen inside the tool systematically complicates the sale of the business.

The real arbitrage is between personal name and the SCI. Personal name keeps the advantage of simplicity and the individual capital gains regime with its holding-period allowance. The SCI takes the lead as soon as asset protection or transmission become real objectives.

Choosing corporate tax within the SCI follows a different logic: it optimises current tax but closes the door to the holding-period allowance. This choice is rarely reversible without cost, which justifies settling it before the purchase, not after.

Two legitimate options often deserve a detailed comparison.

Personal name suits you when you hold a single property, you are the sole owner, and transmission is not an immediate concern. Management is lighter and the resale taxation is clear.

The SCI at income tax suits you when there are several partners, you want to organise transmission, or you wish to separate the walls from the operating risk while keeping the individual capital gains regime. To go further on the owner's wealth structuring, see our holding and SCI comparison.

Here is the sequence we follow with an owner about to acquire their walls.

1. Clarify the horizon: will you sell in five years or hold for the long term?
2. Identify the dominant objective: protection, transmission, or lowering current tax.
3. Map the operating risk and the exposure of the private estate.
4. Cost the two exit scenarios: individual gain with allowance versus professional gain without allowance.
5. Settle the tax regime of the SCI where relevant (income tax or corporate tax) before signing.
6. Draft the articles and the lease in line with the chosen strategy.

A few points call for particular attention this year.

• The surtax on individual capital gains above 50,000 EUR remains in force in 2026 (French Tax Code art. 1609 nonies G).
• The flat tax on dividends distributed by an SCI at corporate tax stands at 31.4% in 2026.
• Above 1.3 million EUR of net real-estate wealth, the real-estate wealth tax may apply (French Tax Code art. 964): a point to check against your overall situation.
• The sale of SCI shares bears registration duties of 5% with no allowance (French Tax Code art. 726 I 2).

In a recent file, an owner wanted to place his new premises on his company's balance sheet to enjoy depreciation right away and lower his corporate tax. The analysis of his horizon revealed a plan to sell the business in the medium term. With the property on the balance sheet, the walls would have inflated the share price and complicated the search for a buyer. The costed exit scenario showed that the professional gain, without allowance and increased by the deducted depreciation, clearly exceeded the individual gain of separate ownership. The structure was adjusted before the purchase, while it was still possible without cost.