Setting up a French EURL in 2026: complete solo founder guide

This guide is written for expats and foreign founders by a French CPA, an English-speaking accountant in Paris, with practical focus on accounting in France, French corporate tax, business setup in France and French payroll.

The EURL (single-member limited liability company) is the most tax-efficient legal form for a solo founder drawing meaningful compensation and not planning to raise funds. The single-member sister of the SARL combines limited liability, TNS director status (social charges roughly halved vs SASU) and tax flexibility (IR or IS).

Yet EURL is largely overlooked vs the trendy SASU. This guide by Samuel HAYOT, English-speaking French CPA in Paris 8th, gives you the selection criteria, setup steps, IR/IS arbitrage and pitfalls to avoid.

2026 typical case: a consultant invoicing €120k excl. VAT/year with €30k expenses, €90k profit. EURL with IS option + €50k salary + €25k dividends → net income after all taxes ≈ €56k vs ≈ €47k in equivalent SASU. Difference: +€9k/year.

A single-member SARL (article L223-1 Commercial Code), with legal personality distinct from its sole member. Liability limited to contributions (except personal guarantees).

Rule of thumb#

• Pick EURL: freelancer/consultant/craftsman, primary compensation > €30k/year, no fundraising planned, TNS optimisation.
• Pick SASU: startup project, fundraising envisaged, dividend-led, stronger social protection, BSPCE.

Default IR#

Profit taxed directly at member level at progressive IR rates (0/11/30/41/45%), even if undistributed. TNS contributions on full profit.

IS option#

15% up to €42,500, 25% above. Director chooses compensation (deductible); residual stays in company or distributed.

When to elect IS: profit > €40-50k/year, personal MTR ≥ 30%, will to capitalise, real compensation below profit. Notify within first 3 months of fiscal year. Irrevocable after 5 years.

1. Name & registered office — INPI search + Infogreffe; home address (max 5 years), commercial premises or domiciliation company (€40-80/month)
2. Bylaws drafting — avoid free templates; tailored clauses save tax & litigation
3. Capital deposit — bank or neobank (Qonto, Shine, Boursorama Pro), receipt issued
4. Legal notice — flat €121 (€146 overseas)
5. INPI single window filing — bylaws, deposit certificate, non-conviction declaration, address proof, M0 form
6. RCS registration — Kbis within 24-72h, fee €39.42
7. Post-setup — pro account, RC pro insurance, social funds, VAT, IS election if relevant

Single-member majority director is mandatorily TNS (self-employed scheme). Contributions on net compensation:

• Health/maternity: 0 - 6.50%
• Daily allowances: 0.50%
• Basic pension: 17.75% up to PASS
• Supplementary pension: 7-8%
• Invalidity-death: 1.30%
• Family allowances: 0 - 3.10%
• CSG-CRDS: 9.70%
• Training: 0.25%

Total: 30-45% of net compensation.

For €50k net compensation:

• EURL TNS: ~€17-22k contributions
• SASU employee-equivalent: ~€38-42k contributions

EURL saving: ~€20k/year.

Limitations: no unemployment contribution (private cover needed), weaker daily allowances, slightly lower pension.

Three levers:

1. Director salary (deductible, TNS contributions)
2. Dividends post-IS (30% flat tax + TNS contributions on portion > 10% capital — key difference vs SASU)
3. Member current account repayment (untaxed)

Optimised scenario for €80k profit: salary €45k → ~€18k TNS + ~€5k IR; remaining profit €35k → IS 15% = €5,250; net €29,750. Net to director: ~€46k + company capitalises €24k.

1. €1 capital (zero banking credibility)
2. Copy-paste bylaws (no preemption clause, AG dispensation, missing related-party clauses)
3. Forgetting IS election within 3 months
4. Underestimating Y1 TNS contributions
5. Home address without checking lease/condo rules
6. Massive dividends ignoring 10% capital threshold (TNS surprise)
7. No CPA support (short-term saving, long-term tax/legal cost)

• EURL → SARL: partial share transfer, €800-1,500, 4 weeks
• EURL → SASU/SAS: sole-member decision, transformation auditor if capital ≥ €30k, €1,500-2,500, 6-8 weeks
• EURL → Holding: contribution of EURL shares to new holding (article 150-0 B ter rollover)

A well-structured EURL saves €5-15k/year in tax and social charges vs a generic setup. Hayot Expertise offers a free setup audit including legal-form simulation, tailored bylaws, IS election arbitrage, INPI/bank/insurance coordination, post-setup follow-up.

Book a free audit

• service-public.fr — EURL
• Legifrance — Commercial code L223-1
• URSSAF — TNS contributions
• BOFiP — EURL tax regime
• INPI — single window
• Bpifrance — EURL

The single biggest reason a solo founder chooses an EURL over a SASU is the director's social status, so it deserves more than a row in a comparison table. As the sole member who also manages the company, you fall automatically under the TNS scheme (the self-employed social security regime). Your contributions are calculated on your net management compensation, not on a separate employer-plus-employee stack, which is why the overall rate lands in the 30 to 45 percent range rather than the much heavier load carried by an employee-equivalent SASU president.

The practical consequence shows up clearly at a realistic compensation level. On 50,000 euros of net management compensation, an EURL director under the TNS scheme pays roughly 17,000 to 22,000 euros in social contributions, while a SASU president under the general regime pays roughly 38,000 to 42,000 euros once employer and employee charges are combined. That gap, on the order of 20,000 euros a year on this bracket alone, is real money that either stays with you or capitalises inside the company.

The trade-off is in the cover, and you should price it honestly before deciding. The TNS scheme carries no unemployment contribution, so if you want that protection you arrange private cover yourself. Daily sickness allowances are less generous than under the general regime, with a waiting period and a modest ceiling, and the pension is calculated differently and often comes out slightly lower for an equivalent income. None of these points disqualify the EURL; they simply mean the saving is partly a self-insurance decision rather than a free lunch.

A first-year detail trips up many new founders: TNS contributions in year one are billed on a flat provisional basis and then regularised once your real income is known. The safe habit is to set aside around 30 percent of your compensation from day one so the catch-up call does not hit your cash position by surprise.

By default an EURL is taxed under IR, meaning the profit is taxed directly in your hands at the progressive income tax rates whether or not you actually take the money out, and your TNS contributions are computed on the full profit. This is simple and avoids any double layer of tax, but it gives you almost no control: the tax follows the result, distributed or not.

Electing IS changes the logic entirely. The company is taxed in its own right, you set a deductible management compensation, and whatever profit remains either stays inside the company to capitalise or is distributed as dividends. This is the lever that lets you smooth your taxable income, build reserves and manage your social contributions deliberately rather than passively. The election makes sense once your expected profit climbs past roughly 40,000 to 50,000 euros a year, once your personal marginal rate reaches 30 percent or more, or whenever you want to reinvest rather than draw everything.

Two points are easy to get wrong. First, the timing: the IS option must be notified to the tax administration before the end of the third month of the financial year, and missing that window locks you into IR for the year. Second, the dividend treatment: in an EURL under IS, the slice of dividends above 10 percent of the capital is subject to TNS contributions, which is the key structural difference from a SASU and a frequent source of an unexpected bill when a founder distributes heavily without watching that threshold. Remember too that the IS election is irrevocable after five years, so treat it as a structural choice, not a yearly toggle.

See also: Status comparison | Set up a SASU | CPA pricing