Company formation in France

Company formation in France: who does what

Some tasks belong to public bodies. Everything else is work you can hand to a provider.

Party	Role in a formation
Guichet unique (INPI)	Receives the registration file online and passes it to the registers
Commercial court registry (greffe)	Checks the file for a commercial company and enters it in the RCS
Bank	Holds the capital and issues the certificate of deposit of funds
Legal gazette (SHAL)	Publishes the formation notice and sends the certificate of publication
Tax office (SIE)	Manages corporate tax and VAT and sends the VAT number
Expert-comptable	Business plan, tax set-up, bookkeeping, annual accounts and returns
Avocat	Tailored articles, shareholder agreements, regulated activities, branches
Domiciliation company	Registered office address and handling of mail

INPI runs the Guichet unique and the national business register; the commercial court registries are among the bodies that check the declarations it receives. Since the filing is online, a provider can submit it for you from anywhere, but the decision on the entry stays with the administration. A firm that promises a registration date is guessing.

What a formation provider takes on

A complete mandate starts with the structure and ends when the company can invoice and file its returns. Expect it to cover:

• Structure advice: SAS, SASU, SARL, EURL or a branch of your foreign company, and the effect of each on liability, management and tax.
• Name and activity checks: whether the name is free and whether the activity is regulated and needs an authorisation first.
• The articles: standard clauses for a one-shareholder company, or tailored rules for several shareholders, share transfers and investor rights.
• The address: a domiciliation contract or a lease, accepted as proof for both the registration and the bank.
• Capital and bank: introductions to a bank, the deposit and the certificate.
• The legal notice: drafting and ordering it from an authorised gazette.
• The filing: the online file on the Guichet unique, the beneficial owner declaration and the follow-up if documents are missing.
• Tax start-up: the VAT regime, the VAT number and the first contact with the SIE.

A foreign company that only opens a branch needs a different file. Business France notes that the branch documents, including the parent’s register extract and articles, must be certified as true copies and translated into French.

Matching the firm to your project

Accountanty lists 83 firms in France that offer company formation: 59 accounting firms, 20 law firms and 4 corporate services providers. Of these, 55 are small firms, 22 are medium-sized and 6 belong to large networks, and 48 focus on foreign clients.

• Accounting firms fit founders who want one team for the formation and the years after it. Among the 83, 62 also keep the books, all 83 handle tax compliance and 58 run payroll.
• Law firms fit projects with several shareholders, outside investors, a holding structure or a regulated activity, where the articles and side agreements need real drafting.
• Corporate services providers fit groups that need coordination across countries, document handling or an address.

The official SAS guide observes that the freedom left to SAS shareholders makes the articles complex to draft, and it recommends entrusting them to a specialised lawyer. If your SAS has more than one shareholder, ask an accounting firm whether a lawyer works on the articles.

Credentials worth checking

France ties accounting work to a regulated profession, so the titles matter.

• Expert-comptable. The profession is regulated and requires registration on the tableau of the Ordre des experts-comptables; practising without it is illegal. Every practice must also hold professional liability insurance. A company may keep its own books, but if it hands them to a professional, that person must be an expert-comptable on the tableau.
• Avocat. Ask which bar the lawyer belongs to, and who in the firm will draft and sign off the articles.
• Domiciliation company. It must hold a prefectoral approval, and its contract runs for at least three months. Ask for the approval reference.
• Fiscal representative. A business established outside the EU that makes VAT-taxable sales in France without a permanent establishment there must appoint one established in France. Ask whether the firm can take on this role or knows who can.

Some firms listed in France state that they are members of the Ordre des experts-comptables, often of a regional council in Paris, Rhône-Alpes or Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. Treat such a statement as a starting point and check it in the Ordre’s directory.

What to bring to the first meeting

A provider can only quote for what it can see. Prepare:

• The plan: what you will sell, to whom, from where, and when the first employee is due.
• The people: passport copies and home addresses for every shareholder and director.
• A corporate shareholder’s papers: a current register extract, its articles and a group chart up to the individuals.
• The capital: the amount, where the money comes from and how much you will pay in at the start.
• The address: whether you have premises or need a domiciliation contract.
• Residence plans: whether anyone will move to France, which adds a visa and permit file to the work.
• The activity in detail: enough for the provider to say whether it is regulated.

How to read a company formation quote

Ask every firm to split its price the same way, into the three parts below, so offers line up.

Official charges

• Registration. The official cost for a commercial company is €33.83 for the RCS formality plus €19.33 for the beneficial owner declaration.
• Legal notice. A flat fee set each year. The 2026 table for metropolitan France, excluding VAT, lists €199 for an SAS, €142 for an SASU, €148 for an SARL and €124 for an EURL.
• Costs passed on at price: apostilles, sworn French translations, foreign register extracts and postage.

A quote that shows these charges at a different amount, or hides them inside one figure, deserves a question.

The provider’s fee

Structure advice, the articles, the domiciliation, the bank file, the legal notice, the filing and the tax start-up. Ask what is not included. Common extras are tailored articles, a second shareholder or a holding layer, contributions in kind and changes after the first draft.

Contributions in kind can add a cost of their own: they normally need a valuation by a commissaire aux apports, unless the shareholders unanimously waive it when no item exceeds €30,000 and the total is no more than half the capital.

Running costs

You pay for the formation once, but the compliance work recurs, so ask for a price covering at least the first two years:

• bookkeeping and VAT returns on the regime that applies to the company;
• payroll, from the first employee or a paid président;
• annual accounts, filed on the Guichet unique or with the greffe, and the corporate tax return;
• the domiciliation contract, if you use one.

Sending a request through Accountanty is free of charge; the firms that respond quote their own fees.

Questions to ask before you sign

• Who drafts the articles, and when will I see the draft?
• Which address will the company use, and is that domiciliation company approved by the prefecture?
• Which bank do you work with for the capital deposit, and what will it ask me for?
• Are the registration charges and the legal notice inside your quote or billed separately?
• Who files on the Guichet unique, and who answers if the file comes back incomplete?
• Which person on the team is an expert-comptable on the tableau, or an avocat?
• Once the company is registered, who handles my file day to day, and in what language?

On language, 65 of the 83 formation firms listed offer French and 55 offer English. Twelve work in Italian, and Spanish and Russian are offered by 8 firms each.

When a foreign company is the shareholder

When the shareholder is a company, most of the extra work happens in the parent’s home country. The file needs proof that the parent exists and who may sign for it, legalised and translated as required. When a parent registered outside the EU is also the président of the SAS, the Guichet unique file includes its articles translated into French and certified by its permanent representative.

Two choices shape the quote. The first is subsidiary or branch: a branch avoids a new company, but the parent stays liable for it. The second is who manages the French entity. An SAS can have a company as président, while an SARL or EURL cannot have a corporate manager, so a group that picks an SARL needs a person in the role.

Services after incorporation

From the first month the company files and pays on a schedule. Many founders stay with the formation firm or add others listed for:

• accounting for the ledgers and year-end accounts, and tax compliance for the corporate tax return;
• VAT for returns and cross-border invoices;
• payroll once staff or a paid director are on the books;
• audit, when the company’s size or investors call for it;
• a virtual office or business address;
• bank account assistance and residency and visas for founders who move to France.

Firms that work mainly for clients abroad are gathered on accountants for foreign clients in France.

Warning signs

• A fixed registration date. The registry decides; a provider can only promise a complete file.
• One lump sum. It cannot be compared, and extras tend to appear later.
• No name for the address. Without an approved domiciliation or a lease, the file cannot be filed.
• A bank account presented as a sure thing. No provider can promise one; the bank runs its own checks first.
• Bookkeeping by someone not on the tableau. Ask for the expert-comptable’s name and check it.
• Silence on residence. Directing a French company and living in France are separate questions for non-EU founders.

Comparing offers for company formation in France

Send the same brief to two or three firms and compare who drafts the articles, how they split official charges from their fee, which address they propose and who will keep your books. Most firms listed in France sit in Paris, with others in Lyon and Nice. One quote request reaches several of them: Accountanty reviews it and forwards it to firms that match your brief for company formation in France.