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You are setting up your company, or wondering how to pay yourself

Choosing my status and paying myself

Weigh a SASU against an EURL — an assimilated-employee chairman does not cost the same as a majority-holding manager —, register the company's address, then choose between salary and dividends knowing the social cost of each. Umbrella employment is covered as the genuine third route it is. 12 steps, from choosing the legal form to being paid.

Start here: Choosing your company's legal form

Understand: legal form, registered address, director's pay, umbrella employment

  1. Step 1 of 12
    CoursePaid individually26 min

    Choosing your company's legal form

    What limited liability protects and where it stops, the 50 % threshold that flips a manager's social regime, and the two opposite default tax regimes of the single-member forms. Three modules, from one-euro capital to the sole member. All the prose is free to read; only the quizzes are sold.
  2. Step 2 of 12
    CoursePaid individually25 min

    Domiciling your company

    The duty to evidence a right to occupy premises and the office fixed before the articles, the five-year window at the legal representative's home with its prior notice, then the provider's licence and the regulated content of the contract. Three modules on a company being set up. All the prose is free to read; the case study and quizzes are sold.
  3. Step 3 of 12
    CoursePaid individually26 min

    Paying yourself as a French company director

    Employee-treated or self-employed, the remuneration-versus-dividends arbitrage priced layer by layer, then the formalities that make the decision hold: three advanced modules following Inès's company. All the prose is free to read; only the quizzes are sold.
  4. Step 4 of 12
    CoursePaid individually25 min

    Working through an umbrella company

    Three parties but two contracts, the expertise and qualification conditions, the two maximum durations not to be confused, and what the financial guarantee really protects. Three modules following a consultant billing €700 a day. All the prose is free to read; only the quizzes are sold.

Compute: SASU or EURL, chairman's contributions, dividends or salary, umbrella net pay

  1. Step 5 of 12
    CalculatorFree result

    SASU or EURL: status comparison for a sole director

    For the same salary and the same dividends, the better status is the one with the lower total levies: the president of a simplified joint-stock company is treated as an employee and pays general-scheme contributions, without unemployment insurance; the sole managing partner of a single-member limited liability company is self-employed, pays lower contributions, but has dividends brought back into the contribution base above 10 % of share capital, issue premiums and current-account balances.
  2. Step 6 of 12
    CalculatorFree result

    SASU president's social contributions

    The SASU president is covered by the general scheme like an executive employee, except for unemployment insurance: this calculation gives the net pay before tax, the employer contributions and the real employer cost.
  3. Step 7 of 12
    CalculatorFree result

    Dividends vs salary: the director's trade-off

    Compare what you keep, net of everything, between flat-taxed dividends and director's pay — on your own figures.
  4. Step 8 of 12
    CalculatorFree result

    Umbrella company net pay

    For one month of invoicing, this is what is left as net salary once the umbrella company's management fees and social contributions have been taken.

File: self-employed manager's pay, URSSAF contributions, levies on dividends (form 2777), umbrella invoice

  1. Step 9 of 12
    FormFree15 min

    Self-employed manager's pay: is there a payslip?

    No — and it is not a matter of tolerance. A majority manager is neither an employee nor under the general scheme: what evidences their pay is the shareholders' minute, not a payslip. With the real majority threshold, the one « 51% » misses — and the minutes or sole-shareholder decision to generate as PDF and Word.
  2. Step 10 of 12
    FormFree25 min

    URSSAF contributions for the self-employed

    Two schemes behind one label: micro-social takes a percentage of declared turnover, the real regime charges on professional income. Confusing them distorts the whole calculation.
  3. Step 11 of 12
    FormFree30 min

    Form 2777 — French withholding on dividends paid

    When a corporate-tax company pays dividends, the company itself withholds the 12.8 % flat withholding and the social levies, then e-files and e-pays them through form 2777-SD within 15 days after the month of payment — deadline, shareholder's exemption, lines 2DC and 2CK.
  4. Step 12 of 12
    FormFree12 min

    Umbrella company invoice

    Issued by the umbrella company to the end client, on behalf of the contractor it employs. What the invoice must make legible: the assignment on one side, the management fee on the other.

The other paths

A different procedure, the same principle: the three pillars in order.

Read in French