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When you need a French company that can sign a contract this week, a ready-made shelf company, a “société préfabriquée” or pre-registered SARL or SAS, is the fastest legal route into the EU’s third-largest economy. ShelfCompanies24 maintains a live inventory of clean, never-traded French SARL and SAS entities registered in the Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés (RCS), with paid-up capital social, an active SIREN/SIRET and a clean DGFiP (tax authority) record. Most transfers complete in 5 to 10 working days.
France combines Eurozone single-market access, a 25% standard CIT (15% reduced for SMEs on first €42,500), the world’s most extensive double-tax treaty network outside the UK, and an extraordinary research-and-development regime (Crédit d’Impôt Recherche, CIR, 30% on R&D spend up to €100m). Combined with the post-2017 SAS reforms making it the most flexible French corporate form, ready-made French companies suit cross-EU trading, IP-holding and innovation structures.
Our service covers SARL/SAS, RCS filing, registre des bénéficiaires effectifs (RBE), sworn translations.
Société préfabriquée + virtual siège + French banking + expert-comptable bundled.
Most transfers within 5 to 10 working days. French-speaking case manager.
Sign at any French consulate, via eIDAS qualified electronic signature, or delegate to our Paris attorney via procuration notariée.
We draft the cession de parts/actions, file RCS amendment via Guichet Unique, update RBE.
A French shelf company, société préfabriquée or société prête à reprendre, is a pre-registered, never-traded SARL or SAS formed by a professional service provider purely for transfer. From incorporation to sale, the company has:
| Feature | SARL (Société à Responsabilité Limitée) | SAS (Société par Actions Simplifiée) | SA (Société Anonyme) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum capital social | €1 | €1 | €37,000 |
| Members | 1 to 100 associés | 1+ actionnaires | 2+ actionnaires (7+ for listed) |
| Governance | Gérant(s) + assemblée générale | Président + bespoke governance per articles | Conseil d’administration / Directoire + Conseil de surveillance |
| Best fit | SMEs, family businesses, traditional | ~70% of buyers, modern flexible default | Listed groups |
The SAS is the modern French default. Almost everything is configurable in the articles: voting rights, share classes, transfer restrictions, governance, drag-along/tag-along, exit. For sophisticated structures (founder equity, VC rounds, family-business succession) the SAS dominates.
France is the EU’s third-largest economy and second-largest manufacturer. EU institutional and commercial centrality, world-class infrastructure, and access to French-speaking African markets (300m+ francophone consumers) make French shelf companies particularly suitable for cross-border B2B and franco-African corridor business.
French SARL/SAS qualifying as small SMEs (turnover ≤ €10m) pay 15% CIT on the first €42,500 of profit; 25% standard rate above. This is materially competitive for SME shelf-company buyers.
30% tax credit on qualifying R&D expenditure up to €100m (5% above). One of the world’s most generous R&D incentives, particularly attractive for tech, biotech and engineering shelf-company buyers.
Every French ready-made SARL/SAS carries an active SIREN (9-digit company identifier), SIRET (14-digit establishment identifier) and where pre-registered a numéro de TVA intracommunautaire for VIES.
BNP Paribas, Société Générale, Crédit Agricole, Crédit Mutuel, La Banque Postale, BPCE/Caisse d’Épargne, plus fintech options (Qonto, French unicorn, Shine, Anytime) all serve corporate clients.
Buying a ready-made company in France is a share purchase rather than an incorporation, which is why it is counted in days: the entity already holds its SIREN, its SIRET and its RCS entry. You pick an entity from the live inventory, clear KYC, and the change of ownership is documented in a share-transfer agreement, with the outgoing gérant or président replaced by yours and the dénomination sociale, siège social and objet social amended in the same act where you want them changed. The amendment is filed through the Guichet Unique and published in BODACC, and the RBE record is updated. The seven steps below show the order in which that happens.
Live inventory: SARL/SAS entities of various ages registered in Paris (most), Lyon, Marseille, Bordeaux or Lille.
Apostilled passport copies, proof of address, business-purpose note. French AML rules under Code monétaire et financier.
SARL parts sociales: the cession de parts requires registration with the SIE (Service des Impôts des Entreprises) within one month and payment of registration tax (3% of price minus a €23,000 abatement). For SAS cession d’actions, the transfer is by simple share-transfer order; registration tax 0.1% on transfers above €25,000 (capped). We draft bilingual French-English deeds.
SARL: outgoing gérant resigns; new gérant appointed by associés’ resolution.
SAS: outgoing président resigns; new président appointed per articles.
Name (dénomination sociale), registered office (siège social), business purpose (objet social) are amended in the same act if required.
Since 2023 all RCS filings flow through the Guichet Unique (single-window portal) at formalites.entreprises.gouv.fr. Processing: typically 5 to 10 working days. The amendment is published in BODACC (the official commercial bulletin).
Beneficial owners filed in the Registre des Bénéficiaires Effectifs at the RCS within 30 days of the change. Penalties up to €375,000 plus criminal liability for non-compliance.
| Tax | Rate | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| IS, Impôt sur les Sociétés (standard) | 25% | Standard rate |
| Reduced IS for SMEs | 15% | First €42,500 of profit; turnover ≤ €10m |
| VAT (TVA) | 20% standard, 10% / 5.5% / 2.1% reduced | Mandatory above thresholds; voluntary below |
| Withholding tax on dividends | 25% | 0% to EU corporate parents under Parent-Subsidiary Directive |
| CIR, Crédit d’Impôt Recherche | 30% | R&D tax credit on qualifying expenditure up to €100m; 5% above |
| CICE successor / CII | 20% | Innovation tax credit for SMEs |
| Patent Box | 10% | Reduced rate on qualifying IP licensing income |
| CFE / CVAE (local business taxes) | Variable | Cotisation Foncière des Entreprises + Cotisation sur la Valeur Ajoutée des Entreprises |
Both routes end with the same thing, a company on the RCS register with its own SIREN, so the question is what you are optimising for. New company registration through the Guichet Unique takes 2 to 4 weeks, and the Greffe’s own processing is the part nobody can compress, but it lets you settle the dénomination, the share classes and the statuts from a blank page. A société préfabriquée is already registered, already has its capital social paid in, and transfers in 5 to 10 working days. In practice the ready-made route wins when a contract, a tender, a lease or a marketplace account will not wait, and new registration wins when the structure itself is unusual enough that it should be drafted from scratch.
Broadly yes. Neither shareholders nor the president of an SAS need to be French or resident in France, and the old requirement to declare a non-resident foreign director to the prefecture was dropped in 2014. The qualification is personal rather than corporate: a non-EEA national who intends to live in France and run the company there needs the appropriate residence permit, typically the Talent card for a corporate officer.
Two terms are in use. Société préfabriquée is the common one and société prête à reprendre, a company ready to be taken over, the more descriptive one. Both mean a SARL or an SAS registered by a professional provider purely to be held in reserve and transferred: never traded, never staffed, with only nil returns filed. French counterparties and registries recognise either term, so it makes no difference which you use.
Five to ten working days from KYC clearance to the completed RCS amendment. The share-transfer agreement is the fixed point in the middle: once it is signed the company is yours and can invoice immediately, while the Guichet Unique processes the amendment behind it and publishes it in BODACC. The RBE update follows. Compare that with 2 to 4 weeks for a new SAS or SARL registered from scratch, where the Greffe’s processing is the unpredictable element.
For most modern foreign-investor scenarios, the SAS is the better choice: more flexible governance, easier share transfers (lower stamp duty), bespoke articles, no cap on members. SARL remains popular with French traditional family businesses but is structurally less flexible. For sophisticated investor structures, SAS is overwhelmingly the default.
Our ready-made entities are transferred with their capital social already paid in, so the statutory requirement is satisfied before you take ownership. That floor is one euro for both the SARL and the SAS, which makes it symbolic rather than meaningful. Most operators keep the level the entity already carries and raise it only when a bank, a lease or a tender calls for a stronger balance sheet, since the capital social is printed on the public RCS extract that counterparties read.
Yes, and most of our buyers do. Unlike most EU jurisdictions France does not require a notary for an ordinary share transfer, so the paperwork is lighter: sign at any French consulate, by eIDAS qualified electronic signature, or by procuration notariée delegating signature to our Paris attorney. Documents are couriered and apostilled where needed, and we draft the transfer deeds in French with an English version alongside. Our French-speaking case manager handles the Guichet Unique filing and the BODACC publication.
Corporation tax is 25% standard, with a reduced 15% rate on the first €42,500 of profit for SMEs whose turnover stays inside the qualifying limit. TVA is 20% standard, with 10%, 5.5% and 2.1% categories. Dividends to EU corporate parents carry 0% withholding under the Parent-Subsidiary Directive, against 25% domestically. The CIR research credit returns 30% of qualifying development spending, and the patent box brings qualifying IP-licensing income to an effective 10%.
The quickest legal route is to take over a company that is already on the RCS register with its SIREN issued. Pick an entity from the live inventory, clear KYC, and the share transfer makes the company yours, with the Guichet Unique amendment processing behind it and invoicing possible from the day the agreement is signed. Registering a new SAS instead means the statuts, the capital deposit, the legal announcement and 2 to 4 weeks of Greffe processing.
Want today’s French inventory? Contact our French desk.
France is one of several jurisdictions where ShelfCompanies24 maintains pre-formed entities and active formation services. Why pick France for your SAS specifically? EU’s second-largest economy, SAS flexibility is the headline reason, but it pays to understand the trade-offs against the alternatives. Below are concrete differentiators that matter when you are weighing a structure decision against the actual operating profile of your business.
Cross-border corporate structuring in 2026 is governed by a tighter web of rules than in any previous decade. Three forces shape every decision:
For France specifically: 25% standard, 15% on the first €42,500 of profit for qualifying SMEs; CIR research credit of 30% on qualifying R&D spend up to €100m; Guichet Unique replaced CFE since 2023.
Issues we routinely see when prospects come to us after attempting the process directly with local providers in France:
Yes. A name change is filed with the RCS via a directors’ resolution and a routine filing, typically clears in 5 days. We include up to one name change as standard for both shelf-company purchase and new formation.
Yes. A French SAS that is tax resident in France sits inside the EU framework, so the Parent-Subsidiary Directive and the Interest and Royalties Directive can remove withholding tax on qualifying intra-EU dividends, interest and royalties. France also has one of the largest bilateral networks in the world, with roughly 120 comprehensive tax treaties in force. Relief still depends on residence certificates, beneficial ownership and the anti-abuse rules that France applies firmly.
Client information is held under contractual non-disclosure plus the professional-secrecy obligations applicable to corporate-service providers in our home jurisdiction. We do not share client identity or transaction details with third parties beyond what is statutorily required (KYC reporting, beneficial-owner-register filings, AML/CTF reporting where triggered). Our internal access to client files is logged and access-restricted by need-to-know.
Material tax changes (rate moves, new minimum-tax regimes, treaty amendments) get communicated to active clients with our analysis of impact. Where the change is structural, for example the OECD Pillar Two implementation in France or a domestic tax-base reform, we proactively flag clients whose structures may need restructuring and set out the remedial steps. The client is not left to discover material regulatory change from their accountant or from media reports.
No, and you should not engage anyone who claims otherwise. The Registre du Commerce et des Sociétés (RCS) records the actual incorporation date, which is publicly searchable and immutable. The shelf SASs we offer have honest incorporation dates ranging from a few months to several years old; for buyers who want a longer corporate trading history, we recommend purchase rather than fabrication, since fabricated history would expose you to fraud, tax-evasion, and money-laundering charges in any reputable jurisdiction.
Engaging us for your French shelf SAS purchase covers the following deliverables under one service:
The deliverable scope is identical regardless of whether you are based in the EU, the US, the UK, the Middle East, or APAC, we operate the same service globally for French corporate setup. Optional add-ons (virtual office, accounting retainer, payroll, sector licences, transfer-pricing documentation) are scoped separately, so the incorporation or transfer work stays exactly as agreed.