There are many anglophones living in France, who like me ... want to create their own enterprise. However, most information for starting a company is obviously in French. In fact, it's not really possible to do business here as a pure anglophone, unless you are wealthy enough to hire a permanent translator / personal assistant / secretary.
So in this post, I'm helping other anglophones who've gone through the process of trying to understand all the business acronyms in French, for the business models here.
1. You can register your business under Activité Individuelle en Nom Propre which is similar to a Private Unlimited Company. In this case, if you fail, your personal account will be charged for everything to an unlimited extent. If you are married, even your spouse will be charged liable. My consultant is charging me €500 without VAT for registration assistance, plus all extra charges reimbursed with related invoices.
2. You can register your business under Sociétés à Responsabilité Limitée or SARL, which is similar to a Private Company Limited by Shares. In this case, the liability is only backed to the assets of the company and not extended to the private assets. If the company fails, the assets will be used for covering debts and if there is not enough ... your private assets won't be touched. There are two schemes for this business model:
a. EURL (Enterprise Unipersonnnelle à Responsabilité Limitée) which requires at least one shareholder. However, some courts consider the EURL as a Private Unlimited Company and will extend liabilities to your private assets. You will never be sure to keep exactly the "limited" status.
b. SARL (Sociéte à Responsabilité Limitée) which requires at least two shareholders. Here, liabilities cannot be extended to your private assets.
For the EURL and SARL models, my consultant is charging me €750 excluding VAT for assistance in writing the company's articles and €500 for assistance in company registration.
If I were still in my hometown, I'd easily find a runner do all this for free. But for now ...
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
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2 comments:
Wow, didn't realize you are creating a huge enterprise. I wonder if the Mom & Pop stores did the same route.
Just wondering...
No ... actually I'm starting a micro enterprise. But even the smallest business owner here must register their business because of taxation issues and so many other requirements by the French government :)
France is officially in recession now, so it's prudent to start small.
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