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1
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Check name for uniqueness with the Institut National de la Propriété Industrielle (INPI) . Although it is not legally mandatory to check the proposed company name for uniqueness before registering a company, this procedure is included because legal consequences may follow if this step is omitted. If the name is not checked, the company risks a lawsuit by another company. The name can be checked online. A summary check is free of charge, but fees are charged for copies of trademark filings found. For an optional search of similar trademarks, fees are EUR 40 for three classes and EUR 400 for all classes.
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1 day
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no charge
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2
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Deposit the initial capital
Within 8 days of the collection of all funds, the initial capital must be deposited with a notary public, the bank, or the Deposit and Consignment Office (Caisse des Dépôt). The initial capital is blocked during the registration period and released upon presentation of a K-bis form.
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1 day
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no charge
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3
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Publish a notice of incorporation of the company
This notice must provide the name of the company and its manager (gérant), share capital, and registered office. The founder needs only a letter from the legal journal confirming the planned publication. The publication fee is EUR 5.48 (VAT excluded) per line of 40 characters.
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1 day
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EUR 5.48 per line of 40 characters
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4
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File a request for a company’s registration with the Centre de Formalités des Entreprises (CFE)
The Centre de Formalités des Entreprises (CFE) handles all formalities related to the trade register in the court (RCS, Tribunal de Commerce), statistics (INSEE), tax authorities (Centre des Impôts), social security (URSSAF), labor (Direction Departemental du Travail et de L’emploi), health insurance (Caisse regionale D’assurance Maladie), unemployment insurance, pension, Employment Pole (Pole Emploi), and similar bodies. This includes the registration of the company bylaws with the tax administration. Company articles of association and bylaws, lease, attestation of receipt of funds, documents concerning the manager, ad hoc forms, evidence of publication, and so forth, must be filed in a single file. After receiving the request, the CFE must process the documents and transfer them to the respective offices and authorities. If the request is incomplete, the CFE has 15 days to return the documents for completion. The CFE automatically enters the information in the Registre Nationale des Entreprise (Répertoire SIRENE) and obtains identification numbers from the RNE: numero SIRENE (Systéme Informatique pour le Répertoire des Entreprises), numero SIRET (Systéme Informatique pour le Répertoire des Etablissements), and numero NAF (Nomenclature des Activitees Francaises). The SIRET is used, among other things, by the tax authorities.
Since the Dutreil Law, the CFE or the Commercial Registry can deliver a receipt for company creation(récepissé de creation d’entreprise) as soon as they have received the documents, so that the company can start operations without having to wait for its RCS number.
The principle of electronic company registration was enacted by Law 2003-721 (August 1, 2003) and implemented under Decree No. 2005-77 (February 1, 2005). However, a hard copy file is still required. As of Decree No. 2006-679 of June 9, 2006, the founder has the option to file either with the CFE or directly with the Companies Registry (greffe), which subsequently files the documents with the CFE on the company's behalf. This option is slightly less costly because the CFE service fees are excluded. However, the founder must register the company's bylaws with the tax administration in person.
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4 days
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EUR 83.96 paid to the trade register in the Commercial court
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