You employ staff in France while located abroad
A foreign company that does not have a place of business in France and hires employees to perform work in France is subject to the French Social Security system.
The company must :
- register with the national center for foreign firms (Urssaf department of foreign compagnies), by completing the E0 form that is available on the net-entreprises website ;
- carry out the employee hiring formalities (pre-employment statement, drawing up a pay slip, payment of contributions and social contributions...).
To declare and pay Social Security contributions, you may sign an agreement to appoint a representative residing in France. This representative will be personally responsible for declaring as well as paying all financial obligations normally incumbent upon the employer.
Whether or not the employer chooses to appoint a representative, she/he can also make all declarations and pay contributions in one go by way of the foreign firms slip (« titre firmes étrangères »/ TFE).
Indeed, companies with fewer than 20 employees can use the foreign firms slip to manage all of their employees, regardless of their type employment contract : permanent contract (« contrat à durée indéterminée - CDI »), fixed-term contract (« contrat à durée déterminée - CDD »)...
What are advantages?
- only one declaration is required to complete all of your hiring formalities, i.e. the pre-employment statement (DPAE) and the employment contract
- a single declaration is submitted to all of France’s compulsory social insurance institutions : health, pension, unemployment...
- one payment of social contributions is made to Urssaf départment of foreign companies.
3 steps :
Important information
Special cases
If the employer is a company located in the european union or switzerland and the employee is in one of the following situations :
- the employee is seconded to France ;
- the employee lives in France and works in the territory of several member states or on behalf of several employers ;
- the employee is then required to notify the institution that pays him health insurance benefits of these circumstances. This institution is then responsible for determining applicable legislation.
If the company is located in a country that has signed a bilateral Social Security agreement with France, the terms of this agreement apply. For more information, please contact the european and international Social Security coordination center (Cleiss).