A €600 day rate: the SASU, its dividends and the corporate tax step
At this rate, the split between salary and dividends matters more than the legal form itself, and corporate tax changes rate along the way.
Figures checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
This day rate by legal form
Annual turnover
€120,000
| Micro (BNC), monthly | over the ceiling |
| EURL, monthly | €5,645 |
| SASU, monthly | €5,521 |
| Umbrella (8% fee), monthly | €4,195 |
With a €600 day rate over 200 days, or €120,000 of turnover, a SASU (single-shareholder simplified company) leaves its president €5,521 a month when 27 % of profit is paid as salary and the rest as dividends, for a single person with no expenses. That is the best split the engine finds: all salary, take-home falls to €4,657; all dividends, it is €5,388. The profit left in the company, €87,600, passes the €42,500 threshold: the first euros of corporate tax (impôt sur les sociétés, IS) are charged at 15 %, the rest at 25 %, €17,650 in all. Dividends then bear the 31.4 % flat tax. Even well tuned, the SASU stays behind an EURL (single-member limited company), which leaves €5,645 a month. The micro-enterprise is no longer possible beyond 139 days. These figures are estimates to check for your own case.
Above €42,500 of profit, corporate tax changes rate
At €600 a day, the choice is no longer between micro and a company: micro ends at 139 days. It is made inside the company, between what you pay yourself as salary and what you leave as profit to pay out as dividends. In a SASU, each euro of salary carries general-scheme social contributions; each euro left in the company pays corporate tax, then the flat tax on the way out. Corporate tax itself has two steps (service-public, sheet F23575): 15 % up to €42,500 of profit, 25 % above. At €500 the taxed profit stayed near that limit; at €600 it is well over it, by €20,860 on 160 days and €57,820 on 220 days. That upper slice is taxed at 25 %, then at 31.4 % when distributed. The best salary does not rise with it: it stays at a level where its income tax is close to nil, and the upper corporate tax band absorbs the growth in turnover.
The best split, day by day
| Days billed | Turnover | Salary share | Profit taxed as IS | Total IS | of which at 25% | SASU net/month | EURL net/month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 160 | €96,000 | 34 % | €63,360 | €11,590 | €5,215 | €4,493 | €4,549 |
| 180 | €108,000 | 30 % | €75,600 | €14,650 | €8,275 | €5,007 | €5,098 |
| 200 | €120,000 | 27 % | €87,600 | €17,650 | €11,275 | €5,521 | €5,645 |
| 220 | €132,000 | 24 % | €100,320 | €20,830 | €14,455 | €6,033 | €6,187 |
The salary share falls as turnover rises: the engine keeps pay roughly fixed and sends the surplus out as dividends. Take-home under the other set-ups, micro included, is in the mini-calculator at the top and in the legal form comparison.
Three settings of the same SASU
On 200 days, paying all profit as salary leaves €4,657 a month: general-scheme contributions weigh too much. Paying nothing and distributing everything leaves €5,388. The engine’s split, 27 % as salary, leaves €5,521. The gap between the last two is small; it buys social cover, though not unemployment insurance, which a company president does not pay into. The salary or dividends page walks through the reasoning.
Dividends under the flat tax
The 31.4 % flat tax (prélèvement forfaitaire unique, PFU) is 12.8 % income tax plus 18.6 % social levies (service-public, sheet F32963). On 200 days it comes to €21,964 for €47,986 of net dividends received. In an EURL the same profit would go to the manager’s pay, under the self-employed scale; that is what gives it the edge at this level.
At the next level, a €800 day rate, your marginal income tax rate drives the split. The day rate calculator and the corporate tax page complete this estimate. These are estimates, not personal advice.