Salary or dividends: how a SASU president pays themselves best
Every euro of profit can leave the company as salary or as a dividend; the two routes do not leave the same amount, or the same rights.
Figures checked by Radif Partners · Editorial policy · How we calculate
Salary or dividends in a SASU
Yearly take-home with this split
€45,205
| Net salary | €22,555 |
| Net dividends | €23,324 |
| Best split | 41 % |
| Take-home at best split | €45,695 |
For a SASU president working alone (SASU: société par actions simplifiée unipersonnelle, a French one-shareholder company), the best mix in 2026 combines a modest salary with dividends: on €80,000 of profit before the president’s pay, our engine finds the optimum at 41 % of profit spent on salary, employer contributions included, leaving €45,695 a year after every tax and levy. Taking everything as salary leaves only €39,226; everything as dividends, €44,076. The reason is what salary costs for a president treated like an employee: out of a €20,000 budget, €11,277 reaches the president’s account, 56 %, before income tax. A euro paid out as a dividend first bears IS, French corporate tax, at 15 % up to €42,500, then the 31.4 % PFU flat tax: 58.3 % is left, or 51.5 % once corporate tax rises to 25 %. Salary has one advantage dividends lack: it builds pension rights, while a zero salary validates no pension quarters.
Take-home as the salary share changes
On €80,000 of profit before the president’s pay, the table varies the share of profit spent on salary, employer contributions included. The rest pays corporate tax and is then paid out in full as dividends. The final figure includes income tax for a single person.
| Salary share | Net salary | Net dividends | Income tax | Disposable income / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 % | €0 | €44,076 | €0 | €44,076 |
| 20 % | €9,022 | €35,844 | €0 | €44,865 |
| 40 % | €18,044 | €27,612 | €0 | €45,655 |
| 60 % | €27,065 | €18,659 | €1,358 | €44,367 |
| 80 % | €36,087 | €9,330 | €3,389 | €42,028 |
| 100 % | €45,163 | €0 | €5,938 | €39,226 |
| Best: 41 % | €18,495 | €27,200 | €0 | €45,695 |
The curve rises, peaks, then falls. The first euros of salary benefit from the 10 % allowance for work expenses (sheet F1989) and from the low income tax bands; beyond a certain level, each extra euro of salary costs more in contributions and tax than it would leave as a dividend. The gap between the worst and the best split exceeds €6,469 a year.
What happens to one euro of profit
| Route out | Charges | Left from €1,000 |
|---|---|---|
| President’s salary (net before income tax) | employer and employee contributions, CSG-CRDS | €564 |
| Dividend, profit taxed at 15 % | corporate tax, then 31.4 % flat tax | €583 |
| Dividend, profit taxed at 25 % | corporate tax, then 31.4 % flat tax | €515 |
Salary looks almost level with dividends, but it still bears income tax on the progressive scale, whereas the 31.4 % flat tax already includes 12.8 % of income tax (sheet F32963). So the table reads like this: a euro of salary beats a dividend drawn from profit taxed at 25 %, but not one drawn from the 15 % band, and only while it escapes income tax almost entirely. At the best split on €80,000, the president’s income tax is €0: the engine stops the salary where it would start being taxed in earnest.
A word on vocabulary if you are new to French company accounts. The “cost” of the salary is what the company pays out in total: gross salary plus employer contributions. Net salary is what lands in your personal account before income tax, which the engine then works out on the progressive scale. Dividends come out of profit left after corporate tax, and the 12.8 % income tax part of the flat tax is taken at source when they are paid, as a prepayment called the PFNL (prélèvement forfaitaire non libératoire).
The best split at each profit level
| Profit | Salary share | Net salary | Income tax | Disposable income / yr |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| €50,000 | 15 % | €4,229 | €0 | €29,011 |
| €80,000 | 41 % | €18,495 | €0 | €45,695 |
| €120,000 | 27 % | €18,269 | €0 | €66,255 |
| €200,000 | 16 % | €18,044 | €0 | €107,395 |
From €80,000 of profit upwards, the best net salary stays between €18,044 and €18,495; it is the share that shrinks as profit grows. On a small profit, the engine pays little salary, because corporate tax at the reduced 15 % rate makes dividends more efficient. These splits maximise this year’s income and nothing else.
The price of social rights
If you come from a country where a company owner’s dividends and salary count the same for social security, French rules will surprise you. A SASU president is treated like an employee: salary pays into the general scheme and funds basic and supplementary pension, but never unemployment insurance, which is reserved for people with an employment contract. Dividends pay into nothing. A zero salary validates no pension quarters, the units French pension rights are counted in. Building rights means accepting lower disposable income; the first table shows that trade-off year by year. We do not publish pension estimates.
Two further settings complete the picture. What a given salary costs, gross, contributions and net, is on SASU president pay; dividend taxation, flat tax or the option for the progressive scale, on the dividend flat tax. To compare with an EURL manager, whose dividends follow other rules, see EURL or SASU. These amounts are estimates from published scales, not advice: the Urssaf and the French tax office set what is due.