ESEF from the employer's point of view

L'ESEF (company with no place of business in France) is the simplest legal status in France and the best one for starting up in France and being guided in the first phases of your development.

After opting for ESEF status, you will have a "liaison office".

This will allow you to test the French (and even European) market at little risk before you decide whether to set up a local subsidiary.

Unlike a subsidiary, a "liason office" is limited in what it may do:

• customer prospection,
• market studies,
• compiling general information on the market,
• reporting information to the company's head office,
• etc.

The ESEF status makes it easy to begin your commercial approachto give you a solid base for development.

The "liaison office" set up under the ESEF status has no independent legal status and no de facto management autonomy.

Your head office (not located in France) will be registered with French social-welfare agencies.

Your future "liaison office" will normally have no autonomous commercial activity. It will generate neither profits nor losses. As such, it will be charged no taxes or levies on commercial activities.