Deleting your ex-box from the trade and companies register is expensive. But you have to go through it to relaunch your start-up with peace of mind.
By Sebastien Pierrot
If, after a few months of activity, your turnover does not take off, consider closing your company. If you want to try the adventure again later, it is best to clear the way and be clear with the administration! To do this, start a dissolution-liquidation (or voluntary dissolution) procedure with the commercial court. The only condition: to be able to honor all your debts. If you close a SAS, a Sasu, a SARL or an EURL , the registration and procedural costs amount to a minimum of 2,500 euros.
Minutes
After agreeing to dissolve the company, you will have to register the minutes recording your decision at the corporate tax department. Cost: 375 euros.
Legal announcements
Two should be published. The first, after the dissolution of the company. The second after approving the last balance sheet and deciding for liquidation. Ads are paid per line. Their price varies from one department to another: from 4.16 euros per line, in Orne or Ain, to 5.50 euros in Paris. Basically, count 200 euros per ad, or 400 euros, except in Ile-de-France where, assures Philippe Wagner, of Captain Contract, “we only pay once, the clerks agreeing to use the same ad for both releases.
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Registry of the Commercial Court
It is he who registers the dissolution file and pronounces the cancellation. Cost: €198.64. Add to this sum the registration of the liquidation report by the Public Treasury (25 euros) then by the commercial court (14.79 euros).
Right to share
If there is money left in the company when the accounts are closed (this balance is called the “liquidation bonus”), you will have to pay taxes a “right of sharing between the partners”. Its amount: 2.5% of the bonus. “If you’re alone, there’s no sharing. You can therefore write to the tax authorities to be exempted”, underlines Muriel Forest, legal partner at In Extenso.
Miscellaneous costs
For the fees of the lawyer and those of the accountant, allow at least 1,500 euros. The prices of Captain Contract and other legaltech sites are around 400 euros, but everything happens online. And beware of typos that can waste time and money!
Closing an SAS in 5 steps
- Dissolve. The partners, meeting in a general meeting, take the decision to dissolve the company.
- Liquidate. They appoint a liquidator (this may be the CEO) responsible for closing the company’s accounts.
- Publish. After the dissolution, the publication of an announcement is obligatory. A second announcement will have to be published after the liquidation.
- Liquidate (bis). Once again gathered in general meeting, the partners approve the last balance sheet of the company and pronounce its liquidation.
- Write off. A request for cancellation is filed at the Business Formalities Center (CFE) or at the registry of the commercial court. A few weeks later, the latter pronounced the removal of the company from the Trade and Companies Register (RCS).
