Published on August 20, 2025 10:02 PM GMT
In the latest Bayesian Conspiracy episode (How and Why to Form a Church, with Andrew Wilson), Andrew describes all the great perks churches get compared to normal 501c3. Coming from France myself, it made me realize just how many of those awesome perks are just the default non-profit perks here. More people should build cool non-profits in France! Or not, you do you.
So, here's a short intro to French non-profit law.
The French "Association"
The default French non-profit model is the "Association loi de 1901", defined... in a law from 1901. There are a few other ones, including the "Fondation", but I don't know anything about them.
Requirement: A minimum of two people. The goal must be something else than sharing benefits, although an Association can perform commercial activities.
Creation: Just filling out an online form for free (all administrative procedures throughout the life of the association are a few clicks away on the government website). You only need the two people, bylaws and an address.
Reporting and processes requirements: None! Just use the government website to tell them when the people in charge change. In practice, most Associations use standard bylaws with a board with specific roles and yearly general assemblies. If you start doing lots of commercial activity or get very large, you'll be subject to the same reporting requirements as corporations, though.
Payment of board members: Can only be paid three quarters of minimum wage, except if you're >4yo and >200k€ annual budget (details here). The standard workaround is to have the leader of the Association be the director, who's an employee and not a member, and have the board be more of a corporate board who mainly provides oversight.
Tax benefits for the Association: Associations don't pay corporate or commercial taxes, as long as their main activity is not commercial. If they have the special status "Association cultuelle" (religious association), they are exempt from property tax on their religious building.
Tax benefit for the donors: Any Association whose primary activity is "Works or organizations of general interest with a philanthropic, educational, scientific, social, humanitarian, sporting, family, or cultural character" (and some other ones) can receive tax-deductible donations. Just give a donation receipt, and the donor can add the donation amount to their tax report. No need to register or anything. It's on the government to prove you're not really for the general interest if they're unhappy. This is unique in Europe AFAIK.
Weird historical restriction on owning land: During the French Revolution, all the previous big institutions which owned basically all the land were dissolved. The French government became very wary of organizations slowly accumulating land, especially religious organizations. It was basically illegal to form associations until 1901. The 1901 law explicitly forbids Associations from owning land and buildings, except if they are directly useful for the purpose of the Association.
Bonus: The deduction of non-profit donations is wild in France. In the US, what you donate is subtracted from your stated income, which gives you an income tax deduction equivalent to your marginal tax rate. In France, 66% of your donation is subtracted from your income tax! Which means that you can get to 0€ of income tax. The government is tripling your donations! Note that you can't deduct more than 20% of your income, so if you get above ~50k€ of income you can't get your income tax all the way down to 0€.
How does it compare to a 501c3 church?
Apart from the obvious drawback of Associations not being allowed to build massive real estate empires, the main differences I see with 501c3/churches are:
Note my very limited knowledge of American corporate law, or French one for that matter. IANAL
| 501c3 church | Association | |
|---|---|---|
| Governance structure | Structure dictated by law | Do whatever you want |
| Liability | Limited liability | Full liability in most cases. Can buy insurance |
| Purpose | Charitable, scientific, educational or other in a restricted list | Can be anything. For tax exemption, it needs to be among this broad list |
| Paying directors | Do as you please | Need to be big and old, or need to split who does the legal representation from who does the day-to-day operations |
| Constitutional protection from government snooping | If incorporated as a Church: protected by the constitution and very favorable case laws (cf the podcast) | They can snoop in at any time, and you get normal corporate reporting if you sell stuff and make profits. In practice, there are too many Associations (1.3M) for the government to check them all. |
| Lobbying | Only insubstantial advocacy authorized, very restricted | Anything goes! Stay tax-deductible if the advocacy is related to their general interest mission |
| International activities | Can do charitable work internationally, and give funds to any international charitable organizations | Keeping tax-deductible status while doing work outside of Europe is basically impossible if you're not literally saving African children |
Conclusion
Corporate law is interesting, you know? I'm not sure whether this is going to be useful to anyone, but at least it got me to learn new things!
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