The individual business with limited liability (EIRL) allows an individual entrepreneur to safeguard his personal property by constituting a separate professional patrimony.

This legal form of company has been deleted by the law of 14 February 2022 in favor of self-employed professional activity. Indeed, this law has created a new unique status of the individual entrepreneur: he now automatically benefits from a separation of its professional and personal assets.

It is therefore not no longer possible to constitute an EIRL. On the other hand, the existing EIRL may continue to operate under the previous conditions.

The EIRL has a professional assets assigned to the professional activity, i.e. consisting of goods necessary for the exercise of the professional activity (equipment, premises, etc.). We are talking about assets affected. This heritage is described in the declaration of use of the heritage filed at the time of registration of the EIRL.

During the life of the company, it is possible to modify this heritage by adding or removing assets. The addition or removal of the assets of the assignment heritage is done at the window of formalities of the companies:

Window of company formalities

In principle, professional creditors can only seize the professional assets of the entrepreneur. However, they may obtain payment of their claim on personal assets in the following cases:

• In case of judicial reorganization or bankruptcy, the court may order the reunification of professional and personal assets in the following cases:
  
  • Serious breaches of the entrepreneur's accounting rules or lack of a bank account dedicated to the professional activity
  • Confusion between personal and professional assets (abnormal financial flows between these two assets)
  • Fraud in respect of a creditor holding a general pledge on professional assets: for example, the EIRL carries out acts that artificially reduce its professional assets. The creditor cannot therefore be paid on the professional estate. In this case, the court can order the reunion of the 2 professional and personal assets.
• In case of fraud or non-compliance The tax authorities may seize the personal assets of the EIRL on a serious and repeated basis (e.g. several breaches of the tax reporting obligation).

In the event of the death of the individual limited liability contractor, his heirs or heirs may not pursue the professional activity under the status of EIRL. They must therefore make a declaration of cessation of activity on the website company formalities window within 30 days of cessation of activity.

The declaration of cessation of activity results in the removal from the EIRL of the RNE: titleContent.

For more information on the consequences of the cessation of activity, refer to the fact sheet on the cessation of activity of the individual contractor.