You may have recently received a letter or email from URSSAF with an attestation confirming that you are up-to-date with your social charges declarations and payments. So that you can identify the letter I’m talking about, the subject of the letter is:
Attestation de fourniture des déclarations sociales et paiement des cotisations et contributions sociales des candidats à une commande au moins égale à 3,000 euros.
This letter is written proof that your are up-to-date with your social charges declarations and payments. You’ll also notice a security code (code de sécurité) on the letter, this code can be used as an extra check to prove that you are indeed up to date. You may or may not need this letter in the future, here’s why.
All French companies competing for a public tender, called marché public, must prove that they are up to date with their social charges payments whenever a tender is worth 3,000 euros or more.
For example, let’s say your local town hall requires some landscaping work or a website and you’d like to submit a tender for the work. To invite tenders, the town hall would publish an appel d’offre marché public.
Now, if you want to submit a tender you would need to provide a copy of the attestation de fourniture des déclarations sociales - without it, your tender would be rejected.