FranceUrssaf
Donneurs d'ordre must collect a second ID document and police the full chain
For contracts of €5,000 HT or more, the donneur d'ordre must hold an attestation under 6 months old, check its 15-character code, collect a K-bis, RNE extract or quote, and approve cascade subcontracting in writing.
By Taxxa AI OyPublished 10 November 2026
Any business or public body commissioning works or services — donneur d'ordre or maître d'ouvrage, whatever its sector or legal form
Urssaf — must now run a fuller vigilance routine on its subcontractors.Urssaf The rewritten Urssaf guidance keeps the trigger: every contract of €5,000 excluding tax or moreUrssaf, measured on the total service even split across payments or invoices. The subcontractor requests the attestation de vigilance from Urssaf in its online account, sends it to the donneur d'ordre, and both sides repeat the exercise every six months until the contract ends.
The attestation itself must be less than six months old at signingUrssaf and at each renewalUrssaf, and the donneur d'ordre must check its validity and authenticity in the Urssaf verification tool by entering the 15-character security code printed on it. New in the rewrite: three point-in-time checks on receipt — validity (under six months), authenticity (through that procedure), and coherence between the total remuneration declared and the headcount needed to perform the contract.
Also new: the attestation alone is no longer enough. The donneur d'ordre must collect one further document from the subcontractorUrssaf — a registre du commerce et des sociétés extract (K or K-bis), a registre national des entreprises extract for a craft-sector business, a quote, advertising document or business correspondence showing the name, full address and registration number (or the approval reference from the competent authority), or the electronic acknowledgement of receipt from the competent commercial-court clerk or chamber of trades and craftsUrssaf.
Failing the vigilance duty during a period of concealed work by the subcontractor costs the donneur d'ordre the subcontractor's taxes, social-security contributions and other charges on the turnover earned under the contract, and Urssaf may cancel the exemptions and contribution reductions applying to the donneur d'ordre's own employees.
Subcontracting chains get their own section. If a contractor wants to sub-subcontract, the initial donneur d'ordre's prior written approval is mandatoryUrssaf, covering both the principle of the sub-subcontract and the second-rank subcontractor's payment terms. The initial donneur d'ordre stays responsible for the whole chainUrssaf and must run the same attestation and document checks on the second-rank subcontractor, French or foreignUrssaf. The service-public guidance notes these chain-wide duties take effect once the announced decree appearsService Public, and at the latest on 27 December 2026Service Public.
On the subcontractor side, the attestation certifies compliance for the last six months due, shows headcount and the last DSN remuneration total where employees exist, and is refused with a reasoned PDF where conditions are unmet. A provisional attestation may now be issued to an independent worker starting out who is not yet liable to declare or pay contributions.
Legal basis: Code de la sécurité sociale, articles L243-15 and D243-15; Code du travail, articles R8222-1, D8222-5 and D8222-7.
Donneurs d’ordre placing contracts of 5,000 euros HT or more: collect a sub-six-month attestation plus a K-bis, RNE extract, quote or greffe receipt, verify the 15-character code in the Urssaf tool, and require prior written approval for any cascade subcontracting.