Civil servant or employee: what Algerian law actually allows before you incorporate
In short: For a private-sector employee, incorporating is not a public-law problem: your employment contract commands, and the fiscal mechanics of combining incomes get prepared rather than confronted. For a civil servant, article 43 of ordinance No. 06-03 leaves no room for interpretation: no private lucrative activity whatsoever. Three shortcuts circulate and all three are trapped: availability leave opens nothing — article 150 reproduces the ban word for word; auto-entrepreneur status lifts nothing — law 22-23 indeed does not exclude civil servants, but it cannot lift a prohibition that bears on the activity itself; and the front-man arrangement collides head-on with article 45, which expressly targets the interposed person. Two real routes remain: the spouse-founder, always legal but subject to a mandatory declaration whose omission is itself misconduct (article 46), and investing without managing — a boundary no read text draws, which calls for a written position from your administration. Article by article, here is what the texts say.
Keywords in this article
1. 1. Civil servant or employee: why does the answer flip entirely?
The two questions look identical. They belong to two bodies of law that do not speak to each other.
| Civil servant | Private employee | |
|---|---|---|
| Governing text | Ordinance No. 06-03 of 15 July 2006, general statute of the public service | Your employment contract — law No. 90-11 organises the relation, it does not forbid it |
| Logic | A principle-level ban, written into the statute | A principle-level freedom, bounded by contract and loyalty |
| What incorporation puts at stake | A disciplinary fault up to dismissal (art. 163) | A contractual dispute, not a statutory fault |
The pivot is set as early as article 3 of law No. 90-11 on individual labour relations: civil servants and public administration agents are governed by specific legislative provisions. In other words, the answer to « may I create? » does not start with the labour code for one — and starts nowhere but in his own statute for the other.
2. 2. Active civil servant: what exactly does the ordinance say?
Article 43, first paragraph, leaves nothing to interpretation: civil servants « consacrent l'intégralité de leur activité professionnelle aux tâches qui leur sont confiées. Ils ne peuvent exercer une activité lucrative, à titre privé, de quelque nature que ce soit » — they devote their entire professional activity to their assigned tasks and may not exercise any private lucrative activity of any kind.
The same article carves out two narrow openings, and they must be read for what they are — case-specific exceptions, not a door:
- training, teaching or research duties, as an accessory occupation, under conditions fixed by regulation;
- the production of scientific, literary or artistic works — without mentioning one's administrative title upon publication without the appointing authority's agreement.
Article 44 adds an exception by corps: higher-education teachers, researchers and specialised medical practitioners may exercise a private lucrative activity related to their speciality. Executive decree No. 26-202 of 16 May 2026 now frames it, and it must be read to the end before being seen as a door towards entrepreneurship: at least five years' seniority; one single activity, among expertise, study, consulting, research, development, innovation and care; exercised for one single organism, public or private, outside public administrations — and its article 4 expressly forbids exercising it « pour leur propre compte », on one's own account. The authorisation, granted for one renewable year after assessment, makes its holder the agent of a second, supervised employer — not a company founder.
Beyond the ban itself, two articles widen its practical reach. Article 42 requires civil servants to abstain from any act incompatible with the nature of their functions, even outside service. And article 163 grades disciplinary sanctions into four degrees, the heaviest reaching demotion and dismissal.
3. 3. Availability, front man, auto-entrepreneur: why all three shortcuts are shut
Availability leave opens nothing
This is the most frequent surprise. Many believe « going on availability » allows testing a project while keeping one's grade. Article 150 decides otherwise: « Il est interdit au fonctionnaire placé en position de disponibilité d'exercer une activité lucrative de quelque nature que ce soit » — a civil servant on availability is forbidden from exercising any lucrative activity of any kind. Same wording, same breadth as article 43 — availability suspends pay and advancement (article 145), not the ban. As for personal-convenience availability (article 148), it requires two years of effective service and stays capped at two years over an entire career.
The front man runs into article 45
Incorporating in a third party's name while remaining the true decision-maker is not a discreet workaround: it is the textbook case of article 45, which sanctions the civil servant holding, by himself or through an interposed person and under any name whatsoever, inside or outside the country, interests likely to compromise his independence or obstruct the normal exercise of his mission, in a company controlled by or related to his administration.
Auto-entrepreneur status lifts nothing
Law No. 22-23 does not exclude civil servants: its definition covers any natural person exercising an eligible activity, and its conditions (article 3) say nothing about employment situation. But the civil servant's obstacle was never in the statute creating the status — it lies in the ordinance that forbids the activity itself. Changing the legal wrapper changes nothing about the nature of what is done: under an auto-entrepreneur card as behind an SARL, the exercise remains a private lucrative activity.
4. 4. The two real routes: the declared spouse and investing without managing
The spouse-founder: legal, but declared
This is the only door expressly organised by the statute. Article 46 provides that when a civil servant's spouse exercises a private lucrative activity, a declaration must be made to the administration to which the civil servant reports — and the absence of declaration is itself a professional fault. The route is thus marked twice: the project is incorporated in the spouse's sole name, and the declaration goes before the first control, not after it. Safeguards remain: the administration may take measures protecting the interest of the service, and article 45 keeps applying if the company has a relation with that administration.
Investing without managing: a boundary the text does not draw. Nothing in the ordinance read expressly authorises the civil servant to hold shares as a mere investor — nothing expressly forbids it either, article 43 targeting the exercise of a lucrative activity, which theoretically distinguishes owning from managing. This grey zone should not be crossed alone: the prudent position is to obtain a written position from your administration before any contribution, and it closes entirely if the company falls within article 45's scope. We publish no definitive assessment here: this is a matter of personal situation, to be examined file in hand.
Your statutory situation deserves a clean structure
Analysis of your position (statute, contract, spouse), choice of a compatible setup and a compliant incorporation sequence: we document every step.
Secure my incorporation project5. 5. Private employee: the contract commands, the mechanics get prepared
For a private-sector employee, no general provision forbids creating or holding a company. The first document to reread is therefore not a code: it is your employment contract, where exclusivity clauses are common, then the applicable collective agreement. In our engagements, that is where nearly every situation is decided — and a poorly prepared loyalty conflict costs less defused upstream than endured downstream.
What remains is choosing the degree of involvement, because it commands the social-security fund:
| Role in the company | Social status | What it implies |
|---|---|---|
| Plain member, no mandate | You remain affiliated as an employee | Dividends subject to the 10 % final withholding |
| Minority salaried manager | CNAS, on top of your job | Double income, two payslips |
| Majority manager | CASNOS, the non-salaried regime | Fund change for the management role — to check against your real schedules |
The good fiscal news fits in one line: salary and dividend do not stack. Your wages keep bearing income tax withheld by monthly computation; the dividend bears its 10 % final withholding and is not reintegrated into global income. Combining both incomes therefore does not aggravate one's progressivity through the other — our article on taking money out of a company prices each channel.
6. 6. Who may do what? The five-profile table
| Your profile | Create & manage | Invest without managing | Key condition |
|---|---|---|---|
| Active civil servant | No — art. 43 | Grey zone, written position needed | Art. 45: nothing in a company linked to your administration |
| Higher-education teacher, researcher, specialist practitioner | For a third-party organism — not on their own account (decree 26-202, art. 4) | Same rules as above | Five years' seniority; one single activity, authorised one year at a time |
| Spouse of a civil servant | Yes | — | Mandatory declaration to the administration (art. 46) |
| Civil servant on availability | No — art. 150 repeats the ban | Same | Availability ≠ freedom |
| Private employee | Yes, absent an exclusivity clause | Yes | Contract and collective agreement first |
A last line for those who want to reconcile everything: secondment exists, and article 135 provides it, at the civil servant's request, to take management functions in companies in which the State holds all or part of the capital. It is not a door towards your own company — but it proves the statute knows how to build bridges when the text intends them.
This page informs on applicable law. It replaces neither the reading of your particular statute nor of your contract, nor advice tailored to your situation: some boundaries — notably between investing and managing — are assessed situation by situation.
FAQ — Frequently asked questions
Sources and references
- Ordonnance n° 06-03 du 15 juillet 2006 portant statut général de la fonction publique, version consolidée — art. 42 (abstention de tout acte incompatible, même hors service), art. 43 (intégralité de l'activité professionnelle ; interdiction de toute activité lucrative privée ; exceptions accessoires : formation, enseignement, recherche, œuvres), art. 44 (corps des enseignants du supérieur, chercheurs et praticiens médicaux spécialistes), art. 45 (intérêts par personne interposée dans une entreprise contrôlée ou en relation avec l'administration), art. 46 (déclaration de l'activité lucrative du conjoint ; absence de déclaration = faute), art. 88 (stagiaire), art. 135 (détachement à la demande pour fonctions de direction dans les entreprises à capital public), art. 148 et 149 (disponibilité pour convenance personnelle : 2 ans de service, 2 ans maximum), art. 150 (interdiction de toute activité lucrative en disponibilité), art. 163 (échelle des sanctions disciplinaires jusqu'au licenciement) — Secrétariat général du Gouvernement — joradp.dz · Verified on 22/08/2026
- Décret exécutif n° 26-202 du 16 mai 2026 fixant les conditions et les modalités d'exercice d'une activité lucrative, à titre privé, par les enseignants de l'enseignement supérieur, les chercheurs et les praticiens médicaux spécialistes — art. 2 (cinq années d'ancienneté ; dérogation des wilayas du Sud et des Hauts-Plateaux dès la titularisation), art. 3 (activités limitées à l'expertise, l'étude, le conseil, la recherche, le développement, l'innovation et les soins), art. 4 (un seul organisme public ou privé ; territoire national ; exclusion des administrations publiques et de l'exercice pour son propre compte), art. 5 (une seule activité), art. 7 (cas d'interdiction), arts. 11 à 15 (autorisation annuelle après avis consultatif, engagement écrit, copie du contrat sous dix jours), art. 19 (déclaration par l'organisme employeur aux impôts et à la sécurité sociale) — Journal officiel de la République algérienne n° 38 du 25 mai 2026 · Verified on 22/08/2026
- Loi n° 90-11 du 21 avril 1990 relative aux relations individuelles de travail, modifiée et complétée — art. 3 : les fonctionnaires et agents contractuels des institutions et administrations publiques sont régis par des dispositions législatives et réglementaires particulières — WIPO Lex — dépôt officiel du texte · Verified on 22/08/2026
- Loi n° 22-23 du 18 décembre 2022 portant statut de l'auto-entrepreneur — art. 2 (définition : toute personne physique exerçant une activité lucrative éligible ; exclusions des fonctions libérales, professions réglementées et artisanales) et art. 3 (conditions : âge légal, nationalité et résidence, activité de la liste) — aucun texte ne conditionne le statut à la cessation d'un emploi — Journal officiel de la République algérienne n° 85 du 19 décembre 2022 · Verified on 03/08/2026
- Code des impôts directs et taxes assimilées (CIDTA), édition 2026 — art. 104-I : retenue libératoire de 10 % sur les produits de parts sociales et d'actions, non réintégrée au revenu global du bénéficiaire — Direction générale des impôts · Verified on 06/08/2026
- Direction générale des impôts — Impôt sur le revenu global, traitements et salaires : retenue à la source calculée par mensualisation sur le barème progressif de l'IRG — Direction générale des impôts (DGI) · Verified on 22/08/2026
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