Monaco company types: choosing the form, and the authorisation that comes with it
We map your activity, your owners and your premises to one Monegasque form, then prepare the authorisation file that form needs.
- Four commercial kinds, plus the sole trader
- Capital from EUR 8,000 to EUR 150,000
- Every foreign founder needs an authorisation
- The form does not change the tax
What choosing a company form in Monaco actually decides
The government puts the choice in one sentence: the fundamental rule of business establishment in Monaco is the need for a prior authorisation to trade, an autorisation préalable d'exercer (introduction to setting up an activity, updated 05/12/2025). The form is picked inside that constraint, which is why company formation in Monaco starts with the file.
Code de commerce Art. 26 recognises four kinds of commercial company: société en nom collectif, société en commandite, société à responsabilité limitée and société anonyme. The sole trader stands beside them, and a foreign natural person needs an authorisation before carrying on any of it (Loi n° 1.144, Art. 5 al. 1).
What is included
The engagement, from the activity wording to the filings after registration:
A form mapped to the project. Owners, capital and what is paid on day one, liability, who may manage, the act your nationality triggers.
The administrative act. A déclaration d'exercer for a Monegasque founder (Loi n° 1.144, Art. 4), an autorisation d'exercer for a foreign one (Art. 7), and a SAM's or an SCA's constitution authorisation (Loi n° 1.573, Art. 11).
The file at the DDE. The Direction du Développement Économique, front office Monaco Business Office: activity wording, good repute, qualification, stable establishment.
The constitution. Statutes by private or notarial deed, the capital account, the extract in the Journal de Monaco (the gazette), then the RCI.
After registration. Beneficial owners, tax and VAT registration, CAMTI or CARTI for a gérant associé. We are not the notary, the expert-comptable or the bank.
Which administrative act you need, form by form
Which act you need follows from your nationality and your form.
- A Monegasque founder files a déclaration (Loi n° 1.144, Art. 4).
- Foreign SARL or SURL partners and gérants, and foreign SNC or SCS partners, need a ministerial authorisation (Art. 7 al. 1).
- A SAM or an SCA needs a constitution authorisation whatever the founders' nationality (Loi n° 1.573, Art. 11).
- A foreign company's agency, branch, administrative or representative office needs one too (Art. 5 al. 2).
- Three criteria decide: good repute, a qualification held personally, a stable establishment.
- The authorisation names the activities and the premises, and any change of either needs a new one (Art. 5).
- A form is not a licence, and a Monegasque licence is never an EU passport: financial services license Monaco
- If the gérant goes, a partner may manage three months, then an authorisation is required (Art. 7 al. 2).
The forms, one screen each
One card each: what tells you the form is yours. The grid below carries the figures.
SARL. Two or more partners, liability capped at the contribution, a commercial object (Code de commerce, Arts. 35-1, 35-3). Company in Monaco: The Monegasque SARL
SURL. The same company with a single member, at EUR 8,000 or EUR 15,000 (Art. 35-1 al. 3). The English government table has no SURL column: the Monegasque SURL
SAM. Registered shares that transfer freely, and a board (Loi n° 1.573, Arts. 15, 16, 22, 55). Art. 12 al. 1 allows a private deed, the government table still a notary: the SAM guide
SCA. A joint-stock company with commandités liable jointly and severally and commanditaires who may perform no act of management (Arts. 70, 71).
SNC and SCS. No minimum capital, paid for in liability: every SNC partner is a trader, liable indefinitely on his estate (Art. 27).
Sole trader (entreprise en nom personnel). One natural person and no company at all: registering as a sole trader in Monaco as a foreigner
Civil companies, in two sentences. Outside the four commercial kinds of Art. 26; Loi n° 1.144 Art. 4 1° catches partners of a professional civil company not in joint-stock form: Company in Monaco: SCI in Monaco (Societe Civile Immobiliere)
Every route into Monaco at a glance
The grid has no tax column. "La forme juridique de l'entreprise est neutre au regard de l'application de l'impôt", the form is neutral for the tax, and what decides is where turnover is realised (impôt sur les bénéfices, updated 03/08/2026). The rate and the test belong to the Monegasque profits tax (ISB).
| Route | Who may hold it | Minimum capital and what is paid at constitution | Liability | Management | Administrative act required |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SARL | Two or more partners, natural or legal persons (Code de commerce, Art. 35-1) | EUR 15,000; cash released at constitution at least up to the minimum capital, balance within 18 months (Art. 35-3) | Losses borne up to the contribution (Art. 35-1) | One or more natural persons, partner or not, no legal person, 8 mandates maximum (Art. 35-4) | Declaration for a Monegasque partner or gérant, ministerial authorisation for a foreign one (Loi n° 1.144, Arts. 4 3°, 7) |
| SURL | A single member, natural or legal person (Art. 35-1 al. 3) | EUR 8,000 where the sole member is a natural person, EUR 15,000 where it is a legal person; same 18-month release (Art. 35-3) | Losses borne up to the contribution (Art. 35-1) | As an SARL; the sole member exercises the meeting's powers, may not delegate them, and records his decisions in a register kept by the gérant (Art. 35-6) | As an SARL (Loi n° 1.144, Arts. 4 3°, 7) |
| SAM | Two shareholders at least, no maximum (comparison of legal forms, 05/12/2025) | EUR 150,000 wholly subscribed, a quarter at least of the cash shares paid, balance within 18 months of the first constitutive meeting (Loi n° 1.573, Arts. 15, 16) | Limited to the shares subscribed | Board of two administrators at least, chosen among the shareholders or outside them, six years at most (Art. 22) | Constitution authorisation whatever the founders' nationality (Loi n° 1.573, Art. 11); Arts. 4 and 7 of Loi n° 1.144 list SARL, SNC, SCS and civil-company partners and gérants |
| SCA | One or more commandités and one or more commanditaires who are shareholders (Loi n° 1.573, Art. 70) | EUR 150,000, the SAM rules applying apart from Arts. 22 to 27 (Art. 71) | Commandités jointly and severally; commanditaires up to their shares (Art. 70) | Commanditaires may perform no act of management (Art. 70) | Constitution authorisation (Art. 11) |
| SNC | Two or more persons, all of them traders (Code de commerce, Art. 27) | No minimum capital | Joint and indefinite, on the whole estate (Art. 27) | The partners | Declaration or authorisation per partner (Loi n° 1.144, Arts. 4 3°, 7) |
| SCS | At least one commandité and one commanditaire (Art. 30 al. 1) | No minimum capital | Commandité unlimited; commanditaire up to his contribution, graded by the number or gravity of any acts of management (Art. 35) | The commandité; the limited partner may perform no act of management, even under a power of attorney (Art. 34), and his contribution may not be in industry (Art. 33) | Declaration or authorisation per partner (Loi n° 1.144, Arts. 4 3°, 7) |
| Sole trader | One natural person (comparison of legal forms, 05/12/2025) | None published | On the whole estate | The trader; a trade sign and no company name; the object may be commercial or civil, and commercial agents and artisans take this route | Declaration or authorisation (Loi n° 1.144, Arts. 4, 5 al. 1) |
| Branch (agence commerciale, succursale) | A foreign-seated company | None stated | The foreign company | A director designated for the Monegasque establishment | Prior authorisation of the Minister of State (Loi n° 1.144, Art. 5 al. 2) |
| Administrative office (bureau administratif) | A foreign group | None stated | The foreign company | An agent responsable; group direction, management, coordination or control only, no commercial activity; the government publishes a notional tax base of 40% of annual operating expenditure, not 0% | Authorisation (Art. 5 al. 2); not entered in the RCI |
| Representative office (bureau de représentation) | A foreign company | Not published | Not published | Not published; the file sits with the administrative office in Arrêté ministériel n° 2014-264, Art. 4, and the procedures index carries no page of its own | Authorisation (Art. 5 al. 2) |
Ten routes on six criteria, every cell with its article. The grid rebuilds the official [comparison of legal forms](https://monentreprise.gouv.mc/thematiques/creation-et-gestion-d-activite/creation-d-activite/formes-juridiques-a-vocation-commerciale/comparatif-des-formes-juridiques), updated 05/12/2025, and adds the missing SURL column.
How the file moves, and how long the law gives it
The common trunk of every form, with the periods the texts publish.
| Item | What is published | Source and year |
|---|---|---|
| RCI registration duty | EUR 55 for a sole trader with no gazette notice, EUR 75 for an SARL, SURL, SNC, SCS or foreign company, EUR 100 for a joint-stock company | Ordonnance Souveraine n° 2.853, Art. 16; RCI page, updated 21/05/2026 |
| Registration duty on the constitutive deed | Named as a set-up cost head, no amount published | Comparison of legal forms, updated 05/12/2025 |
| Journal de Monaco insertion | Named as a set-up cost head, no amount published | Comparison of legal forms, updated 05/12/2025 |
| Notary's fees for a SAM | Named as a set-up cost head, no amount published | Comparison of legal forms, updated 05/12/2025 |
What the State charges: only the RCI duty carries a published amount, so no other is printed.
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then 5 working days to the admissibility notice
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then 45 days to the decision
- 03
then the extensions marked as branches (+45 days, or up to 6 months where a foreign body is consulted)
- 04
tacit grant of the decision period
- 05
then 1 month to the RCI (3 months after the decree for an SA or an SCA). No cumulative delivery bar and no calendar date
Sources: Loi n° 1.144, Art. 5; Loi n° 1.573, Art. 13 al. 3; RCI page, 21/05/2026. The floors are a sum of periods, not a delivery date
1. Map the activity to a form. No statutory period runs here, and the tax is not a criterion.
2. Establish which act your nationality and form trigger. A declaration, a ministerial authorisation, or a constitution authorisation.
3. Lodge the file at the DDE. No period is published for preparing it, and this is where the weeks go.
4. Admissibility, five working days from filing, notified by registered letter (Loi n° 1.144, Art. 5 al. 3).
5. Decision, forty-five days from that notification, extendable once by forty-five days, up to six months where a foreign body is consulted; silence grants it. Same clock for a SAM (Loi n° 1.573, Art. 13 al. 3).
6. Capital and deed. Cash into an account opened for the purpose with a credit institution established in the Principality (Code de commerce, Art. 35-3); private or notarial deed.
7. Gazette, then the RCI. An extract of the statutes in the Journal de Monaco, then registration within one month of the authorisation, or three months of the decree for an SA or an SCA, failing which it lapses (RCI registration, updated 21/05/2026).
Added together, those periods give a floor of two to three months for an SARL or SURL, four to six for a SAM. Our arithmetic: no official average is published.
Not sure which form your activity fits?
Send the activity, the owners and the premises, and we will name the form and the act your file needs.
Why Monaco is not an offshore jurisdiction
No official source says Monaco is, or is not, "offshore". What follows is our reading of the texts, line by line.
- The authorisation is personal and non-transferable (Loi n° 1.144, Art. 5).
- A stable establishment is a condition of the grant.
- Unsuitable premises, six months' dormancy, or no installation or staff permitting effective activity: revocation grounds (Art. 9 2°, 3° and 8°).
- Lending a name is an offence for both sides, a fine of EUR 18,000 to 90,000 (Art. 15; Code pénal, Art. 26); nominee shareholding is void unless the register names principal and agent (Loi n° 721, Art. 16-1).
- The profits tax is 25% for financial years opened from 1 January 2022 where at least 25% of turnover is realised abroad: Ordonnance Souveraine n° 3.152, Art. 1er says "25 % au moins", the government pages "plus de 25%", and the statute wins.
- SAM shares are registered (Loi n° 1.573, Art. 55); beneficial owners are declared at 25%, into a register open on a reasoned request (Loi n° 1.362, Arts. 22, 22-7).
- No "offshore" category exists: Art. 26 lists four kinds and exempts none.
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the promise (anonymous owner, no premises, no substance, no tax, a name lent for the paperwork, shares that pass with the company)
Our reading of the texts, not an official position: no source states the conclusion either way. The FATF listing of 19 June 2026 stands beside it
In the same breath: Monaco is on the FATF list of jurisdictions under increased monitoring, statement of 19 June 2026, recording an initial determination that it has substantially completed its action plan and warrants an on-site assessment. No exit is announced.
Problems we solve
The form is chosen against the authorisation, not a tax table. The tax does not follow the form, which is why the grid above has no tax column.
Premises decide as much as capital. A bureau exclusif needs 25 m² for a SAM, 9 m² for other forms, and Campus is closed to SAMs. The home seat runs one year renewable once (O.S. n° 993, Art. 8) against three years for Campus, unreconciled: a registered office in Monaco
No company is ready to trade. "L'autorisation est personnelle et incessible": shares do not carry it, and six months' dormancy is a revocation ground. Buy an existing business and file your own: the existing companies page
Where the ranking pages are wrong. No registered agent in the texts; no corporate gérant (Code de commerce, Art. 35-4); no residence condition on a manager, only effective activity (Loi n° 1.144, Art. 9 8°); twelve boards, not eight, for a SAM administrator (Art. 26); and the SURL exists.
Ready to test one form against your project?
Give us the activity, the owners and the premises, and we will come back with the form and the order of the file.
Why work with us
Camille Perrin, formation and authorisation lead, eleven years on Monegasque business files, in French, English and Italian.
From our practice: writing the activity wording so it survives the DDE reading, matching the premises to the form before filing, booking the notary where one is needed, and re-opening the file when any of the three changes.
Prepared by Camille Perrin · Reviewed by Julien Rossi · Updated {{BUILD_DATE}}
Name the form for my project
Tell us the activity and the owners, and we will name the form. Pricing on request.
Start your Monaco file
Tell us the activity, where it will be carried on and who will run it. One of us reads it and comes back with the questions the authorisation file will ask. Our fees are on request.
The authorisation is personal and non-transferable, and it names the activity and the premises. Nothing on this site is sold ready to trade.
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