SCI in Monaco: hold Monegasque property in a civil company
We draft the statutes, register them, take the company onto the special register and run the calendar.
- No business authorisation for a patrimonial object (Loi n° 1.144, Art. 4 1°)
- Two partners or more (Code civil, Art. 1670)
- No minimum capital in any text read
- EUR 75 to enter the special register
What a Monegasque SCI is, and what we do
A société civile particulière is the Monegasque civil company, called a société civile immobilière, an SCI, when it holds property. The Code civil, Arts. 1670 to 1711, and Loi n° 797 of 18 February 1966 govern it, and its operations stay civil: the commonest object is managing a property estate (government information page, updated 13/01/2026). Object, not wording, decides which Monegasque company form fits a foreign founder.
We test the object, draft the ten particulars, present the deed inside its deadline, file the C1 set for entry in the Registre Spécial des Sociétés Civiles (RSSC), and keep the calendar Loi n° 1.550 of 10 August 2023 built into Loi n° 797. A société anonyme à objet civil is a separate regime, not sold here.
Is the object civil? The test that comes first
A professional or commercial object takes the other route, which starts with Monaco company registration.
- The object decides, not the wording of the statutes (Art. 1672-3).
- Holding, managing and letting unfurnished property is civil; commercial acts are not.
- No official page read says where furnished letting crosses that line.
- A patrimonial civil company needs no authorisation and no declaration: Loi n° 1.144, Art. 4 1°, reaches one only where the object is professional.
- A professional object belongs to the commercial forms and their authorisation file, down to a sole trader Monaco.
- Two partners or more (Art. 1670); one founder alone only in cases the law provides, none of them found. A one-person commercial company exists: the SURL guide.
- Individuals or legal persons may be partners; a foreign one files a register extract under three months.
- Liability for company debts is unlimited, in proportion to each share, and not joint (Arts. 1700 and 1701).
- No minimum capital, and no deposit step, in the Code civil or in Loi n° 797.
What is included
Where we stop: not the notary, the expert-comptable, the approved agent, the bank or the valuer.
The object test. The wording of the objet social against Art. 1672-3, and the routing that follows.
The statutes. Ten particulars, the seat named as Monegasque, the capital, up to 99 years, the two-thirds majority to amend, the usufruct vote.
The form of the deed. Private or notarial: the notary is optional, and the choice fixes the next deadline.
The seat and its file. A partner's home, the manager's address, or a domiciliation business, whose signed contract is copied in (Art. 5-1).
Registration with the tax department. The statutes, and every later amendment, presented to the Direction des Services Fiscaux.
The RSSC file. Form C1 in duplicate and its annexes, B1, SC-IF and SC-EPNFD, the personal documents, in French, EUR 75.
The compliance set-up. Both information officers, the beneficial-owner declaration, and the registre des associés (partners' register) in Monaco.
The yearly cycle and the exit. The anniversary confirmation, a month on every change, and closure where nothing is owned or owed.
How a Monegasque civil company is formed
1. Test the object, fix the partners. Two or more, individuals or legal persons. Whether every partner is an individual acting for their own account sets the filings and a buyer's duty band.
- 01
statutes signed
- 02
then 10 days (notarial deed) or 1 month (private deed) to the Direction des Services Fiscaux
- 03
then 1 month to the RSSC with EUR 75 and a French-only file
- 04
legal personality marked at entry
- 05
then 1 month to name the information officer
- 06
beneficial owners declared
- 07
partners' register open
- 08
then every year within 1 month of the anniversary. No cumulative bar and no end date
Deadlines the applicant meets (Loi n° 797, Arts. 2 and 5); none of them is a delivery date
2. Draft the statutes. The ten particulars, the Monaco seat, the capital, up to 99 years. A missing particular means registration is refused (Arts. 1672 and 1672-1).
3. Choose the form of the deed. Private or notarial: the notary is optional, and the choice fixes the next deadline.
4. Fix the seat. A partner's home or the manager's address needs no proof; anything else needs a document, and a domiciliation business its signed contract.
5. Register the statutes with the tax department. Ten days from the date of a notarial deed, one month from a private one (Loi n° 797, Art. 2). A late private deed pays double duty (Art. 4).
6. File for entry in the RSSC within one month of those formalities: the C1 set, documents under three months, in French, EUR 75, or EUR 100 for a joint-stock company with a civil object (procedure page, 01/07/2026). Late, entry is refused unless the Director of the DDE grants an extension for a legitimate, justified reason.
7. Entry. The company is a legal person from entry and not before; whoever acted for it earlier answers personally and without limit (Art. 1672-5). There is no gazette notice.
8. Name the information officer within the month. Without a Monaco deposit account that officer must be a regulated Monegasque professional (Art. 8-1), and a corporate account with a Monegasque bank is not compulsory in itself. Then declare the beneficial owners and open the partners' register.
Every period above is a deadline you must meet, not one the administration promises: no processing time is published, and we give none.
Not sure a civil company is the right holder for the property?
Tell us what the property is and who the partners would be.
What the company must file, and by when
The register's elementary information is public by extract (Art. 7), and the government's list of that information includes each partner; what the extract prints is fixed by Ordonnance Souveraine n° 3.573 of 11 May 1966, which we have not read. The beneficial-owner register is not freely public, but open on a reasoned request. Holding a civil company is not a residence route: Monaco's residency requirements are a separate chain.
| Obligation | Deadline | Article | If it is missed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Register the statutes, and every amendment, with the Direction des Services Fiscaux | 10 days for a notarial deed, 1 month for a private one | Loi n° 797, Arts. 2 and 4 | A late private deed pays double registration duty |
| Enter the company in the RSSC, with the EUR 75 duty | 1 month from the completion of those formalities | Art. 5; procedure page, 01/07/2026 | Entry is refused, unless the Director of the DDE grants an extension |
| Name the officers for the elementary information and the beneficial owners | 1 month from entry | Arts. 5-2 and 8-1 | Administrative fine; with no Monaco account the officer must be a regulated professional |
| Declare the beneficial owners to the DDE, then on every change | On registration, then 1 month | Loi n° 1.362, Arts. 21 and 22-1 | Fine to EUR 5,000, then to EUR 20,000 (Art. 22-2-1) |
| Keep the partners' register in Monaco and up to date | Continuous | Art. 5-4 | An arrangement to act for another person is void unless it is written in |
| Confirm the company, and that its information is correct | Within 1 month of the anniversary of entry | Art. 6-2; Loi n° 1.559, Art. 139 | Note, formal notice, one month, striking off, re-entry at double duty (Art. 6-7) |
| Declare any change to the registered information | 1 month | Art. 6 | The change is inopposable to third parties |
| Keep the accounts, and the records at the seat | 10 years | Art. 8 | Fine to EUR 3,000, then to EUR 20,000 (Arts. 12 to 14) |
| File the yearly declaration where a partner is not an individual acting for their own account | 1 July to 30 September, through an approved agent | Loi n° 1.381, Arts. 3 and 5 | 1.5% of market value a year with no approved agent (Art. 34) |
Every filing a civil company owes, with its deadline and its sanction.
Fines fall due in sixty days, with two months to appeal (Arts. 13 and 14), and managers or partners personally involved may be fined too. A bad-faith false statement to the register is criminal: six months and EUR 18,000 to 90,000 (Art. 17; Code pénal, Art. 26 4°).
The duty when the shares are sold
Selling the shares of a property-holding civil company is not the same operation as buying a business in Monaco: the head sits in Art. 13 bis, 7° of Loi n° 580, and the rate then follows the buyer.
| Who buys, or what the act is | Rate | Base | Article, in force from |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sale for value of shares in a Monaco-registered civil company holding Monegasque real estate | 7.50% | The part of the price, or of the market value if higher, attributable to that property | Loi n° 580, Art. 13 bis, 7°; from 1 October 2023 |
| The buyer is an individual, or a Monaco-registered civil company whose partners are exclusively individuals acting for their own account and known to the tax department | 4.75% | The market value of the real estate concerned | Art. 12, 1°; from 1 October 2023 (Loi n° 1.548, Art. 30) |
| The buyer is an entity whose effective beneficial owners are not disclosed to the tax department through an approved agent | 10% | The operations listed in Art. 13 bis | Art. 16, 2°; from 1 October 2023 |
| The rest of the price, attributable to assets other than Monegasque real estate | 1% | That part of the price | Art. 13 bis, 7°, by reference to Art. 9, 6° |
| A capital increase, or an act between partners that disguises a transfer, even partial, of Monegasque real-estate rights | 7.50% | Market value, in proportion to the shares transferred | Art. 13 bis, 10° |
The duty on a share sale, by buyer, from 1 October 2023.
The contract must describe the company's property estate and state the part of the price attributable to it, and a transfer is made by a written agreement registered inside the deadlines above, or registration is refused (Loi n° 797, Art. 3). No worked example and no partial-sale figure until the tax department confirms the base. The government's own registration-duty explainer, updated 28/07/2026, still prints 4.5%, 6.5% and 7.5%: superseded on 1 October 2023. A civil company is not bought ready to use either, which is why a shelf company cannot be bought ready to trade in Monaco.
One corporate partner changes the filings and the duty
Every partner an individual, acting for their own account. The company files nothing under Loi n° 1.381 (Art. 2), and a transparent buyer of the shares pays 4.75%.
- 01
all partners individuals acting for their own account
- 02
no Loi n° 1.381 declaration, 4.75% for a transparent buyer. Right branch: one entity among the partners
Loi n° 1.381
- 03
approved agent in Monaco
- 04
declaration 1 July to 30 September
- 05
EUR 50 a year, 4.75% on a change of beneficial owner paid 1 October to 30 November
- 06
and at risk 1.5% a year, 0.8% a month, 10%
Loi n° 1.381, Arts. 2, 3, 5, 13 to 15 and 30 to 35
One company or foreign entity among them. An approved agent established in Monaco, a declaration between 1 July and 30 September, EUR 50 a year where no beneficial owner changed, 4.75% of the whole market value where one did.
What that second route risks. 1.5% of market value a year with no approved agent, late interest of 0.8% a month, 10% on an undeclared change or an understated value, tax fines of EUR 5,000 then EUR 10,000.
The relief. No 4.75% on a gift or a legal succession to a spouse, an ascendant or a descendant in the direct line, nor where the change follows a share sale already taxed under Art. 13 bis, 7° (Art. 15).
Market value there is the price the property would fetch, ignoring any debt charged on it, "au sens de la présente loi" (Art. 1er, 4°).
What the market gets wrong about a Monegasque SCI
One thing the field gets right: the company may buy, own and let unfurnished property, and trading is excluded.
No legal notice. Creating a civil company other than a joint-stock one gives rise to no publicity formality in the Journal de Monaco, and no Journal d'Annonces Légales step exists.
No Kbis. The register is the RSSC, kept by the répertoire du commerce et de l'industrie service of the DDE, and legal personality runs from entry in it.
No capital deposit, and no compulsory bank account. No deposit step appears in Loi n° 797 or on the government procedure page, no text sets a minimum, and "from EUR 1" is a French-market phrase.
The procedure is not the French one. Ten days or a month to the tax department, a month to the RSSC, EUR 75, forms C1, B1, SC-IF and SC-EPNFD in French.
Nobody may hold the shares or the mandate for you. An arrangement under which a partner or a manager acts for another person is void unless the partners' register names principal and agent (Art. 5-4); lending a name to obtain an authorisation is an offence punished by a fine of EUR 18,000 to 90,000, a fine and not prison.
"Exempt from corporate tax" is not what the texts say. Ordonnance Souveraine n° 3.152, Art. 1er, gives the profits tax its scope: an industrial or commercial activity with at least 25% of turnover from operations outside Monaco, or income from patents, marks and copyright. It never mentions a civil company.
Ready to draft the statutes?
Send the object, the partners and the property, and we will set out 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: the ten particulars drafted so that registration is not refused, the deed presented inside its ten days or its month, the C1 set assembled in French, and the anniversary in a calendar the client can see.
Prepared by Camille Perrin · Reviewed by Julien Rossi · Updated {{BUILD_DATE}}
Start the file
Tell us who the partners are and what the company will hold.
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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