Sole trader and partnerships in Monaco: SNC, SCS and SCA
We work out which act each founder's nationality triggers, then run the file.
- Four forms, one authorisation regime
- No minimum capital for a sole trader, an SNC or an SCS
- 5 working days plus 45 days on the clock
- One month to the RCI, or the act lapses
The four forms where you are personally liable, and what we do
Four Monegasque routes leave the founder liable on his own estate: the entreprise en nom personnel (an activity in own name), the société en nom collectif (SNC), the société en commandite simple (SCS) and the société en commandite par actions (SCA). Beside the limited-liability forms, they sit in our company types service.
The form is the smaller half. A foreign natural person may carry on a commercial, industrial, artisanal or professional activity only with an authorisation given by decision of the Minister of State (Loi n° 1.144, Art. 5 al. 1), which names the activities and the premises.
What is included
We are not the notary or an expert-comptable (Loi n° 1.231 of 12 July 2000), and advice in legal, tax or financial matters is itself an authorised activity (Loi n° 1.144, Art. 8).
Which act each founder needs. Declaration for a Monegasque, authorisation for a foreigner.
The file at the Monaco Business Office. Every document listed below, lodged at the DDE.
The statutes. Public or private deed, two originals registered with the tax department first.
The publicity chain. The Greffe Général extract, the three-month display, the Journal de Monaco insertion.
RCI registration. Form P1 or S1 in French, the deposit-account attestation, beneficial owners, the partners' register.
Identifiers and the social file. The NIS, the déclaration d'existence, CAMTI and CARTI, the employer file.
Premises the authorisation can be granted on. Which formula is open differs by form.
The four forms, partner by partner
Who is a trader, who is liable, who must be authorised, who joins the funds. The lawful way out of personal exposure is a limited-liability form: setting up a one-person company in Monaco. The SCA borrows the SAM's rules and its capital floor: forming a SAM with EUR 150,000 of capital and a ministerial decree.
| Question | Sole trader | SNC | SCS | SCA | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Partners needed | One natural person; no statutes and no publicity formalities | Two or more, natural or legal persons, no maximum, under a raison sociale of partners' names only | At least one commandité and one commanditaire; the general partner may be a legal person | General partners plus limited partners who are shareholders, capital divided into shares | Code de commerce, Arts. 27, 28, 30; Loi n° 1.573, Art. 70 |
| Trader status | The operator is a trader | Every partner is a trader | Commandités yes, commanditaires no | General partners yes, shareholders no | Code de commerce, Arts. 29, 30, 35 |
| Liability | The whole personal estate; under a community regime the trading spouse engages his own and the common property, the other spouse's own property only on involvement or a consent noted in the RCI | Without limit and jointly, even where one partner alone signed under the raison sociale | Commandités without limit; commanditaires only up to their contribution | The same two classes as the SCS | Code de commerce, Arts. 7, 29, 33 |
| Who may manage | The operator | All partners unless the statutes name one or more; management may never go to a third party | The commandité; a commanditaire may perform no act of external management, even under a power of attorney | The manager, under the SAM rules except Arts. 22 to 27 | Code de commerce, Arts. 29, 34; Loi n° 1.573, Art. 71 |
| Which act each partner needs | Declaration for a Monegasque, authorisation for a foreign national | Every partner acts, by nationality | Every partner acts, by nationality, limited partners included | A constitution authorisation whatever the founders' nationality | Loi n° 1.144, Arts. 2, 4 2°, 5, 7 |
| Social fund | CAMTI and CARTI, within one month of the start of activity | The managing partners only | The managing partners only; a legal-person general partner is outside the duty | Art. 2 names the SNC, the SCS and the SARL only | O.S. n° 993, Art. 2 |
| Minimum capital | None | None, no call-up rule; contributions in cash, in kind and in industry | None; a commanditaire's contribution may never be one in industry | EUR 150,000 | Code de commerce, Art. 33; Loi n° 1.573, Arts. 15, 71 |
| RCI duty and entry | EUR 55, and no Journal de Monaco notice | EUR 75; the identity of every partner is entered | EUR 75; the limited partners' names are absent from extracts | EUR 100, within three months of the ministerial decree | RCI pages, updated 20/11/2025 and 21/05/2026 |
| Accounts and auditor | No accounts filed with the RCI, no auditor | Accounts to the partners within six months of the year end, then the balance sheet and a signed attestation to the RCI; auditor above EUR 150,000 of capital or on two of three thresholds | As the SNC | The SAM rules apply so far as compatible | Code de commerce, Arts. 51-6 to 51-9; O.S. n° 993, Art. 3 |
| Seat at a home | The operator's home, with no limit of time, on four conditions | The manager's home, one year renewable once | The home of a general partner who is a natural person, one year renewable once | Art. 8 names the SARL, the SNC and the SCS only | O.S. n° 993, Art. 8; sole-trader page, updated 05/12/2025 |
The four personally liable forms, partner by partner, each cell with its own article or dated page.
- 01
a domiciliation business
- 02
a business-centre formula
- 03
commercial premises. The sole trader's home column carries no clock; the partnership column carries "1 year
- 04
renewable once". Under the domiciliation row
- 05
both official wordings shown with their dates
- 06
The five business-centre formulas are named
No time limit at home in own name; one year renewable once for an SNC or an SCS (O.S. n° 993, Art. 8). The domiciliation wordings disagree, so both are shown
Which act each founder needs: declaration or authorisation
Nationality decides the act, not the form.
- Foreign natural person: authorisation by decision of the Minister of State (Loi n° 1.144, Art. 5).
- Monegasque national: a déclaration d'exercice, receipt in fifteen days, deemed given at the end (Art. 2). That route is reserved to Monegasques.
- SNC and SCS: every partner acts by nationality, "les associés" not being split (Arts. 4 2°, 7).
- A mixed partnership does both at once, one note per associé (SNC procedure page, 30/07/2026).
- Residence is no condition of applying. Company in Monaco: Monaco Residency
- A legal-person partner files the documents listed below; whose name the decision carries is published nowhere.
- A "front" partner is the prête-nom of Art. 15: a fine of EUR 18,000 to 90,000 on both sides (Art. 9 4° on substitution).
How the file runs: two tracks, one clock
Two tracks, one clock. Company in Monaco: Company Registration in Monaco
- 01
filing, 5 working days to admissibility, 45 days to the decision, +45 days or up to 6 months as dotted extensions
- 02
tacit grant at the end of the decision period
- 03
then 1 month to the RCI (3 months for an SCA)
- 04
NIS 5 working days
- 05
declaration of existence 15 days
- 06
CAMTI and CARTI 1 month. The Monegasque declaration's 15-day receipt sits on a separate short lane
The statutory clock, from filing to the funds. No interval is a delivery date. Source: Loi n° 1.144, Arts. 2 and 5
1. Check the form and the activity. Capacité commerciale is required; minors, protected adults, civil servants and avocats are excluded. A civil activity goes on no register.
2. Partnership track: the statutes first. Two originals, registered with the tax department before filing; private deed unless land-registered property is contributed.
3. File at the DDE. In own name, online or on paper, with an immediate acknowledgement. The SNC and SCS pages show none.
4. Admissibility: five working days from filing, by registered letter; an incomplete file is inadmissible (Art. 5 al. 3).
5. Decision: forty-five days from that notice, extendable once by forty-five, suspendable, up to six months where a foreign body is consulted. Silence grants it.
6. Partnership track: publicity. The extract reaches the Greffe Général within the month, is displayed three months and goes into the Journal de Monaco; no publicity, no RCI entry, and six months unregularised voids the deed.
7. RCI: one month from the receipt or the authorisation, not from the start of trading, or the act lapses (Loi n° 721, Art. 2).
8. After registration. The NIS in five working days, the déclaration d'existence in fifteen, the funds within one month, then the employer file.
No official average processing time is published, so none is printed here.
Not sure whether to file in your own name or with partners?
Tell us who is involved and what the activity is, and we will map which act each of you needs.
Documents you will need
Filed in French, and only the French filing is authoritative. The bank attestation is a document, not a promised account.
- The authorisation request or declaration form, n° 355-04-05-26 in own name.
- One note de renseignements individuels (personal information note) per partner.
- Identity: a residence card for residents, an identity card or passport for foreigners.
- An extract of the birth certificate.
- A criminal-record extract less than three months old.
- Diplomas or proof of experience where a law sets conditions.
- Partnerships: two originals of the statutes, already registered.
- A legal-person partner: a resolution, its representative's file, an economic notice, a register extract.
- The premises note and occupancy title sit in the Monegasque list only; the foreigner's, a deed of sale or a location-gérance.
- At the RCI: form P1 or S1 in two copies, and the deposit-account attestation from a Monegasque credit institution (Loi n° 1.492).
What the State charges, and the deadlines that make it lapse
The duties are small; the deadlines are not. What the register shows afterwards is a separate question: searching the RCI in Monaco.
| Item | Amount or period | What it applies to | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| RCI registration duty | EUR 55 | An activity in own name, which carries no Journal de Monaco notice | RCI page for an activity in own name, updated 20/11/2025 |
| RCI registration duty | EUR 75, or EUR 100 | An SNC or an SCS; a company with shares | RCI page for companies, updated 21/05/2026 |
| Time to ask for registration | One month from the receipt or the authorisation, extendable on a justified request | Every form; failing registration the act lapses and the file is closed | Loi n° 721, Art. 2 |
| SCA registration | Within three months of publication of the ministerial decree | The SCA only | Loi n° 1.573, Arts. 70 and 71; RCI page, 21/05/2026 |
| Receipt of a declaration | Fifteen days, and deemed given at the end of the period | Monegasque nationals only | Loi n° 1.144, Art. 2 |
| Admissibility, then decision | Five working days, then forty-five days, extendable by forty-five and up to six months | Every authorisation | Loi n° 1.144, Art. 5 |
| Déclaration d'existence | Fifteen days from the start of operations | Every business created in Monaco | Code des taxes sur le chiffre d'affaires, Art. 66 I 1° |
| NIS, then CAMTI and CARTI | Five working days, then one month from the start of activity | The NIS for every business; the funds for the operator and the managing partners | O.S. n° 993, Art. 2 |
The RCI states the total at registration. No tariff is published for the gazette insertion or the *Greffe* transcription, none for registering the statutes, and no CAMTI or CARTI contribution appears in the texts read. Our fee is on request.
What the market gets wrong about going it alone in Monaco
The fifteen-day declaration is not the foreign founder's route. A Monegasque is deemed authorised after fifteen days (Art. 2); a foreign founder waits five working days plus forty-five (Art. 5).
A limited partner is neither invisible nor exempt. He declares or is authorised like the rest, and the register holds "chaque associé"; only the extracts omit him (SCS page).
The commanditaire's sanction is graded, not flat. He answers for the debts deriving from his acts of management and, "suivant le nombre ou la gravité", possibly for all (Art. 35). Advice and supervision engage him in nothing.
Only the managing partners join CAMTI and CARTI. O.S. n° 993, Art. 2 reads "Seuls les gérants associés". An archived sheet lists more; the ordinance controls, and the funds' practice was not read.
No notary, no chamber of commerce, no business licence. A deed may be private (Art. 46); the Minister of State authorises, the DDE registers.
Buying the business never buys the authorisation. It is "personnelle et incessible" (Art. 5). Buying a fonds de commerce is lawful; the buyer files his own: our existing companies overview.
Ready to start the authorisation file?
Send the activity, the partners and the premises, and we will come back with the file and its order.
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, assembling the premises evidence, registering the statutes before the file is lodged, and filing at the RCI inside the month.
Prepared by Camille Perrin · Reviewed by Julien Rossi · Updated {{BUILD_DATE}}
Start the file
Tell us who the partners are, and we will map the file.
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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