[Closed] Working in Monaco advice

Not lived there, but a fairly frequent visitor.

It's a dump. Sorry, but it is. Some lovely boats to look at, yes, but unless you're rich enough to be on one of them, it's a dump.

Some lovely countryside not far outside, mind you. Assuming you could commute in.

Living costs are very high. Most people commute from Nice.

A prison for rich people

Sad sad place

EDIT: just seen similar posts re Nice from others

Can’t help with the specific question as I am not a contractor. You might want to explore living in France. Many who work in Monaco in normally paid jobs (ie not mega bucks) live in Nice which is about a 40 min drive. I think there are some tax breaks for doing so. I could ask for you if you wish as I know people that do this. I suspect Nice is much more livable than Monaco.

Obviously Monaco or even Nice are very different than is Plymouth. Not sure how kids / schooling would work for you in Monaco and I understand apartment rentals are priced for the mega rich (Froome lives there I believe) and are there any international schools and at what cost ? Is there much of a state school sector in Monaco ?

Just for added relevant info - I will either live in Nice with my family or just go there solo each week (from Aberdeen). It depends if Nice is nice enough and my salary can afford private school fees.

So much to work out!

I have looked at international school in Nice and it is about £15000 per year per child
.

Nice is great to live. You can go to Monaco by train.

@fanatic, my littlest sis works in Monaco, as does her husband (who, by virtue of his profession, CFh has probably met). They live just outside the principality, in La Turbie. He commutes in daily by Vespa.

Mail me if you'd like to chat to them.

I've only been once for work. It is a very odd place indeed; I called it a bubble that simply does not exist in the normal world. It is as others have said a deeply depressing and ugly place.

One of the oddest experiences I had was when on the last day I had to myself I took myself off with my camera. I walked around with my camera in my hand, ready to shoot something or anything that looked remotely interesting. I'd walked for about 30 minutes and not taken a single image. And then suddenly I came across this really interesting food market and noticed how the landscape had suddenly changed and become much more interesting.

I confess, I genuinely thought, 'ah this must be where the ordinary people in Monaco live'. But no, instead I wasn't even in Monaco I'd crossed over into France.

How old are the kids? Live in a "carte scolaire" with a good school and there's no need to go private. Catholic schools have fees dependant on income and sometimes have sections for English speakers with extra classes to help them integrate.

I have no experience contracting in Monaco but have a lot of experience working there (and in France). The place is terrible, as others have suggested. If you live in France (so as a French taxpayer) you will loose one of the single biggest reasons to go there - low taxes. A French national does not get the same deal, but any Monaco resident who isn't a French national get some significant tax breaks - so factor that in.

The train to Nice is good when it runs, but suffers from some of the worst strikes in the whole of France.

I suspect the contract you describe is either a French "SSII" or a Monaco "SSII" and you'll be employed by them so basically a salaried worker in a service company working for one of their clients. Which company is it, out of interest? There are some OK ones and some of the others...

I’m still trying to get my head round the terminology in the offer. The pay is either REALLY rubbish or AMAZING depending on how I interpret the wording.

My kids are 6, 9 and 11. The 11 year old won’t adapt to well to a foreign country so learning a new language at school is not ideal. Plus the job duration is around 2 years. I’d have to pay for private English school else it’ll be 6-9 months of tears.

The intermediary company is called Titane . Only had one phone call and one badly worded email so far (the ‘offer’). Not getting the vibe that this will be a smooth process.

Pay. Ask for a worked example, ie what you will take home. Tell them you expect to live in France. You might want to be a bit careful as French do take a very dim view of tax avoidance and they are much more agressive in auditing you via a “control fiscal” (rightly so, we in the UK could earn a thing or two). If “Titane” get vague about French taxes my advice would be to run a mile.

Best of luck

but suffers from some of the worst strikes in the whole of France.

I shudder to think how bad that must be”

The pay is either REALLY rubbish or AMAZING depending on how I interpret the wording.

I worked a couple of seasons in France BITD, one of my colleagues told me about doing a run from Avignon into Italy, he decided to have lunch in Moncao, as you do. He had a potter round and when he got back to the van, there was a gendarme waiting to move him on because the van was dirty.

Not sure if that's much help, but it's not a story I often get a chance to tell. 😀

Watch the traffic. Some people treat that bit down like the docks and the casino like a race circuit.

It's a soulless dump.

FIFY

Don't visit the casino....

I'd guess that it's rubbish then. As Jambalaya says, but be careful that they may still tell you what you will take home "Net" per month but you'll owe income tax on top of that (depending on where you choose to live).

This is the crux of my confusion. They are quoting a day rate and a ‘net’ salary, and then mention taxes at the end. If they pay me a day rate AND the net salary then it’s amazing. If I just get the net salary and then have to pay French taxes then the offer is offensively low.

Obvs. will have to get this clarified.

Thanks all for the advice. Getting the distinct impression Monaco isn’t the place I imagined it was. Plymouth is sounding a better bet

Got a friend lives in la turbie just above monaco and works as a teacher at international school of monaco...
Moved from nice to la turbie to live in the hills and have village life and loves it....

Took her a while to adjust to france and its funny ways but in the whole its miles better than uk...and im sure the uk to a french person would seem weird to

Agree about monaco tho very odd place....bar the tax breaks for the rich it offers little...

Nice is a brilliant place

Great access to alps from her door for riding....has great cycling culture with cafe du cyclist in nice....2 hrs from ski resorts has great weather ...

I visited her in june and its just great....la turbie is a great little town

Got a friend lives in la turbie just above monaco and works as a teacher at international school of monaco...
Moved from nice to la turbie to live in the hills and have village life and loves it....

Assuming that you're happy with what you will take home in salary, there is something to consider here. The area above Monaco is lovely and don't forget that the infamous Cap D'Ai is just up the road!

Whatever Monaco may or may not be, it is properly small; you can quite literally walk across it in about 40 minutes and you'll likely not even notice when you've crossed from Monaco to France.

So perhaps the question you should also be asking is, what's it like to live in the south of France and work in Monaco. That might get you a very different answer.

Being a cynic I would imagine “net” probably means net of their agency fee.

You could ask them for a worked example of what you would “take home” after tax. I would also be tempted to send them what you would expect to be earning now net of tax (maybe add a healthy cushion, say 20%)

My wife is interested in us moving to Nice when I’m semi-retired / not working - as I am in asset management there could be things to do in Monaco but I am not interested in paying French taxes. She wants the warm weather and for me there is rugby downthe road in Toulon, mountains near the city and decent enough sailing (inc at Monaco). Skiing at Isola 2000 is good enough and 2 hrs away. Airport is pretty decent and access to tgv trains.

Having just got clarification from the intermediary company, it is now clear the offer is offesively low. The headline day rate was great, but once everyone has taken their cut it leaves me with a pittance. Broken down as follows:

I have a good news, i can do best for you

So :
XXXX€ salary « brut » in monaco so XXXX€ net per month
XXX€ lunch per month
XX€ transport per month
Mutuelle, insurance, pension…
5 weeks holidays per year (you are paid during the holidays)
10 public holidays in MONACO per year (you are paid during your holidays)

XXXX€ net per month + other advantages

How do we do the simulation :
So we do our invoice to XXX directly (XXX€ per day) (18days per month so XXXXX€ per month) and we have to deduct salary, charges, taxes in Monaco, holidays, mutuelle, social charges 14% + employer charges 33%....and the rest is our margin XXXX€ per month to pay our office in monaco (2500€ per month for 12m²….), our charges, our taxes, salary, etc…

This is a very good offer and with this, you live very well in NICE

As far as I understand it, even after all these deductions I will still be liable to pay French income tax, so it is not really net.

Just got a request for my CV for a job in Singapore today! Can you believe it - 6 months unemployed and then 3 potential jobs within a week. And got an interview next week for a job in Aberdeen. Something will work out in the end - fingers crossed.

I visited a friend who was working in Monaco at the UN and most of the staff there commuted from the French side - the train service is cheap and very easy to use once you know how. Anywhere around Monaco is generally a nicer place to be anyway, perhaps excluding Ventimiglia. Great part of the world for riding, food, weather and general variety of landscape and outdoors pursuits.

Contrary to everybody else I like Monaco.

And if I didn't already have a house in France with family, Nice would be too of my list.

Good luck OP. If Singapore progresses I can offer some thoughts, I lived there for 2 years