How to Start Freelancing in Italy: The 2026 Guide

Freelancing has become an increasingly popular career choice around the world, and Italy is no exception. With its rich cultural heritage, stunning landscapes, and thriving economy, Italy offers a wealth of opportunities for self-employed professionals. However, starting a business in a new country can be daunting, especially if you are not familiar with the legal and tax systems. 

Quick answers

What is a Partita IVA? The tax number that identifies you as a business in Italy. It's what makes you a legally recognised self-employed person and lets you invoice clients. Italians use "opening a Partita IVA" to mean "going freelance".

Do you need one to freelance in Italy? If your work is regular and organised, yes. Genuinely occasional one-off work can use a simple receipt instead. The test is how habitual the work is, not how much you earn.

How do you open one? Choose your tax scheme, register with the tax authority declaring an activity code, then register with the social security institute within 30 days. The registration itself takes about a day.

What will you pay? Under the flat-rate scheme in 2026, a consultant earning €40,000 pays roughly €9,287 — about 23% of revenue. Most of that is social security, not tax.

Which tax scheme? The flat-rate scheme (Forfettario) under €85,000 with few costs. The simplified scheme (Semplificato) above that, or if you have real expenses to deduct.

You're already here. The hard part — the move, the paperwork, the apartment — is behind you.

What's in front of you is a different kind of problem. Italian self-employment has its own vocabulary, its own institutions, and an order you have to follow. Most of what you'll find online is written for Italians who already know what the words mean, translated badly, or quietly out of date.

So this guide starts at the beginning. First we'll explain what you're actually setting up and who you'll be dealing with. Then we'll walk the decisions in the order you'll meet them, with 2026 numbers and a source next to each one.

No prior knowledge needed. Let's start with the thing everything else hangs off.

First, what actually is a Partita IVA?

A Partita IVA is the tax number that identifies you as a business in Italy. Literally "VAT position", it functions as your business identity — the thing that makes you a legally recognised self-employed person, lets you invoice clients, and connects you to the tax and social security systems. Italians use "opening a Partita IVA" to say "going freelance".

If you've read about this in English, you've probably seen Partita IVA translated as "VAT number". That's technically correct and practically misleading.

In most countries, a VAT number is something you get after you're already in business, once you pass a revenue threshold. In Italy it works the other way round. The Partita IVA is what makes you a business. You can't legally invoice a client without one.

Which is why Italians don't say "I went freelance". They say ho aperto la partita IVA — I opened a Partita IVA. The number and the career are the same event. If someone tells you sono in partita IVA, they're telling you they're self-employed.

You'll end up with two numbers, doing two different jobs:

Your Codice Fiscale is yours for life. Your Partita IVA gets opened when you start working for yourself, and closed when you stop. They're both yours, and you'll use both — often on the same form, which is why it helps to know which is which.

And here's the thing that makes Italy different from a lot of places: opening a Partita IVA isn't one registration. It's a small bundle of decisions and registrations that happen together, and some of them are awkward to change afterwards. That's the real reason this guide exists — not because any single step is hard, but because the order and the choices matter.

Who will you be dealing with?

Five names come up constantly. Here's who they are, so they're not a wall of acronyms later.

Two more you'll meet online rather than in person: SPID and CIE, which are digital identities for logging into Italian government services. If you don't have one yet, get one — you'll use it constantly. And your Cassetto Fiscale ("tax drawer") is your personal online file at the Agenzia delle Entrate, where you can look up your own registered details.

The shape of what's ahead

Before the detail, here's the whole process in five stages. Everything in this guide sits under one of them.

1. Decide what kind of freelancer you are. Italy has two categories, and they use different social security schemes. This determines several things downstream.

2. Choose your tax scheme (regime). Two realistic options. This is the decision most worth slowing down for, because it's the hardest to reverse.

3. Pick your activity code (ATECO). It looks administrative. It quietly sets your tax rate.

4. Register. Partita IVA with the tax authority, then INPS within 30 days. This part is fast — about a day — once the three decisions above are made.

5. Start invoicing. Italian invoices are electronic and have mandatory elements. Worth understanding once, then automating.

Stages 1 to 3 are decisions. Stages 4 and 5 are mechanics. Most people rush the decisions and then struggle with the mechanics, which is precisely backwards — the mechanics can be handled for you, and the decisions can't be undone.

👉 If you'd rather not make stages 1 to 3 alone, that's the conversation Xolo's onboarding is built around. Nothing gets filed until the decisions are right.

But first, a question that comes before all five.

Do you actually need a Partita IVA?

Not necessarily. A Partita IVA is required when your self-employed work is habitual and organised. Genuinely occasional one-off work can be invoiced with a simple receipt (ricevuta per prestazione occasionale) instead. The €5,000 figure you'll see everywhere is a social security threshold, not the point where a Partita IVA becomes compulsory.

This is where the most persistent myth in Italian freelancing lives.

The myth: you can earn €5,000 a year without a Partita IVA, and above that you must open one.

What's actually true: €5,000 is a contribution threshold. Below it, occasional self-employed income carries no social security contribution. Above it, contributions to INPS kick in on the excess — typically two thirds paid by your client and one third by you. Crossing €5,000 does not by itself require a Partita IVA.

What decides the question is whether the activity is habitual — regular, continuous, organised. That's the legal test, and it cuts both ways:

• Occasional work can stay occasional even above €5,000
• Regular, ongoing work needs a Partita IVA even if it only earned you €3,000

A related myth worth killing: the "30 days per client" limit belongs to PrestO and the Libretto Famiglia, which are separate schemes for casual labour. It has nothing to do with occasional professional work.

In practice, if you're building a freelance career — repeat clients, ongoing projects, a website, a rate card — you're habitual, and a Partita IVA is the right answer regardless of your first-year revenue. Occasional status is for genuinely sporadic work: one conference talk, one translation, one piece of consulting that won't repeat.

One more signal: renewing the same "occasional" arrangement with the same client year after year is generally taken as evidence the work is no longer occasional.

👉 If you're unsure which side of the line you're on, that's a five-minute conversation rather than a research project — and it's the first thing a Xolo accountant settles for you, before anything gets filed.

Stage 1: Are there different types of freelancer in Italy?

Yes. Italian law recognises two: libero professionista, who sells skills and knowledge, and ditta individuale, who sells goods or a trade. They differ on Chamber of Commerce registration, which social security scheme you join, and whether contributions are a percentage of earnings or a fixed quarterly amount.

In English we say "freelancer" and mean one thing. Italy sees two, and the difference isn't cosmetic.

Libero professionista — literally "free professional". You sell your brain: consulting, design, development, translation, copywriting, coaching, marketing. No Chamber of Commerce registration. Your social security goes to a scheme called Gestione Separata ("separate management"), which is the INPS scheme for self-employed professionals who don't have a dedicated professional fund. You pay a percentage of what you earn.

Ditta individuale — literally "individual firm". You sell products or a trade: online shops, artisans, retailers, electricians, hairdressers. You register with the Camera di Commercio and pay a small annual fee. Your social security goes to the INPS Artisans or Traders scheme, and here's the part that surprises people: you pay a fixed amount every quarter whether you invoiced anything or not.

Most expats reading this are the first kind. But it's worth being sure, because the fixed-contribution difference genuinely changes how you budget in a slow quarter.

If you're somewhere in between — consulting and selling a digital product — that's a real classification question rather than a technicality, and it's the first thing a Xolo accountant works through with you.

Stage 2: Choosing your tax scheme

A regime is simply your tax scheme — the set of rules deciding how your income is taxed and what paperwork you owe. You pick one when you register. There are two realistic options, and one thing to check first.

If you moved to Italy recently, read this before you choose

If you became an Italian tax resident recently, you may qualify for the Impatriati scheme as well as the flat-rate scheme — but you can only use one. The flat-rate scheme replaces normal income tax, so your income sits outside the total that Impatriati reduces. You choose at registration, and switching afterwards is not routine.

Two separate tax breaks might be available to you:

• Regime Forfettario, the flat-rate scheme — a flat tax on a fixed percentage of your revenue
• Regime Impatriati, the "repatriates" scheme — a partial exemption for people who recently moved their tax residence to Italy

They're alternatives, not a combination. The reason is structural: Forfettario replaces normal income tax with a single substitute tax, so your freelance income sits outside your reddito complessivo — your total taxable income. Impatriati works by exempting part of that total. If your income isn't in the total, there's nothing to exempt.

You'll see this reflected in Xolo's own plans: the Semplificato plan is described as compatible with Impatriati relief, and the Forfettario one isn't. That's deliberate. 

💡 For a full break down on differences between the two tax schemes read our blog Which Tax Regime in Italy? Forfettario vs Semplificato.

Why this catches people. Forfettario is cheaper, simpler and by far the most talked-about option, so it's an easy default. If you're eligible for Impatriati and you default into Forfettario, you may be leaving significant money behind — and you'll typically find out about it a year later.

Worth comparing properly if you:

• Became Italian tax resident in the last couple of years, or moved back after time abroad
• Were registered with AIRE (the register of Italians living abroad) before returning
• Expect to pass €85,000 within a few years
• Hold a job in Italy as well as freelancing, where Impatriati may cover the employment side

👉 This is the clearest case in the whole process for having someone run your real numbers before you file. Modelling both is one of the first things we do when you open a Xolo account — and it only helps if it happens before registration.

Regime Forfettario, the flat-rate scheme

Choose the flat-rate scheme if your revenue is under €85,000 and you have few deductible costs. It means a 15% flat tax — or 5% for your first five years — charged on a fixed percentage of revenue rather than your actual profit, with no VAT to charge or file.

The usual starting point, and the reason most freelancers in Italy find the system manageable.

To qualify in 2026, confirmed by this year's budget law (Legge di Bilancio 2026):

How the tax works. You don't deduct real costs. Instead, your revenue is multiplied by a fixed percentage set by your activity code (more on that in Stage 3) to give a taxable base. Your social security contributions then come off that base. The tax applies to what's left.

• 15% normally
• 5% for your first five years, if you meet the new-business conditions

About that 5%. It's real, but it isn't automatic. You can't be continuing work you were already doing in much the same form, you can't have run a business or professional activity in the previous three years, and if you're taking over someone's existing activity it must have been under €85,000. Expats sometimes trip on the first two because of work they did abroad before moving. The difference between 5% and 15% is worth having checked properly.

Growing out of the scheme. Two thresholds, and the gap between them matters:

• Over €85,000 — you leave from next year. Orderly.
• Over €100,000 — you leave immediately, and must start charging VAT from the invoice that crosses the line.

👉 Your Xolo dashboard tracks revenue against both, so the second one doesn't arrive as a surprise in October.

Regime Semplificato, the simplified scheme

Choose the simplified scheme if you're above €85,000, have significant real expenses to deduct, need to charge VAT for your clients' benefit, or want to use Impatriati relief. You're taxed on actual profit at normal income tax rates, and you take on VAT filing.

If you've read conflicting things about this one, you're not imagining it.

If you're a libero professionista, simplified accounting is your natural scheme regardless of revenue. There's no ceiling pushing you into full ordinary bookkeeping. Professionals are taxed on a cash basis by default and can stay in simplified accounting indefinitely.

The revenue limits you'll see quoted — €500,000 for services, €800,000 for other activities — apply to imprese: sole traders in business activity, partnerships, non-commercial entities. Not to professionals. If a source shows €400,000 and €700,000, it's quoting figures replaced back in 2023.

Under Semplificato:

• Normal income tax on actual profit, after real deductible costs
• VAT at 22% (lower for some activities), and you take on VAT filing
• Regional and municipal surcharges on top
• 20% withholding tax when your client is an Italian business — see Stage 5
• More bookkeeping, which is what you'd have an accountant for

Italian income tax rates for 2026. Note the middle band changed this January, from 35% down to 33%, under Legge di Bilancio 2026 (L. 199/2025):

The 33% applies to incomes up to €200,000. A source still showing 35%, or four bands instead of three, hasn't been updated this year.

Semplificato is worth a serious look if:

• Your real deductible costs exceed what the flat-rate percentage assumes
• You're above €85,000, or will be soon
• Your clients need proper VAT invoices for their own accounting
• You're not eligible for Forfettario
• Impatriati is on the table

Xolo supports both — Forfettario at €36/month plus VAT, Semplificato at €79/month plus VAT. The reason we ask about your revenue, costs and residency history at signup is so we can tell you which fits, rather than defaulting you into the cheaper plan.

Stage 3: What is an ATECO code and how does it affect your tax?

An ATECO code is the official classification of your economic activity, chosen when you register. Under the flat-rate scheme it sets your coefficiente di redditività — the percentage of revenue treated as taxable income. Professional services are typically 78%; some trades are as low as 40%. Your real costs are ignored entirely.

It looks like paperwork. It's actually one of the two numbers that decide your tax bill.

Think of it as Italy's answer to "what's your line of business?" — except the answer carries a price tag. That percentage, the coefficiente di redditività or "profitability coefficient", is the government's assumption about how much of your revenue is profit. If your code says 78%, then €40,000 of invoices becomes €31,200 of taxable income, no matter what you actually spent.

On identical revenue, a 78% coefficient versus a 40% one is tens of thousands of euros of difference. Same work, same money in, very different outcome.

Two things make this current rather than academic:

The whole classification was replaced. ATECO 2025 came into force on 1 January 2025 and became operative on 1 April 2025, aligning Italy with the European NACE Rev. 2.1 standard. Codes, titles and structures all changed.

Some activities moved between groups, which can change which coefficient applies. If you opened a Partita IVA before April 2025, your coefficient deserves a second look.

You can check your own codes: log into your Cassetto Fiscale in the Agenzia delle Entrate reserved area with SPID, CIE or CNS credentials, and look under Anagrafica (your registered details).

👉 Matching your work to the right code — one that's both accurate and the best legitimate fit — is part of what Xolo does at registration. It's why we ask what you actually do rather than just your job title. And if you already have a Partita IVA under a code that doesn't fit, that's fixable.

Stage 4: What are the steps to open a Partita IVA in Italy?

Choose your freelancer type and tax scheme, pick an ATECO code, register your Partita IVA with the Agenzia delle Entrate, register with INPS within 30 days of starting work, register with the Camera di Commercio only if you're a ditta individuale, and set up SDI-connected electronic invoicing.

Since you're already resident in Italy, this is shorter than most guides make it look.

Two things you almost certainly already have — worth confirming rather than assuming:

• Codice Fiscale. You needed it to rent, open a bank account or get a permit, so you'll have one. Have the number to hand.
• Residency registration at your Comune (iscrizione anagrafica). This is what makes you Italian tax resident, and everything below assumes it. If you're living here but never registered, sort that first — it affects where your worldwide income is taxable.

Then, in order:

1. Decide libero professionista or ditta individuale (Stage 1)
2. Choose your regime — Forfettario or Semplificato (Stage 2)
3. Pick your ATECO code (Stage 3)
4. Register your Partita IVA with the Agenzia delle Entrate
5. Register with INPS within 30 days of starting work or receiving your first payment
6. Camera di Commercio, only if you're a ditta individuale
7. Set up SDI-connected invoicing — mandatory, see Stage 5
8. Apply for the 35% contribution discount, if you're a ditta individuale

👉 Steps 1 to 8 are, more or less, what Xolo's setup is. Registration is free with a subscription and usually completes in about a day — mostly a matter of the forms being right first time. You bring your Codice Fiscale and a description of your work; we handle the rest.

One timing decision worth thinking about. The €85,000 threshold is pro-rated by the days you were actually in business. Open on 1 December and the limit for staying in the scheme next year is around €7,219, not €85,000. If you're near year-end and expect a strong first full year, it's worth discussing whether to register now or in January.

Stage 5: What goes on an Italian freelance invoice?

Italian invoices must be issued electronically as an XML file through the SDI system — mandatory for all flat-rate freelancers since 1 January 2024. Flat-rate invoices use scheme code RF19, charge no VAT, are exempt from 20% withholding tax, and need €2 stamp duty above €77.47. Gestione Separata professionals may add an optional 4% surcharge.

This is the part nobody explains, and you'll hit it in your first week.

Electronic invoicing

Remember SDI from the cast list — the government's invoicing hub. Since 1 January 2024, every flat-rate freelancer must invoice through it, under DL 36/2022. The old exemption for revenue under €25,000 is gone.

What that means day to day:

• Your invoice is an XML file sent through SDI, not a document you email. The PDF your client sees is a courtesy copy.
• Immediate invoices: within 12 days. Deferred: by the 15th of the following month.
• Your scheme code is RF19 — this tells the system you're on the flat-rate scheme. Set it once in your invoicing tool.
• Penalties for improper issuance run from 5% to 10% of the undocumented amount.

The wording flat-rate freelancers need

A Forfettario invoice carries no VAT and is not subject to withholding tax. Both facts need stating on the invoice, with the legal reference:

Operazione in franchigia IVA e non soggetta a ritenuta d'acconto ai sensi dell'art. 1, commi da 54 a 89, della Legge 190/2014 – Regime forfettario

You also need the right VAT natura code in the XML — a short code explaining why no VAT is charged. It changes by client:

Withholding tax (ritenuta d'acconto)

Withholding tax is where your client deducts a slice of your invoice and pays it to the tax authority on your behalf. It's normal for professionals in Italy — but not for you if you're on the flat-rate scheme.

Under Forfettario, you're exempt. Clients should not withhold anything.

It happens anyway, usually because a client's bookkeeper defaults to it. If a client withholds 20% from a Forfettario invoice, the fix is a credit note and a corrected invoice — which is exactly why the wording above matters. It exists to prevent the problem.

Under Semplificato, 20% withholding does apply when your client is an Italian business. You get it back as a credit against your annual tax, but plan your cashflow around receiving 80% up front.

The optional 4% surcharge (rivalsa INPS)

If you're a libero professionista in Gestione Separata, you may add up to 4% to your invoices, under art. 1 c. 212 of L. 662/1996. It's a way of passing part of your social security cost to the client.

Three things to know:

• It's optional and negotiable. Agree it in your quote, or you'll be arguing about it at payment time.
• It counts as your income. It adds to your taxable base and to your €85,000 revenue total. If you're near the threshold, that matters.
• It only partly covers the cost. You charge 4%; you owe 26.07%.

Not available to ditte individuali or to members of a private professional fund, who have their own mechanism.

Stamp duty (imposta di bollo)

Because you don't charge VAT, €2 stamp duty applies to any invoice above €77.47. Settled quarterly, and declared inside the XML rather than physically stuck on anything. Note the 4% surcharge counts toward that €77.47 threshold.

You can pass the €2 to your client as a separate line — but then it counts as your revenue and gets declared.

👉 Honestly, this is the section you should never have to think about again. SDI connection, RF19, natura codes, the exemption wording, stamp duty flags and quarterly settlement are all handled inside Xolo's invoicing tool — so issuing a compliant Italian e-invoice takes about as long as writing an email.

How much tax do freelancers pay in Italy?

A professional-services freelancer on the flat-rate scheme earning €40,000 in 2026 pays around €9,287 in year one — about 23% of revenue. Of that, €8,134 is INPS social security at 26.07% and only €1,153 is tax at the 5% startup rate. At the standard 15% rate the total is around €11,594, or 29%.

Social security: the number most sources get wrong

If you're a libero professionista, you're almost certainly in INPS Gestione Separata. The 2026 rates come from INPS circular no. 8 of 3 February 2026:

The 26.07% breaks down as 25% pension, plus 0.72% for maternity and sickness, plus 0.35% funding ISCRO, an income-continuity benefit for the self-employed.

• Earn at least €18,808 for a full year of pension credit
• Contributions stop at €122,295

Now an important correction. You may have read that the flat-rate scheme comes with cheaper social security. In Gestione Separata, it doesn't. The well-known 35% discount applies only to the Artisans and Traders schemes. Professionals in Gestione Separata are specifically excluded, as are members of private professional funds. We'd rather you hear it here than discover it in June.

If you're a ditta individuale, it cuts both ways. Fixed quarterly contributions are harder in a slow quarter, but real discounts exist:

• 35% off for flat-rate freelancers in the Artisans or Traders schemes. Not automatic — you apply through your INPS Cassetto Previdenziale (your online social security file), normally by 28 February.
• 50% off for your first 36 months if you're a first-time registrant, introduced in 2025.
• You can't have both.

👉 That 35% application is one of the most commonly missed items in Italian freelancing, purely because nothing prompts you. It's on the deadline list your Xolo accountant tracks.

If you're in a regulated profession with its own fund — lawyer, architect, engineer, doctor, accountant — your contributions, minimums and deadlines come from that fund and won't match anything above.

A worked example

Freelance consultant, professional-services ATECO code at 78%, INPS Gestione Separata, €40,000 revenue.

Year one at 5%: about €9,287, around 23% of revenue. At 15%: about €11,594, around 29% of revenue.

Look at which number does the work. The famous 5% tax is €1,153. Social security is €8,134 — seven times larger, and it doesn't shrink when the tax rate does.

The single most useful thing on this page: budget from the combined figure, not the headline tax rate.

Excludes accountant fees, stamp duty and other income. Your coefficient may differ. Model your own numbers with our flat-rate tax calculator.

Why year two surprises people

It isn't the rate. It's the timing.

Italy asks you to pay tax and contributions for the current year in advance, on top of settling the previous year. These advance payments are called acconti. In your second year, last year's balance and this year's advances can land in the same month.

So from your first invoice, put money aside. For a professional-services flat-rate freelancer at 5%, roughly a third of everything you invoice is a sensible reserve — more at 15%.

👉 Xolo shows your estimated liability as it builds through the year, which is the entire point of tax visibility: the bill shouldn't be news.

Can you freelance while employed in Italy?

Yes. You can hold a job and a Partita IVA at the same time. To stay on the flat-rate scheme your employment or pension income must not have exceeded €35,000 last year. Because your job already provides mandatory pension cover, your INPS Gestione Separata rate drops from 26.07% to 24%.

A common and entirely legitimate setup, and two details make it better than people expect.

The €35,000 ceiling rose from €30,000 and is confirmed for 2026. It's measured on last year's employment or pension income, as shown on your Certificazione Unica (the annual income statement your employer gives you). If your employment ended last year and you haven't started a new job or drawn a pension, the limit doesn't apply to you at all.

The lower contribution rate. Because your employer already pays into a mandatory pension scheme for you, your freelance income attracts Gestione Separata at 24% instead of 26.07%.

Two things to check before you start:

• Your employment contract. Some contain exclusivity or non-compete terms. Public-sector employment has separate rules on outside work.
• Who your clients are. Invoicing more than half your revenue to a current or recent employer can disqualify you from the flat-rate scheme. Flag it early if you're planning to freelance for the company you work for.

How should you set your rates as a freelancer in Italy?

Work backwards from your target take-home. A professional-services flat-rate freelancer keeps roughly 77% of revenue at the 5% rate, or about 71% at 15%, before business costs. To net €30,000 at the 5% rate you need to invoice around €39,000, plus whatever your real expenses are.

Most people set a rate and then discover what's left. It's worth doing it the other way round.

1. Decide your target annual take-home.
2. Divide by 0.77 (or 0.71 after year five) to get the revenue you need.
3. Add your real costs — software, equipment, coworking, accountant, your own pension savings. The flat-rate scheme gives you no deduction for these, so they come out of your net.
4. Divide by your realistic billable days. Not 220. Freelancing includes selling, admin, sick days and gaps between projects. Most freelancers land between 140 and 180.

A worked version. Target take-home €30,000 at the 5% rate: €30,000 ÷ 0.77 ≈ €39,000 to invoice. Add €4,000 of real costs and you need €43,000. Over 160 billable days, that's about €270 a day.

Two things people underestimate:

• Nobody pays you when you're not working. No paid holiday, no sick pay, no thirteenth month. Build it into the rate rather than hoping for a good year.
• Your pension is what you make it. Gestione Separata gives you a state pension, but it's contribution-based. If you want more, that's a cost your rate has to carry.

Can you invoice foreign clients from Italy?

Yes. Italian freelancers can invoice clients anywhere. EU business clients generally require VIES registration and reverse charge; non-EU clients follow different place-of-supply rules. Your own tax residence, not your client's location, determines where your worldwide income is taxable.

For a lot of expat freelancers this is the whole business model, and it's where generic advice is most likely to cost you money.

Worth raising before your first foreign invoice:

• Where you're tax resident. This decides where your worldwide income is taxable. Time in country, registered residence and centre of vital interests all feed in. Being Italian tax resident doesn't stop another country making its own claim on you.
• Double taxation treaties. Italy has a wide network. Which one applies, and how, depends on both countries.
• VIES registration and reverse charge for EU business clients. VIES is the EU's VAT information exchange register; being on it lets you invoice EU businesses without VAT, with the client accounting for it at their end.
• Non-EU clients follow different place-of-supply rules, and the correct natura code changes accordingly.
• The 4% surcharge can be charged to foreign clients too, if they agree.

👉 Xolo's accountants work with freelancers whose clients are elsewhere every day, and INTRASTAT declarations (the EU cross-border reporting forms) are included in both plans. But we'll be straight with you: we advise on your Italian obligations. We can't advise on another country's tax system. For that you need someone qualified where you are.

What do new freelancers in Italy most often get wrong?

The most common problems are electing the flat-rate scheme without comparing Impatriati, registering under a suboptimal ATECO code, assuming the 5% startup rate applies, budgeting from the tax rate instead of tax plus social security, and not planning for advance payments in year two.

None of these are your fault. They're badly signposted.

1. Electing Forfettario without comparing Impatriati. Hardest to undo, potentially most expensive.
2. A slightly-wrong ATECO code. Sets your coefficient, and your tax, for as long as you keep it.
3. Assuming the 5% rate applies. Conditions are stricter than they look; work done abroad can count against you.
4. Budgeting from the tax rate. Social security is the bigger number.
5. Not knowing about acconti. The year-two payment stack surprises nearly everyone.
6. Passing €100,000 unnoticed. Very different outcome from crossing €85,000.
7. Expecting the flat-rate scheme to mean no compliance. E-invoicing and stamp duty still apply.
8. Letting a client withhold 20% from a Forfettario invoice. Preventable with the right wording.
9. Missing the 28 February contribution discount deadline, if you're a ditta individuale.
10. Treating regular work as "occasional" because it's under €5,000. The test is habituality, not amount.

Every one of these is a known, dated, checkable item. That's the real argument for having an accountant rather than a spreadsheet — not that the rules are impossible, but that nothing in the Italian system prompts you before a deadline passes.

Glossary: Italian freelance terms in plain English

You don't have to work this out alone

Here's the honest summary of everything above: none of it is impossible, and all of it is knowable. But there's a lot of it, it's mostly in Italian, it changes every January, and nothing in the Italian system taps you on the shoulder before a deadline passes.

That's the actual problem Xolo Italia exists to solve. Not that Italian bureaucracy is unbeatable — it's that beating it is a poor use of your time when you could be doing the work you're good at.

What that looks like in practice. We open your Partita IVA, usually within a day and free with a subscription, under the scheme that genuinely fits your situation rather than the cheapest plan, matched to the right ATECO code. You get a dedicated accountant who speaks English, replies within 24 hours, and understands both Italian tax law and what it's like to invoice three countries in a month. Your invoicing is connected to SDI and compliant by default — RF19, natura codes, exemption wording and stamp duty all handled. Expenses tracked by dragging them into the platform. Every deadline monitored and flagged before it matters. Your annual return prepared and filed. And a real person to ask when something changes.

We're accredited by the Agenzia delle Entrate, we work with the Camera di Commercio on sole proprietorship registrations, and more than 150,000 freelancers have used Xolo. Our Italian accounting partners have over ten years of experience with freelancers specifically, which is a different thing from general accountancy.

You already made the harder decision — to live here, and to work for yourself. The paperwork shouldn't be the thing that makes you regret either one.

Not ready to register yet? Get the free Freelancing in Italy Starter Kit — a printable workbook to get set up and started as a freelancer in Italy. 

Frequently asked questions

What is a Partita IVA? The tax number that identifies you as a business in Italy. It's what makes you a legally recognised self-employed person and lets you invoice clients. It's separate from your Codice Fiscale, which identifies you as an individual.

What's the difference between a Codice Fiscale and a Partita IVA? Your Codice Fiscale identifies you as a person and is yours for life. Your Partita IVA identifies you as a business, and is opened when you start working for yourself and closed when you stop. You'll have both.

Do I need a Partita IVA to freelance in Italy? If your activity is habitual and organised, yes. Genuinely occasional one-off work can use a ricevuta per prestazione occasionale instead. The €5,000 figure is a social security threshold, not the point where a Partita IVA becomes compulsory.

How much can I earn without a Partita IVA in Italy? There's no fixed ceiling. Below €5,000 of occasional self-employed income no INPS contribution is due; above it, contributions apply on the excess. But the Partita IVA obligation depends on whether the work is habitual, not on the amount.

How long does it take to open a Partita IVA? The registration itself is quick — Xolo completes it in about a day. What takes longer is deciding the scheme and ATECO code, which is worth getting right rather than fast.

 How much tax do freelancers pay in Italy? Under the flat-rate scheme in 2026, a professional-services freelancer earning €40,000 pays around €9,287 in the first five years, about 23% of revenue. Around 88% of that is social security rather than tax.

 Is Regime Forfettario compatible with Impatriati tax relief? No. They're alternatives. Forfettario replaces normal income tax, so your income sits outside the total that Impatriati reduces. Compare them before you register.

What happens if I exceed €85,000? You leave the flat-rate scheme from the following year. Above €100,000 you leave immediately and must apply VAT from the invoice that crosses the threshold.

Can I have a job and a Partita IVA at the same time in Italy? Yes. To stay on the flat-rate scheme your employment income must not have exceeded €35,000 last year. Your INPS rate also drops to 24%, since your job already provides pension cover. Check your contract for exclusivity clauses.

Do freelancers on Regime Forfettario have to issue electronic invoices? Yes. Electronic invoicing through SDI has been mandatory for all flat-rate freelancers since 1 January 2024. The previous exemption for revenue under €25,000 no longer exists.

Is a Forfettario freelancer subject to ritenuta d'acconto? No. Flat-rate freelancers are exempt from the 20% withholding tax. State it on your invoice with the reference to L. 190/2014. If a client withholds anyway, it's corrected with a credit note and a new invoice. 

What is rivalsa INPS 4%? An optional surcharge of up to 4% that professionals in INPS Gestione Separata can add to invoices to pass on part of their social security cost. It's negotiable, it counts as your income, and it adds to your €85,000 revenue total.

What is a coefficiente di redditività? The percentage of your revenue treated as taxable income under the flat-rate scheme, set by your ATECO code. Professional services are typically 78%. Real costs aren't deductible, so the coefficient stands in for them.

Do I need to speak Italian to freelance in Italy? Not to run your business with Xolo — your accountant works in English and the platform is in English. You'll meet Italian on official forms, and some will make life easier, but it isn't required.

Can I use Xolo if I already have a Partita IVA? Yes. You can move your existing accounting to Xolo without closing and reopening anything.

 Can I invoice clients outside Italy? Yes. EU business clients generally involve VIES registration and reverse charge; non-EU clients follow different rules and a different natura code. Your own tax residence determines where your worldwide income is taxable.

How much does Xolo cost in Italy? Regime Forfettario is €36/month plus VAT and Regime Semplificato is €79/month plus VAT. Both include Partita IVA registration, a dedicated English-speaking accountant, unlimited invoicing and your annual tax return. See the pricing page. 

Am I still an expat if I've lived in Italy for years? Call yourself whatever you like. If you're navigating Italian bureaucracy in your second language, this guide is for you.