Setting up in Italy
From working out what shape you actually need to having it running — a company, a team, an office, or none of the above.
For US companies building an Italian presence — with or without premises, with or without people on the ground.
You've decided Italy is happening. Most American companies' next question is how to open an Italian office — and for a good number of them, that's the wrong question.
The expensive mistakes get made in the first month, before anything is built: forming a company you didn't need, or assuming that no office means no Italian exposure. It doesn't — an Italy-resident employee who habitually concludes contracts can create a taxable presence for your US company with no premises at all.
We're a US firm run by a dual US–Italian citizen, native in both languages and both bureaucracies, working alongside an Italian attorney who handles entity formation, employment, and immigration.
What shape do you actually need?
Five real answers, differing enormously in cost, speed, exit, and tax exposure.
An Italian company — SRL or branch. For several hires, local contracting or invoicing, or premises.
An employer of record — no entity; compliant employment through a provider. Often right for one to three people.
Direct foreign-employer registration — employing in Italy without forming anything. Less known than it should be.
Contractors on a partita IVA — genuinely independent, project-scoped work only. The riskiest of the five.
A US-based hire — your first Italian-market hire doesn't have to be in Italy. No employment exposure, no permanent-establishment question.
Everything downstream is built on this answer. The three options below are different ways of reaching it.
1 · Understand it — Setting Up in Italy Bundle
Five 50-minute sessions + a scoping call. Legal structure and formation · your operating footprint, premises or not · people and hiring, including remote employment · financial and operational setup · a day-one to day-90 playbook. Premium adds a session on your specific timing, budget, and structure, plus a 3–5 page applied roadmap.
From $800 · Premium from $1,800
Choose this if you're weighing the options and want to understand what you'd actually be taking on before you commit to any of it.
2 · Plan it — Setting Up in Italy Sprint
Six to seven weeks, built around your business, with an Italian attorney joining for the structure recommendation. You leave with a sequenced playbook you can execute: the entity or employment structure recommended and reasoned, your first hire and what it truly costs loaded, the registrations and banking in the order they have to happen, a realistic timeline and total cost, and a vetted bench of providers — accountant, payroll adviser, and where relevant broker and IT — already warm-introduced.
Entity & Employment path — for a remote or hybrid team, no premises. Deeper on structure, payroll, and the hiring model. Full Footprint path — six sessions, including location strategy, the market, and the 6+6 lease.
From $4,500 (legal involvement included — it's the foundation everything else is built on)
Choose this if the decision is made and you want the whole path mapped before you commit money to any of it.
3 · Do it with me — Setting Up in Italy Engagement
Three to five months, project-managed end to end. You stay in the US; we run point in Italy. Formation coordinated with your attorney and the notaio attended. The bank account started the week the entity exists, because it is always the long pole. The registration chain sequenced and the compliance calendar built and handed over. Your accountant and payroll adviser selected, introduced, and coordinated — contracted by you directly, at cost, with no markup. Your first hire scoped against the right collective agreement, the full loaded cost modelled before the offer, interviews supported bilingually, and onboarding done properly.
Entity & Employment — three milestones: formation · bank and registrations · first hire onboarded. $12,000–15,000
Full Footprint — four milestones, adding premises secured. $16,000–20,000
We open with two weeks on the shape question. If the answer turns out to be that you don't need an entity, we re-scope down and say so — and if it turns out nobody needs to be in Italy at all, we stop and point you somewhere cheaper.
Choose this if you know what you want and have nobody in Italy to build it — and you'd rather not learn the sequence by getting it wrong.
The Legal Layer — the attorney is already inside the sprint and the engagement. As a standalone add-on to the ‘Understand It’ bundle, it's a dedicated session on entity structure and the liability, tax, and permanent-establishment questions your situation raises, with a one-page written summary. From $500
Where this leads — Entering Italy if you're still deciding whether and how · Italian Partnerships if you need a commercial partner rather than an entity · Launching Your Product in Italy if what you actually want is Italian revenue, with or without an Italian company.
What this isn't — we don't file your formation, give legal, tax, or accounting advice, or carry your providers' performance. Formation is executed by a notaio and your attorney; payroll and tax by your accountant and payroll adviser. We choose them, coordinate them, sit in the rooms, and make sure nothing waits on anything it doesn't have to. Government and bank timelines are never ours to promise — what we guarantee is the work that gets you there.
Not sure what shape you need? Book a free 30 minute call. If the answer is that you don't need a company, we'll say so.