Articles
Practical notes on registered offices, company registration and credit in Italy, written for founders and companies coming in from abroad. A new article every Friday.
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Branch, subsidiary or representative office: which one needs an Italian address
A foreign company entering Italy has three common routes. They differ in liability, in tax exposure and in what they require by way of an address. Subsidiary A new Italian company — usually an SRL — owned by the foreign…
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Does a virtual office address affect your Italian VAT registration?
A question that comes up in almost every first conversation with a foreign founder, usually phrased as a worry: will the tax office reject a domiciled address? The short answer A domiciled registered office is a normal, recognised arrangement in…
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What actually arrives at your Italian registered office
Founders abroad often picture their Italian registered office as receiving nothing but junk mail. Then something arrives with a deadline attached. The categories that matter Communications from the tax authority. Assessments, requests for clarification, notices of irregularity. Many carry a…
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Virtual office in Milan: seven questions to ask before you sign
Virtual office offers in Milan look interchangeable from the outside. These seven questions separate them quickly, and a provider’s reluctance to answer any of them is itself an answer. 1. How many companies are registered at this address? The most…
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Moving your registered office to Milan: how the transfer works
Transferring the registered office of an existing Italian company is more common than founders expect, and less complicated than they fear. The variable that matters is whether you are crossing a provincial boundary. Two different procedures Moving within the same…
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What Italian banks see when they look at your registered office
Most articles about virtual offices talk about image and prestige. This one is about something more concrete: what happens to your address inside a bank’s credit assessment. A credit file is not only numbers When an Italian bank assesses a…
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Opening an SRL in Italy as a foreign founder: where the address fits
The SRL is the structure most foreign founders end up with in Italy. Here is where the registered office sits in the sequence, and why getting it wrong stalls everything downstream. The shape of the process An Italian SRL is…
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Registered office vs operational office: the distinction Italian law makes
Two Italian terms cause more confusion for foreign founders than any others: sede legale and sede operativa. Getting them the wrong way round leads to spending on premises you did not need. Sede legale: the legal domicile The sede legale…
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Do you need a physical office to register a company in Italy?
Short answer: no. Longer answer: the confusion is understandable, and it costs foreign founders real money every year. Where the misunderstanding comes from Italian company law requires every company to declare a sede legale — a registered office — and…