Starting a business in Italy: foreigner's guide (2026)

The Ministry of Enterprise (MIMIT) published a circular clarifying the post-reform requirements for registering and remaining in the special section of the Business Register for innovative startups, including the new size limits and the ban on consulting/agency activity. It tells founders exactly how the 2024 reform is applied in practice.

The Legge annuale per il mercato e la concorrenza tightened the definition of innovative startup (must be an SME, no consulting/agency purpose, max €5M output) and cut the base time in the special register from 5 to 3 years, extendable up to 5–9 years for scale-ups. It significantly reshapes the incentive regime that drove much of Italy's recent business formation.

Italy transposed EU Directive 2019/1151, allowing ordinary and simplified limited liability companies to be incorporated fully online via videoconference on the National Notarial Council's platform (cash contributions only). It was the first move toward digital company formation, though a notary remains mandatory.

The decree allowed the ordinary SRL to be formed with capital as low as €1 (below the historic €10,000 floor), abolished the short-lived 'SRL a capitale ridotto', and removed the under-35 age cap on the simplified SRL (SRLs), broadening low-capital company formation to everyone.

The conversion of Decree-Law 179/2012 (Decreto Crescita 2.0) created the innovative-startup status, granting registration-fee and stamp-duty exemptions, flexible corporate rules, equity crowdfunding, labor flexibility and investment tax incentives. It became the cornerstone of Italy's pro-entrepreneurship policy.

Ministry of Justice Decree 138/2012 set the mandatory standard statute template for the simplified limited liability company, making notary incorporation of an SRLs cheap and largely fee-free. It operationalized the new €1-capital company introduced months earlier.

The Segnalazione Certificata di Inizio Attività (introduced via Decree-Law 78/2010, converted by Law 122/2010) lets most businesses begin operating immediately upon filing a certified notice, replacing prior licenses and permits whose grant depended only on verifying legal requirements. It eliminated weeks or months of waiting to start trading.

From this date all registration formalities — Business Register, Revenue Agency (VAT/Partita IVA), INPS and INAIL — are handled through one electronic filing, enabling a business to be started in a single day. It unified previously separate bureaucratic steps into one digital procedure.

The organic reform of company law gave the limited liability company its own autonomous, flexible regime (greater statutory freedom, member-tailored governance) instead of borrowing rules from the joint-stock company. It made the SRL the practical default vehicle for small and medium Italian businesses.

The 1942 Italian Civil Code introduced the società a responsabilità limitata as a capital company sitting between partnerships and joint-stock companies, with members liable only up to their contributions. It established the legal foundation on which all later business-formation reforms were built.