Italy vs Portugal for freelancers 2026

Every rule below is real and is left out on purpose. Modelling it would need information this form does not ask you for, or a mechanism we have not built yet. What matters is not that something is missing, but which way it moves your number, so that is what we tell you.

• Your real tax may be HIGHER: Italy: The flat-rate regime is shown as available up to EUR 100,000 of revenue, because that is the point at which the law throws you out in the middle of the year. The entry test is stricter and looks backwards: you may only be in the regime this year if last year's revenue was at most EUR 85,000 and staff costs at most EUR 20,000. Between EUR 85,000 and EUR 100,000 the regime still applies for the year shown, but ends on 1 January. Applies to: Freelancers with revenue between EUR 85,000 and EUR 100,000.
• May not apply to you: Italy: Professionals enrolled in a cassa professionale (lawyers, architects and engineers, doctors, accountants, notaries, journalists and other regulated professions) do not pay into the Gestione separata at all. Their own fund sets its own rates, its own minimum contributions and its own ceiling, and often adds a percentage charged on top of every invoice. None of that is modelled: the contribution line shown is simply not theirs. Applies to: Members of a regulated profession with a compulsory professional pension fund.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Italy: Artisans and traders in the flat-rate regime may apply for a 35% cut in their INPS contributions. It is optional, has to be claimed by 28 February, and buys the lower bill at the price of a proportionally smaller pension credit. We show the full contribution. Applies to: Registered artisans and traders in the regime forfettario who claim the regime contributivo agevolato.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Italy: Artisans and traders who registered with INPS for the first time at any point during 2025 can claim a separate 50% cut in their contributions, running for 36 months from the start of the activity and therefore still alive through most of 2026 (art. 1, comma 186, legge 30 dicembre 2024, n. 207). It has to be applied for, and it is an alternative to the 35% forfettario reduction, not an addition to it. We show the full contribution. Applies to: Artisans and traders whose first INPS registration fell in the 2025 calendar year.
• Your real tax may be HIGHER: Italy: The EUR 0.62 monthly maternity contribution of the artisan and trader schemes (EUR 7.44 a year) is not included. Applies to: Registered artisans and traders.
• May not apply to you: Italy: Royalties for copyright or intellectual property connected with the activity are taxed inside the flat-rate regime, but they do not go through the activity coefficient: they enter the base after an abatement of 25%, or 40% if you are under 35. We treat every euro of turnover as an ordinary fee, so for a 67% activity we understate this income and for a 78% one we slightly overstate it. Applies to: Freelancers part of whose income is copyright or intellectual-property royalties.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Italy: The reduced Gestione separata rate of 24%, which applies to people already covered by another compulsory pension scheme or drawing a pension, is not modelled: everyone is charged the full 26.07%. Applies to: Freelancers who also have an employed job, or who are already retired.
• May not apply to you: Italy: Contributions are really paid in instalments during the year, on the previous year's figures, with two payments on account and a balancing payment. We compute an annual figure from the income you enter, so the individual bills will not match this line even when the yearly total is right. Applies to: Everyone paying INPS as a self-employed worker.
• Your real tax may be HIGHER: Italy: The five-year limit on the 5% start-up rate, and its conditions (no self-employment in the three previous years, no continuation of what you did as an employee) are shown but not checked. If you do not meet them, your rate is 15%. Applies to: Anyone selecting the 5% start-up rate.
• May not apply to you: Italy: The coefficients are keyed to the ATECO 2007 groups named in the law. Italy moved to the ATECO 2025 classification without rewriting that table, and art. 1 of d.lgs. 12 giugno 2025, n. 81 expressly keeps Allegato 4 and its ATECO 2007 codes in force until new coefficients are approved, so your new-style code has to be mapped back onto these groups. Where a business spans two groups, the law requires separate records per group and we compute a single one. Applies to: Anyone whose activity spans more than one ATECO group, or whose ATECO 2025 code maps ambiguously.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Portugal: In the first two years of activity the deemed-cost coefficients for services are cut (by half in the opening year, by a quarter in the next), and social security contributions are not due at all for the first twelve months. Neither relief is applied here. Applies to: Anyone who has just registered as self-employed, which is most people arriving in Portugal.
• Your real tax may be HIGHER: Portugal: Part of the deemed expense allowance has to be backed by real, documented expenses: if you cannot show them, the taxable base is increased. We do not model that add-back, so a freelancer with few real expenses is shown a lower tax than the law would charge. Applies to: Freelancers on the simplified regime with few documented expenses or contributions.
• May not apply to you: Portugal: Contributions are really assessed quarterly on the previous quarter's income, and you may adjust the assessed base up or down by up to 25%. We compute an annual figure from the income you enter, so your monthly bills will not match this line exactly even when the yearly total is close. Applies to: Everyone paying social security as a self-employed worker.
• Your real tax may be LOWER: Portugal: Tax credits for health, education, rent and general family expenses are not modelled (see the income tax calculator for the same limitation). The tax shown is before them. Applies to: Residents who file receipts, which is nearly everyone.