World Tax Atlas

Italy Freelancer Tax Calculator 2026

What is left from freelance income in Italy once income tax and social contributions are paid.

Add personal details for a more accurate result 4 settings

Without these we assume the ordinary case. Change anything that applies to you and the number above updates as you type.

  • Regime forfettario: professional (INPS Gestione separata): The standard route for a freelance professional: 15% flat on a fixed share of turnover, no VAT, no bookkeeping. You enter it if last year's turnover was at most EUR 85,000, and you keep it for the whole of a year in which turnover passes that mark, until it reaches EUR 100,000, which ends the regime on the spot.
  • Regime forfettario: new business, 5% for five years: The same flat-rate regime at 5% instead of 15%, for the first five tax periods of a genuinely new activity: no self-employment in the previous three years and no continuation of what you used to do as an employee.
  • Regime forfettario: registered artisan (INPS Artigiani): The flat-rate regime for someone registered as an artisan business: same 15% tax, but INPS charges a compulsory minimum of EUR 4,513.92 a year even in a bad year.
  • Regime forfettario: trader (INPS Commercianti): The flat-rate regime for someone registered as a commercial business: same 15% tax, INPS rates 0.48 points higher than an artisan's and the same compulsory annual minimum.
  • Regime ordinario: IRPEF on actual profit: Tax on what you actually earn: fees collected less real business expenses, taxed on the IRPEF scale plus the regional and municipal surcharges. Where you land once turnover passes EUR 85,000 for good, and the only route that lets you use ordinary tax reliefs.

Worth opening: deductible business expenses can change this by up to €12,000, and how you are taxed can change this by up to €6,824.

Left after tax and contributions

€35,062 per year

About €2,922 a month

Effective tax rate 29.9%

58% you keep€24,938 to taxes and contributions

Assumptions

Based on deductible business expenses: €10,000, what you do: Other activities, including IT and software (ATECO 62-63, and anything not listed above), region: Lombardy (Milan), how you are taxed: Regime forfettario: professional (INPS Gestione separata)

2026 rates confirmed against two independent sources: the official tax administration and PwC. Nothing here rests on one. Last verified 2026-08-06. How we verify

Where the money goes

Business income€50,000Revenue €60,000 less expenses €10,000, paid out of your pocket, but they do not reduce the taxable base in this regime
INPS Gestione separata (professionals)-€10,48026.07% of €40,200, 67% of revenue
Income tax-€4,458Taxable base €29,719.86: revenue €60,000 × 0.67 deemed-income coefficient, less €10,480.14 of contributions. Actual expenses do not enter it.
Left after tax and contributions€35,062Effective rate 29.9%

Compare with another country:SpainPolandPortugal

Understand your result

Which regime is mine, and what does it require?

Each regime below is checked against the amounts and activity you entered in the form. The conditions the calculator cannot see, like how long you have been in the country and what you did before, you confirm yourself. Every condition is listed in full: this is the page the comparison cards link to instead of quoting the law on a card.

Regime forfettario: professional (INPS Gestione separata) : The standard route for a freelance professional: 15% flat on a fixed share of turnover, no VAT, no bookkeeping. You enter it if last year's turnover was at most EUR 85,000, and you keep it for the whole of a year in which turnover passes that mark, until it reaches EUR 100,000, which ends the regime on the spot.

Fits what you entered in the form.

Left after tax and contributions: €35,062 Regime Forfettario calculator

Regime forfettario: new business, 5% for five years : The same flat-rate regime at 5% instead of 15%, for the first five tax periods of a genuinely new activity: no self-employment in the previous three years and no continuation of what you used to do as an employee.

Fits what you entered in the form.

Left after tax and contributions: €38,034 Forfettario 5% calculator

Regime forfettario: registered artisan (INPS Artigiani) : The flat-rate regime for someone registered as an artisan business: same 15% tax, but INPS charges a compulsory minimum of EUR 4,513.92 a year even in a bad year.

Fits what you entered in the form.

Left after tax and contributions: €35,769 Forfettario, artisan calculator

Regime forfettario: trader (INPS Commercianti) : The flat-rate regime for someone registered as a commercial business: same 15% tax, INPS rates 0.48 points higher than an artisan's and the same compulsory annual minimum.

Fits what you entered in the form.

Left after tax and contributions: €35,605 Forfettario, trader calculator

Regime ordinario: IRPEF on actual profit : Tax on what you actually earn: fees collected less real business expenses, taxed on the IRPEF scale plus the regional and municipal surcharges. Where you land once turnover passes EUR 85,000 for good, and the only route that lets you use ordinary tax reliefs.

Fits what you entered in the form.

Left after tax and contributions: €28,238 Regime Ordinario calculator

Ticking a box is your own confirmation, not advice. The conditions come from the same verified sources as the rates.

The flat rate lands on a share of your turnover, not on your profit

A partita IVA in the regime forfettario never computes profit. It takes the fees you actually collected during the year, multiplies them by the coefficient fixed for your ATECO activity group, and calls the result your income. Your rent, your hardware, your subcontractors and your accountant do not appear in that calculation. Nobody asks what you spent.

So the coefficient is the tax. Construction and real estate keep 86% of turnover in the base. Professional, scientific, health, education and financial services keep 78%. Trade intermediaries 62%, street trading in non-food goods 54%, food manufacturing and shop trade and hospitality 40%. Everything not named in the table falls into the residual group at 67%, and that is where software and IT sit: ATECO divisions 62 and 63 are in the residual group, not in the professional one.

Read that twice if you write code for a living. The two lines look interchangeable and differ by a sixth of your annual tax.

Whatever survives the coefficient is taxed once, at 15%, by an imposta sostitutiva that replaces IRPEF, the regional surcharge, the municipal surcharge and IRAP. Your invoices carry no VAT either.

Your tax base and your contribution base are two different numbers

One turnover, run through one coefficient, produces two figures that are never equal. Getting them the wrong way round changes what you owe INPS.

Contributions are deductible from forfettario income, but they cannot shrink the base they are themselves charged on. INPS reads the gross figure, revenue times coefficient, before any deduction. The tax then applies to that same gross figure minus the contributions you paid during the year. The return keeps the two apart in separate rows, which is the clearest proof that they are not the same number.

Take a developer collecting €60,000 in a year. The coefficient turns that into €40,200 of gross forfait income. INPS charges its rate on the whole €40,200, about €10,480. The tax base is what is left after that deduction, €29,720, and the substitute tax on it is €4,458. Total to the state around €14,938, before a single real expense has been paid out of the remaining €45,062.

Reverse the order, deduct contributions first and then charge INPS, and you would get a smaller contribution and a bill that no Italian form produces. The calculator above does it in the legal order.

Crossing EUR 85,000 costs you next year. Crossing EUR 100,000 costs you this one

Entry into the regime looks backwards: last year’s revenue at most EUR 85,000, and staff costs at most EUR 20,000 gross. The exit rules look forwards, and there are two of them.

Go past the entry limit during the year and nothing happens immediately. You finish the year inside the regime and drop out on 1 January, with time to prepare. Go past €100,000 and the regime ends on the spot and backwards: the entire year is recomputed under ordinary rules, IRPEF scale and surcharges included, and VAT falls due from the invoice that broke the limit onwards, on work you already priced and billed without it.

The distance between those two outcomes is the most expensive thing on this page. If you are close to the ceiling in the last quarter, the invoice date matters more than the invoice.

If your client is your old employer, the regime is not available at all

Not more expensive. Not available. Invoicing mainly a current employer, an employer from either of the two previous tax periods, or anyone connected with them, bars the forfettario outright.

That is the standard relocation story: resign, register a partita IVA, keep billing the same company, and pay the friendly flat rate. Any calculator that shows a rate for that arrangement is lying, including this one, because the engine cannot see who your client is. The same section of the law also bars anyone holding a stake in a partnership or control of an S.r.l. with a related activity, and anyone whose employment income last year exceeded EUR 35,000.

Non-residents are out too, unless they are resident in the EU or EEA with at least three quarters of their worldwide income arising in Italy.

The rate is cheap because everything attached to IRPEF is gone

There is no IRPEF on this income, so there is nothing for IRPEF reliefs to work on. Medical expenses, building renovations, mortgage interest and dependants all reduce a tax you are no longer paying. A household with heavy detrazioni can be better off on the ordinary regime at a turnover where the flat rate still looks unbeatable on paper.

Two smaller consequences. Clients apply no withholding to your invoices, so nothing is set aside during the year and the full tax plus contributions arrive together at the filing deadlines: the first year of a partita IVA ends with a bill roughly the size of a quarter’s income, payable at once. And staff costs above EUR 20,000 gross end the regime the following year.

INPS is three different worlds, and the tax regime does not decide which one you are in

Pick the wrong scheme in the calculator above and the answer is wrong by thousands, whatever the tax side says.

Professionals with no fund of their own pay the Gestione separata: 26.07% of the gross forfait income, up to a ceiling of €122,295. There is no minimum contribution here. The minimum-income figure quoted for this scheme, the same one the artisans below are charged on, means something else entirely: it is the income that buys a full year of pension credit, not a floor on what you owe. Earn little, pay little, accrue a fraction of a year.

Registered artisans are in a scheme that does not work as a percentage at all. INPS charges a compulsory contribution on an assumed income of €18,808 at 24%, in four instalments, in a year when the business earned that much and in a year when it earned nothing. Above that assumed income the same 24% continues up to €56,224, then 25% to the same ceiling.

Traders pay the same structure at slightly higher rates, 24.48% and 25.48%, on the identical compulsory minimum. Those extra fractions of a point fund the indemnity paid to shopkeepers who close down before reaching pension age.

For a low-turnover artisan or trader, that fixed minimum, not the flat tax, is the largest line in the year.

The start-up rate is real, and the engine cannot check that you qualify

New activities pay 5% instead of the standard rate for the tax period in which the activity starts and the four following ones: 5 tax periods in total, not five calendar years from any date you choose.

Three conditions, all required. No artistic, professional or business activity in the three years before you start. The new activity is in no way a continuation of what you previously did as an employee or as a self-employed person, which knocks out most people who registered a partita IVA to keep doing their old job. And if you took over someone else’s activity, its revenue in the previous period was within the entry limit.

The contributions do not change. The reduced rate is a tax relief, and INPS charges the same amount as it would at the full rate.

The ordinary regime is where you land, and it is not the punishment it sounds like

Ordinary means tax on what you actually earned: fees collected less real business expenses, on a cash basis, taxed on the IRPEF scale at 23% up to €28,000, 33% to €50,000, and 43% above, plus the regional and municipal surcharges of wherever you live. Contributions run at the same 26.07%, but on the profit before those contributions are subtracted.

Real costs come off in full. So do the reliefs the flat rate throws away. A freelancer with heavy expenses, a mortgage and dependants can end up paying less on the progressive scale than on a flat rate several times smaller, and that comparison is the reason both regimes sit in the same calculator.

What changed in 2026

The regime itself did not move. The Budget Law for 2026 leaves the forfettario alone: same rates, same coefficients, same thresholds, and the coefficients remain keyed to the old ATECO 2007 groups by express provision, even though Italy switched to the ATECO 2025 classification last year. If your new-style code does not appear in the table, it has to be mapped back.

What reindexed is INPS. The assumed minimum income, the point where the artisan and trader rate steps up, and the annual ceiling all carry 2026 values, and the employment-income bar stays at its raised level for this year. Comparing against a spreadsheet from 2024 will be wrong on every contribution line.

What this calculator does not model

  • Professional funds. Lawyers, architects, engineers, doctors, accountants and journalists pay their own cassa, not the Gestione separata: different rates, their own minimums, often a percentage added on top of every invoice. If you are enrolled in one, the contribution line here is simply not yours.
  • The contribution discounts for artisans and traders. A forfettario in those schemes can claim a 35% cut, and anyone whose first INPS registration fell in 2025 can claim a 50% cut running 36 months instead. Both must be applied for, they are alternatives to each other, and we show the full contribution. Your bill may be materially lower than shown.
  • The reduced Gestione separata rate for people already covered by another compulsory scheme or drawing a pension. Everyone here is charged the full rate, so a freelancer with a day job is overstated.
  • The five-year test on the start-up rate. We show the conditions and do not check them. Select the reduced rate without qualifying and the page understates your tax by two thirds.
  • Copyright royalties, which enter the forfettario base after their own abatement rather than through the activity coefficient. We treat every euro as an ordinary fee.
  • Payment timing. Contributions are really paid in instalments based on the previous year, with two payments on account and a balance. The annual total can be right while no individual bill matches it.
  • Expense caps in the ordinary regime. Italian law halves or limits many deductions, vehicles, phones and hospitality among them. We take the expense figure you enter at face value.

Thinking about a company instead? The Italian founder route runs the same work through corporate tax and dividends, and the ordinary scale behind the comparison above lives on the Italian income tax calculator. If the country is still an open question, the Portuguese simplified regime taxes a coefficient of turnover the same way but sends the result to a progressive scale, while the Spanish autónomo deducts real expenses and charges a monthly cuota whether or not anyone paid you.

Questions people actually ask

I left my job in Italy and my old employer is now my main client. Can I use the regime forfettario?

No. Invoicing mainly your current employer, or anyone who employed you in the two previous tax periods, or a person connected with them, bars the regime outright. This is the single most common way a new partita IVA discovers, usually a year late, that it never qualified: the freelance career starts with the safest client available, which is the company you just left. The bar looks at where the bulk of your invoices go, so a small legacy contract alongside real third-party work is a different situation from billing that one company for most of your year. There is a second trap next to it: employment income above EUR 35,000 in the previous year also bars the regime for 2026, which catches people who quit mid-year on a good salary.

Which coefficient applies to a software developer?

The residual one, 67%. ATECO divisions 62 and 63 sit in the "other activities" group of the table, not in the 78% group for professional, scientific and technical services, even though a developer sounds like a professional and often reads that line first. The difference is a sixth of your tax bill for identical invoices, every year, and it is decided by the code you register. If your work genuinely spans two groups the law wants separate records per group, which is the point at which this page stops being enough.

What happens if I invoice more than EUR 85,000?

Two different things, depending on how far past you go, and the gap between them is expensive. Between EUR 85,000 and EUR 100,000 you finish the year inside the regime and leave it on 1 January, so the year in progress is safe and you plan the next one under ordinary rules. Above EUR 100,000 the regime ends the moment you cross, retroactively: the whole year is recomputed on the IRPEF scale and VAT becomes due starting from the invoice that broke the limit. A freelancer sitting at EUR 95,000 in November has a real reason to let the next invoice fall into January.

Do I still owe INPS in a year when I barely earned anything?

It depends which scheme you are in, and the answer differs by thousands of euros. A professional in the Gestione separata pays a percentage of whatever the forfait income turned out to be, with no floor: small income, small contribution. A registered artisan or trader pays a compulsory contribution calculated on an assumed income of EUR 18,808 whether or not the business earned it, spread over four instalments, before anything is charged on income above that level. That fixed minimum is the reason the same turnover produces very different bills in the calculator above depending on which scheme you pick.

Can I deduct my laptop, or claim medical expenses, under the forfettario?

No to both, and the second one surprises people more. Real business costs never enter the forfettario base, because the coefficient already decided what your costs are; the only thing that comes off is the mandatory social contributions you actually paid. And because the substitute tax replaces IRPEF entirely, there is no IRPEF left for the ordinary reliefs to reduce, so medical expenses, renovation works, mortgage interest and dependants are all worth nothing against this income. If those reliefs are large in your household, the ordinary regime can beat the flat rate even at a low turnover.

Your result can move: personal deductions, family status and special regimes we do not model can make your real tax lower in 3 cases, and higher in 3 cases.

Important limitations 10

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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.

This calculator is for information only and is not tax advice. Rates and thresholds change; check the methodology page for sources and verification dates, and confirm your own situation with a qualified adviser.