Setting up an Italian company
In Italy a company is not registered by filling in a form: it is incorporated by a notarial deed. That is why we are involved at the beginning, and not only when something is sold later.
The S.r.l., and why it is not a Ltd
The ordinary vehicle is the società a responsabilità limitata, the S.r.l. It is a limited liability company, but it is not an English Ltd, an American LLC or a German GmbH, and calling it by one of those names in a document causes more trouble than it saves. Use S.r.l.
One difference matters immediately: an S.r.l. does not have shares. It has quotas. A quota is a participation in the company measured as a proportion, it is not represented by a certificate, and it is transferred by a notarial deed — not by endorsement and not by a private agreement between the parties.
What we do at incorporation
Two documents come into being in front of the notary: the deed of incorporation, which says who is founding the company and with what capital, and the articles of association, which say how it will work — what it is allowed to do, how decisions are taken, who represents it.
The second is the one that repays attention. Standard articles are quick and they are fine for a company with one owner. They are a poor fit the moment there are two people with different amounts of money and different amounts of time in the business, and rewriting them later costs another deed.
After signing, we file the company with the Register of Companies. It exists from that filing.
What a founder who lives abroad needs
- An Italian tax code, the codice fiscale, for every person involved — founders and directors alike.
- Valid identification, and for a non-EU citizen the same preliminary question of citizenship and reciprocity described on the international guide: it applies to incorporating a company as much as to buying a flat.
- If the founder is itself a foreign company, its own documents — the equivalent of a certificate of incorporation, and proof of who is entitled to sign for it — legalised or apostilled, and translated.
That third point is the one that takes weeks rather than days, and it is almost always discovered late.
You do not have to be in Italy for it
Founders can be represented by an attorney, and a company can be incorporated without any of its owners setting foot in the country. As with a purchase, the power of attorney has to be in the right form and to travel — see signing by power of attorney.
Nor is there a requirement that a director or a quotaholder live in Italy. There are practical consequences to being far away — a registered office, a certified email address, an accountant who files the returns — but they are organisational, not legal impediments.
What to tell us for a quote
What the company will do, who the founders are and whether any of them is a company, where they are citizens and where they live, the capital you have in mind, and whether anyone will be signing from abroad. We answer with a written quote, taxes and fee separated.
Write to segreteria@notaiochianese.it.
The general rules — citizenship, codice fiscale, the language of the deed — are on the international guide.
Last updated 4 September 2026