Working from Italy as a United Kingdom resident

At a glance

Rule coverage

What the rules say about Italy

The rules below are the ones most likely to shape a stay in Italy, in plain words and with the source behind each one. Your own report tells you which of them apply to you.

1. Significant issueTax residency

   Past 183 days, or with family ties in Italy, you become an Italian tax resident even under 183 days

   As rewritten by Legislative Decree 209/2023 (in force 1 Jan 2024), Italy's four tests are alternative, not cumulative, so any one triggers residency: physical presence past 183 days (and since 2024, a partial day in Italy counts as a full day, stricter than the usual midnight-count method), habitual abode, domicile (redefined in 2024 to mean where your personal and family relationships principally develop, no longer where your money sits), or Anagrafe registration (now a rebuttable presumption rather than conclusive). This is the single most important practical flag in this corridor: the fractional-day rule plus the family-ties domicile test mean a nomad with a partner or kids in Italy can be resident even with under 183 physical days. A resident is taxed on worldwide income at IRPEF rates of roughly 23-43% plus regional and municipal surtaxes, unless one of the new-resident regimes applies. Italian nationals who de-register to a blacklisted or low-tax jurisdiction are presumed still resident unless they prove otherwise.

2. Significant issuePermanent establishment risk

   Signing contracts or making management decisions from Italy creates real PE risk

   Habitually concluding contracts or exercising management functions from Italy is exactly what dependent-agent and management PE doctrines target. A deemed permanent establishment is taxed like a resident company: IRES corporate income tax at 24% plus IRAP at roughly 3.9%.

3. Significant issueImmigration and visa

   Past 90 days on a short-stay status, you are overstaying Schengen

   Schengen short stays, visa-free or on a C visa, max out at 90 days in any 180. Past that without a permit you are overstaying, with real enforcement risk: fines, removal and a potential Schengen-wide entry ban recorded in the SIS, typically running 3 to 5 years. Longer stays need either the Digital Nomad Visa (for remote work) or one of the relocation routes covered separately, not simply waiting it out.

4. Significant issueRight to work

   The Digital Nomad Visa does not cover work for an Italian employer or Italian clients

   The Digital Nomad Visa authorises remote work for a foreign employer or foreign clients only. Taking up work for an Italian employer, or serving Italian-market clients, is not permitted on this visa. An Elective Residence Visa is even stricter: holders may not work at all, including remote freelancing, on any basis.

5. Significant issueMoving your company

   Keep running your foreign company from Italy and you risk dragging its tax residency here with you

   Running a foreign company's day-to-day management from Italy, director resident in Italy making the real decisions, can create either an Italian permanent establishment or shift the company's place of effective management to Italy. Either way the company can end up taxed as an Italian resident on worldwide profits: IRES at 24% plus IRAP at roughly 3.9%. This is the single biggest trap for a founder who relocates personally but does not restructure the company alongside the move.

6. Needs checkingSocial security

   No social security agreement exists for this employer country, so double contributions are possible

   Italy has no totalization agreement with Singapore, the UAE or Indonesia, so contributions can fall due in both places for those corridors with no coordination mechanism to prevent it. Whether your home coverage continues at all depends purely on your home country's own domestic rules for working outside a treaty country.

What tends to surprise people here

• Four alternative residency tests mean family ties alone can trigger residency under 183 days
• The flat-tax new-resident lump sum keeps rising, from EUR 100k toward a reported EUR 300k for 2026
• The Digital Nomad Visa income floor is an index-linked, moving figure

Tax treaty between United Kingdom and Italy