forget it if you want to stay sane. typed from my Italian villa.
If you want to bootstrap and you're short on money, forget it even more.
Startup costs are huge if you need an ltd, taxes and pension contributions are high, paid in advance and based on "supposed income", even if you have 0 invoices, write off laws are way tighter than other countries, you must pay the notary for the incorporation too and for every statute modification, stamps on every page of the books and many of these medieval tricks... There are too many limiting rules.
I discourage everyone thinking of doing business in Italy, unless you have lots of money already, and you are big enough to have a legal real structure to profit shift elsewhere.
It's cheap to live in many remote areas, so maybe that compensates for low income self employed people.
But as far as real businesses costs, once you factor all the issues and surprises you will get down the road, the taxes and what you get out of it, maybe it would be better to incorporate in the "expensive" neighbouring Switzerland.
Also selling the business is very hard unless you get it really in the news. You really have to sell it at discount as nobody would buy it.
People use their businesses like a personal bank there. They try, sometime very creatively, to write off everything to stay afloat, having a very low profit so to limit the effect of the high tax rates, and stay competitive against other countries .
What happens is that it works for years, everyone does it so you think your good, then one day the tax agency writes you and your dreams fall down.
Now if you're ruthless and do business illegally? that's another matter. You could well profit there, justice is a joke for starters.
Actually that's a common and chronic problem in all the mediterranean countries
what's the solution? It's a dog chasing its tail... they raise fines, add more complex laws to comply with, lower tax exemption limits ... thinking they get more taxes...
what really happens is:
- small biz will fail, once they figure they are getting raped = state gets less taxes,
- medium/big will find ways around those = state gets
maybe the same as before,
- "off the books" businesses will give a f*ck and continue to prosper = state gets 0 taxes
- real money makers entrepreneurs just move away, plenty of italians in eastern europe, switzerland, czechia,
bulgaria etc.
As i said I own a villa in italy but live elsewhere.
I'm still forced to pay property/council tax even I'm not living there year round... you know "for the services you get: streets, roads etc".
- the street lighting is not working. I have reported, they told me "ok will tell to the guy"... months later: "yeah i told the guy", months later again "ok stop reporting this, we know it doesn't work, just stop. It'll be fixed soon". Today after a year, still not working, dark as it could be
- the road has holes like syria after us bombings. I've reported it, just asked about and the guy told me very openly he was going to run for mayor, he asked me to vote for him the next election and they'll fix it. I told him i don't vote here, I then was told very politely to f**k off then, and stop wasting his time. It's a crazy place!
Get the best out of it and live elsewhere, even close like in the "shitty and corrupted" malta. There's a reason if even the italian mafia moved to malta lol You can flight to italy as much as you want and pay close to 0 tax. and you get the best of both worlds.
