Italian Business Register (Registro delle Imprese): What It Holds, Who Keeps It, How to Search It
By Giulia Mancini, Head of Corporate Formation, Milan office. Giulia Mancini leads company formation for founders who are not resident in Italy. She started out preparing incorporation deeds in a Milan notary practice and has spent twelve years on the same problem since.
Reviewed by Alessandro Ferri, Tax and Accounting Lead. Updated 9 September 2026.
Definition. The Italian Business Register, the Registro delle Imprese, is the official public register of Italian businesses. It is kept by the Register office at each chamber of commerce, under the supervision of a judge delegated by the president of the tribunal, and Art. 2188 of the Civil Code states that the register is public.
What the Register holds:
- The atto costitutivo (incorporation deed) and every amendment to the articles, which produce no effect at all until they are entered (Art. 2436 c.c.).
- Appointments and terminations of directors and other officers, together with the powers attached to them.
- Transfers of S.r.l. quotas and declarations about a sole member, deposited within 30 days (Art. 2470 c.c.).
- The company's PEC address and the domicilio digitale (certified digital address) of its directors.
- The annual accounts in XBRL format, the liquidation accounts and the application to be struck off (Art. 2478-bis c.c.).
How to access it:
- Basic search is free and open to anyone, with no account and no Italian digital identity.
- A visura ordinaria (ordinary chamber extract) for a società di capitali costs EUR 5.00, and a visura storica (historic extract) EUR 6.00.
- The official English extract, the Company Registration Report, costs the same as the Italian ordinary one, which removes any need for a sworn translation. What each field of the company extract actually says is covered separately.
- A company's own legal representative obtains the extract free of charge, in English as well as Italian, through the entrepreneur's own portal.
Those four routes answer the practical question. What follows answers the harder one: what an entry in this register actually does in law, and why three different numbers travel with every Italian company.
What is the Italian Business Register?
The legal definition: a public register, not a commercial database
Art. 2188 of the Civil Code sets up the whole institution in three clauses. The register is established for the entries that the law provides for, it is kept by the Register office under the supervision of a judge delegated by the president of the tribunal, and the article closes with four words that decide most access questions: il registro è pubblico
. Read the sequence carefully, because the order matters. Publicity is not a policy choice by the chambers of commerce, it is a statutory attribute of the register itself (Normattiva: Codice civile, Art. 2188). Calling the result a database, as most English-language descriptions do, drops the part that matters. A database stores information. A register produces legal effects, and the difference runs through everything below.
A 1942 rule that only started working in 1996
Fifty-four years passed between the rule and the machine. The Civil Code provision of 1942 became operative only after the implementing regulation D.P.R. 7 dicembre 1995 n. 581, and the Register office became fully operational on 19 February 1996. The register describes itself today as il registro pubblico informatico ufficiale delle imprese italiane
, the official computerised public register of Italian businesses, and it marks its thirtieth anniversary across 1996–2026. Anyone expecting a paper tradition with ledgers in a provincial archive has the wrong picture: the Italian register was born electronic and has never had a non-electronic period.
One national system, provincial offices
Two ideas have to sit together here, and confusing them is the single most common error a foreign founder makes. The Register office is established at the chamber of commerce, in the words of Art. 8(1) L. 580/1993, and its competence is provincial: the office that handles your company is the one for the province of the sede legale (registered office). Above those offices runs a single national information system, required by Art. 8(6) L. 580/1993 to secure tempestività dell'informazione su tutto il territorio nazionale
, timely information across the whole country. InfoCamere, which operates that system, puts its coverage at 6 million Italian businesses and 10 million entrepreneurs. So the answer to "is there an Italian Companies House" is no, and yes, in that order: no single central agency, but one national data system that a search reaches in one query.
Digital by law since 2021
Since D.Lgs. 183/2021 the acts and data of a società di capitali (limited company) are held in the register in digitised form, in an open format or as structured data (Art. 3(2)-(3)). The practical consequence for someone outside Italy is worth stating plainly. Your company's file exists in machine-readable form, documents are issued electronically, and nobody has to appear at a chamber counter to obtain them.
Registro Imprese number, REA number, partita IVA: which is which?
The Registro Imprese number is the company's codice fiscale
Start with the fact that reorganises everything else: the Registro Imprese entry number, the number the chamber's Register office assigns on registration, is the company's codice fiscale (tax code). For a sole trader it is the owner's own codice fiscale. The register states it in terms on its page about codice fiscale, partita IVA and the REA number. An English-speaking reader looking for a separate "company number" of the British kind will not find one, because Italy does not issue one. When a counterparty form asks for the Italian company's registration number, the answer is the number printed on the "Codice fiscale" line.
Why codice fiscale and partita IVA usually look identical
For companies the codice fiscale and the partita IVA (VAT number) coincide, exceptions apart, and for sole traders they always differ. That is the register's own wording, and the qualifier belongs in it: as a rule, with exceptions, not by universal law. In a chamber extract the two often appear on a single line, "Codice fiscale/Partita IVA", which is why so many foreign files record one number under both labels. The VAT identifier on its merits, including the routes open to a non-resident, belongs to its own guide.
Three identifiers travel with an Italian company and none of them is interchangeable. The Numero Registro Imprese is the company's codice fiscale, it is national and there is one per business, it must appear on invoices, in correspondence and on the company website under artt. 2199 and 2250 c.c., and it identifies the business in the Register. The Numero REA is the entry in the Repertorio Economico Amministrativo under Art. 9 D.P.R. 581/1995, it is provincial with one number per province of presence, it is written with the province code in the form RM-123456, and it records the administrative and economic index entry, one per sede or local unit. The Partita IVA is the VAT number, it is national, as a rule it coincides with the codice fiscale for companies and always differs for sole traders, and it is used for VAT operations. Two relations connect them: the Registro Imprese number usually equals the partita IVA, and one Registro Imprese number corresponds to one or many REA numbers. There is deliberately no equals relation between the Registro Imprese number and the REA number, and reading the REA number as the company number is the error this diagram corrects.
The REA number: one per province, written as RM-123456
REA stands for Repertorio Economico Amministrativo, the economic and administrative index kept at the Register office under Art. 9 D.P.R. 581/1995. It records economic, statistical and administrative information that is deliberately not entered in the register itself, which is why it exists as a separate numbering system rather than as extra fields on the same record. Two features of it catch foreign readers out. First, a business receives one Registro Imprese number nationally but one or several REA numbers, one for each province where it has a sede or a unità locale (local unit). Second, the number carries the code of the province or chamber that assigned it, and in practice is written together with it, for example RM-123456. Foreign entrepreneurs whose principal seat is abroad and who open local units in Italy are expressly among those required to report to the REA (Art. 9(2)(b)). Several REA numbers on one company therefore mean a presence in several provinces, not several companies.
Where these numbers must appear
Two articles of the Code force the numbers into the open. Art. 2199 c.c. requires an entrepreneur to state, in deeds and correspondence relating to the business, the register in which he is registered. Art. 2250 c.c. goes further for companies: documents and correspondence must show the sede, the Register office where the company is registered and the entry number, and for an S.p.A., S.a.p.a. or S.r.l. also the capital actually paid in per the latest balance sheet, the fact of being in liquidation and the existence of a sole member. Since 2009 the same particulars must appear on the company's website. A supplier whose invoice and website carry none of this is not automatically a problem, but the omission is a compliance signal worth following up.
How to read an unfamiliar Italian company's identifiers
- Find the line "Codice fiscale / Partita IVA". That number is the company's Registro Imprese entry number, per the register's own explanation of the three codes.
- An alphanumeric pair such as RM-123456 is a REA number, not the company number. The letters are the province code.
- Several REA numbers on one company mean presence in several provinces, never several separate legal entities.
- The Register office and the entry number must appear on invoices, in correspondence and on the company's website (artt. 2199, 2250 c.c.).
What does registration actually do in law?
Three regimes of publicity, named by the Register itself
Not every entry does the same work, and the register separates the three effects by name on its page describing the national business registry.
- Pubblicità costitutiva, constitutive publicity: the entry is the necessary and mandatory condition for the act to produce legal effects at all. The register's own example is the incorporation deed of a società di capitali.
- Pubblicità dichiarativa, declaratory publicity: the regime of Art. 2193 c.c., where the entry makes the fact enforceable against third parties.
- Pubblicità notizia, notice publicity: the entry serves registry certification and public information, without either of the effects above.
Nothing in the English-language material on this register makes that distinction, and without it the whole institution reads as a filing cabinet.
Article 2193: what an unregistered fact cannot do
The mechanism of Art. 2193 c.c. runs in two directions, and the second one is missing from every competing page. Before the entry, facts that ought to have been registered cannot be relied on against third parties by the person who was required to apply for their registration, unless he proves that those third parties actually knew of them. After the entry, third parties may no longer plead their ignorance. For a non-resident owner the consequence is uncomfortable and concrete: revoking a director's authority, or narrowing it, protects the company against outsiders only once the change is registered. Until then the old position is the one the world is entitled to rely on.
Legal personality starts at the entry, not at the deed
Art. 2331 c.c. is one sentence long and settles a question that costs foreign founders real money: Con l'iscrizione nel registro la società acquista la personalità giuridica
. With the entry in the register, the company acquires legal personality. Not with the signature at the notary, not with the payment of the capital, not with the date on the deed. Contracts, invoices and bank instructions dated between the deed and the entry are dated against an entity that does not yet exist in law, and the timeline in the next section shows exactly how wide that gap can be.
Amendments to the articles do not work until they are registered
The same logic governs every later change. Under Art. 2436 c.c. an amendment to the articles produces no effect until it is entered in the register, and after each amendment the full updated text of the articles is filed. A members' resolution changing the corporate purpose, the capital or the governance model is therefore not self-executing. Between the resolution and the entry the company still lives under its old articles, whatever the minutes say.
Special sections: notice publicity plus whatever the special law adds
Entry in a special section has the function of registry certification, over and above the effects that the special statutes provide (Art. 8(5) L. 580/1993). That explains an arrangement which otherwise looks redundant: innovative startup status, for instance, lives in a section of its own, while the company itself remains in the ordinary section under its chosen corporate form. Two entries, two different jobs.
Who has to be registered, and in which section?
The five commercial activities that trigger the obligation
Art. 2195 c.c. lists the activities that make an entrepreneur registrable, and the list is closed.
- An industrial activity directed at the production of goods or services.
- Intermediation in the circulation of goods.
- Transport by land, by water or by air.
- Banking or insurance activity.
- Any other activity ancillary to those above.
Every code-type company is in, trading or not
Art. 2200 c.c. removes the activity test for companies altogether: every company of a type governed by the Code, and every cooperative, must register even if it carries on no commercial activity whatsoever. A dormant holding company is registrable on the same footing as a trading one. Choosing between the forms is a separate exercise, and which company type fits a foreign founder in Italy is answered on its own page.
Foreign companies and foreign entrepreneurs
Three separate rules catch foreign businesses, and they overlap. The regulation expressly lists among registrable subjects the foreign companies that are subject to Italian law under art. 25 L. 218/1995, alongside consortia, EEIGs and public bodies with a commercial object (Art. 7(2) D.P.R. 581/1995). The ordinary section takes foreign companies that have an administrative or secondary seat in Italy, or their principal object of activity there. And Art. 2197 c.c. requires a sede secondaria (secondary establishment) with a permanent representative to be registered within 30 days, extending that duty expressly to an entrepreneur whose principal seat is abroad. A foreign group operating in Italy through anything more permanent than a customer list should assume it is registrable and work backwards from there.
The special sections and the double-entry rule
The register is single and includes the special sections: Il registro delle imprese … è unico e comprende le sezioni speciali
(Art. 7(1) D.P.R. 581/1995). Sections exist for società tra professionisti, for entities exercising direzione e coordinamento (Art. 2497-bis c.c.), for imprese sociali, for innovative startups and certified incubators, and for innovative SMEs. In each of those cases the company must also sit in the ordinary section under its chosen form. The beneficial owners section is attached to the same register, and ownership disclosure has its own rules and its own current status.
Thirty days to get into a special section
The application for entry in a special section is filed within 30 days of the start of the activity or of the conclusion of the incorporation agreement (Art. 18(1) D.P.R. 581/1995). That clock runs independently of the ordinary registration, which is where the deadline is usually missed.
Who keeps the Register: the chamber, the conservatore or the judge?
The Business Register office sits inside the chamber of commerce
The statutory wording is unambiguous: È istituito presso la camera di commercio l'ufficio del registro delle imprese di cui all'articolo 2188 del codice civile
(Art. 8(1) L. 580/1993). The Register office is established at the camera di commercio (chamber of commerce). No central registrar of companies exists in Italy in the sense a British or Irish reader expects. What exists instead is a network of offices attached to the chambers, a single national information system running above them, and a judicial supervisor attached to each.
The conservatore: one keeper per business-court district
The chamber offices within the district of one business court are headed by a single conservatore del registro (keeper of the register), appointed by the ministry on the proposal of Unioncamere (Art. 8(4) L. 580/1993). The point of naming this role is not bureaucratic detail. Responsibility for the accuracy of what the register says rests on an identified official, not on an abstract institution, and the conservatore also acts on his own initiative in the strike-off procedure described further down.
The giudice del registro: judicial supervision, not a clerk
Supervision is exercised by one or more judges chosen from the judges of the sezioni specializzate in materia di impresa, the specialised sections for business disputes, appointed by the president of the territorially competent tribunal (Art. 8(3) L. 580/1993). A giudice del registro is a sitting judge of a specialist commercial bench, not an official of the chamber. His powers over entries, cancellations and appeals are set out in the section on refusals below, and they are the reason the Italian register behaves less like an administrative database than its European neighbours.
InfoCamere runs the technology, not the law
The register separates the three roles explicitly: the legal guarantee sits with the judge, managerial responsibility with the conservatore, and the technical infrastructure with InfoCamere SCpA. InfoCamere is the IT operator of the chamber system and runs both the Italian portal and the official English-language Italian Business Register portal. Knowing which of the three you are dealing with saves time: a data error is a matter for the office and the conservatore, a refusal is a matter for the judge, and a portal that will not accept your card is a matter for neither.
Which chamber is yours, and why the address decides it
Competence follows the address. The Register office that handles a company is the one at the chamber territorially competent for its sede legale, and the application for entry is filed with the chamber of the province where the entrepreneur has his seat (Art. 11(1) D.P.R. 581/1995). That single link makes the registered address a structural decision rather than an administrative one: it fixes the competent office, the REA numbering and the province whose fee schedule applies. Choosing and maintaining a compliant address is what the address service covers, and an Italian virtual office answers the narrower question of what a non-resident can use when there is no operational site in Italy yet.
How does a company get into the Register, and how long does it take?
Step one: the notary files the deed within ten days
The notary who receives the incorporation deed must file it with the Register office of the sede legale within 10 days, and the office registers the company after verifying formal regularity (Art. 2330 c.c.). The founder does not file: the obligation is on the notary, and the ten days run from the deed. If the whole sequence, from the deed to the first filing, is something you would rather have handled end to end, that is what it means to set up a company in Italy with support.
Step two: five formal checks, and nothing beyond them
Before making an entry the office checks five points, and Art. 11(6) D.P.R. 581/1995 closes the list.
- The authenticity of the signature on the application.
- That the form has been filled in correctly.
- That the act or fact matches what the law provides.
- That the required documents are attached.
- That the other conditions required by law are met.
Read that list once more for what it does not contain. Solvency, business record, the reality of the activity, the standing of the shareholders: none of it. The control is formal, not substantive, and an entry is therefore not a certificate of commercial good standing.
Step three: the entry itself, ten days or five
The entry is made without delay and in any event within 10 days of the date the application is protocolled, and the period is halved to 5 days where the application is filed on electronic media (Art. 11(8) D.P.R. 581/1995). Since practically every filing is now electronic, five days is the working figure, but the statutory ceiling is the one to plan against.
The moment the company legally exists
Legal personality arises at that entry and not before (Art. 2331 c.c.), which is why the two clocks above matter commercially rather than procedurally. For an entrepreneur outside the incorporation scenario the general rule is Art. 2196 c.c.: 30 days to apply for the entry from the start of the activity, and 30 days for any subsequent change and for cessation.
Comunicazione Unica is the procedure; ComUnica was the software
Two things share one name here, and conflating them produces the most common factual error currently circulating in English about Italian filings. Comunicazione Unica, the single business communication, is a procedure, and it is fully in force: one electronic filing discharges the duties towards the chamber of commerce, the Agenzia delle Entrate, INPS and INAIL at once, and it can carry the SCIA for the local one-stop shop. ComUnica was a piece of software, and it is that program, not the procedure, which stopped being available on 12 February 2026. Filings now go through the integrated function in DIRE (Depositi e Istanze al REgistro imprese, deposits and applications to the Business Register) or through market software, as the register sets out on its page describing the tools for sending filings. DIRE replaces Fedra and ComunicaStarweb and also handles beneficial owner filings. Anyone telling you that the single filing has been abolished has read the software notice and stopped there.
What a non-resident needs before filing anything
Three things stand between a founder and the filing system, and only one of them is technical. The filer needs a Telemaco contract, a digital signature device and a PEC address. Registering with Telemaco is free, but since 28 February 2021 it requires SPID level 2, CIE 3.0 or a CNS, and since 30 September 2021 private individuals may access the service only through SPID, CIE or CNS. Sending filings and buying certificates requires the fuller profile. Each of those credentials presupposes an Italian digital identity, which a founder who has never lived in Italy will not have on day one. In practice the filing is made by the notary or by an authorised intermediary rather than by the foreign founder personally, and that is a structural feature of the system rather than a service being sold to you.
The main path runs through five stages. First, the notarial deed is signed. Second, the notary files it with the Register office of the sede legale within 10 days under Art. 2330 c.c. Third, the office checks five formal points under Art. 11(6) D.P.R. 581/1995. Fourth, the entry is made within 10 days from the protocol of the application, or 5 days if the application is filed electronically, under Art. 11(8) D.P.R. 581/1995. Fifth and last, the company acquires legal personality under Art. 2331 c.c., which is the highlighted end point of the process. A refusal branch runs off the third stage, the formal check. The refusal is notified by registered letter. It can be met by a complaint to the giudice del registro within 8 days under Art. 2189 c.c. The judge decides by decree. The decree can then be challenged before the tribunal within 15 days under Art. 2192 c.c.
What if the office refuses, or registers something without you?
Refusal, and the eight days that follow
Entries are made on an application signed by the interested party, and before the entry the office verifies the authenticity of the signature and the presence of the conditions required by law. A refusal is notified by registered letter, and it can be challenged before the giudice del registro within 8 days, the judge deciding by decree (Art. 2189 c.c.). Eight days is a short window by any standard, and it is shorter still for a founder abroad who receives a registered letter at an Italian address he does not check daily. Whoever holds the registered address needs to know what to do with an envelope from the chamber on the day it arrives.
Registration on the office's own initiative
Silence does not leave a mandatory entry unmade. Where an entry required by law has not been applied for, the office invites the entrepreneur to apply by registered letter, and once the period fixed has expired the giudice del registro may order the entry by decree (Art. 2190 c.c.). The result is an entry made without the company's participation, on the office's own reading of the facts, which is rarely the version the company would have filed itself.
Cancelling an entry that should never have been made
The reverse power exists too. Where an entry has been made without the conditions required by law, the giudice del registro, having heard the interested party, orders its cancellation by decree (Art. 2191 c.c.). That is the counterweight to a formal-only check: an entry obtained on a defective basis is unwound judicially rather than administratively, and the hearing is not optional.
Fifteen days to challenge the judge's decree
A decree of the giudice del registro may be challenged before the tribunal within 15 days of its notification (Art. 2192 c.c.). Eight days against a refusal, fifteen days against the decree: those two figures are the whole appellate calendar of the Italian register, and both of them are shorter than the time it usually takes to get a translated document to a foreign board.
Why the office does not verify your business, only your paperwork
The five points of Art. 11(6) are exhaustive, and everything follows from that. An entry in the register is not a licence, not a statement about solvency, not a check on the trustworthiness of the people behind the company. For a compliance team the practical rule is short: the register answers the identification question, and leaves the risk question entirely open.
How do you search the Register, and which document should you order?
The free basic search, and what it is enough for
Finding an Italian company costs nothing. Basic search on the register's portal is free and open to an occasional user with no account, and it settles the two questions a first check usually asks: does this company exist, and are its core registered details what the counterparty says they are. Search is not limited to the company name or the line of activity either. The register's own search runs on the codice fiscale or partita IVA, the VAT group, the REA number, geographic area, legal form, share capital, turnover and further economic and legal parameters, and local units or struck-off companies can be excluded from the results. What costs money is the official document, not the lookup.
Ordering a visura: ordinaria or storica
Two extracts cover almost every need. A visura ordinaria reports the company's current registered position and costs EUR 5.00 for a società di capitali, EUR 3.50 for a partnership and EUR 3.00 for a sole trader or other forms. A visura storica adds the whole history of changes since incorporation, meaning every entry and every filing of acts, and costs EUR 6.00, EUR 4.50 and EUR 4.00 respectively. An unregistered user can obtain the ordinary extracts, including the English one, and the historic ones; the full range requires a Telemaco account. The tariffs and the differences are published by the register on its page about visure and certificati.
Visura or certificato: the difference your bank will care about
Here is the distinction that sends account-opening files back across Europe. A visura camerale supplies official register data but has no value as certification and is not enforceable against third parties, and because it is not a formally regulated document it has no validity period at all. A certificato camerale (chamber certificate) has the legal force of certification, is enforceable against third parties and is valid for six months from the date of issue. A paper certificate is printed on watermarked stock with holographic counterfoils obtained from the chamber, gold for the registration certificate and silver for the historic one, and a certificate closed with option F, confirming that no insolvency proceedings are pending, is the certificato di vigenza. Foreign banks and foreign registrars almost always want the certificate. Sending an extract instead is the most avoidable delay in the banking step.
| Document | What it gives you | Legal force and validity | Official fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| Visura ordinaria | The company's current registered data | Information only, no certification value, no set validity period | EUR 5.00 for a società di capitali |
| Visura storica | Every entry and every filing of acts since incorporation | Same as the ordinaria, no set validity period | EUR 6.00 for a società di capitali |
| Certificato camerale | The same data issued as a certification | Legal force of certification, enforceable against third parties, valid 6 months from issue | Published on the Register's tariff page |
| Company Registration Report (English) | The official English equivalent of the ordinary extract | Information only, same as the Italian visura | Same price as the Italian ordinaria |
A visura tells you what the Register holds; only a certificato camerale certifies it.
Documents in English: the Company Registration Report
The English extract is not a translation, it is an official document in its own right. The register issues the visura in inglese as the English counterpart of the ordinary extract, drawn to the same standard and at the same price, which removes any translation cost for the user. On the English-language portal run by InfoCamere it is sold as the Company Registration Report, alongside the last financial statement filed, with card payment and delivery into a personal document area. Two details save trouble later: a portal registration is deactivated automatically after 180 days without access, and the company lists on that portal exclude companies subject to winding-up and bankruptcy procedures. A separate mechanism exists for acts rather than extracts, under Art. 2250(5)-(6) c.c.: the acts of an S.p.A., S.a.p.a. or S.r.l. that must be registered or filed may also be published in a dedicated section of the register in another official EU language with a sworn expert translation, and where the versions diverge third parties may rely on the foreign-language one although it cannot be enforced against them.
If it is your own company, the extract is free
Owners routinely pay for a document they are entitled to for nothing. A legal representative or business owner obtains the extract of his own company free of charge, in English as well as Italian, through the entrepreneur's portal impresa.italia.it, using SPID or a CNS, with CIE available in the app. The same place shows the status of filings made, the accounts and the company's digital file. Buying a EUR 5.00 extract of your own company is a habit worth losing.
What the Register will not tell you
The limits are as important as the contents. The register confirms existence, registered particulars, officers, capital and filed deeds. It does not confirm solvency, business reputation, the reality of the trading activity or the quality of the counterparty, because the office never examined any of those. There is also a legal limit on what you may do with the data: using an email address, PEC address or mobile number taken from the register to send commercial communications without the prior consent of the person concerned is unlawful. For a KYC file the extract closes identification and leaves risk assessment where it started.
What must an Italian company keep filing, and by when?
The filing list, in one place
Registration is the beginning of a filing relationship, not the end of one. The list of what an Italian company has to file runs as follows.
- The incorporation deed, and every subsequent amendment to the articles.
- Appointments and terminations of directors and other officers, including where a nominee director in Italy is involved.
- Transfers of S.r.l. quotas.
- The declaration about a sole member, and about the restoration of a plurality of members.
- The company PEC, and the domicilio digitale of the directors.
- The annual accounts in XBRL format.
- The final liquidation accounts.
- The application to be struck off the register.
Changes to the articles: no effect until registered
Art. 2436 c.c. again, this time as a compliance rule rather than a doctrinal one: an amendment to the articles produces no effect until it is entered, and the full updated text of the articles is filed after each amendment. Between the members' resolution and the entry the company operates under its previous articles. Where the amendment was passed precisely in order to authorise something, that gap is the window in which the authorisation does not yet exist.
Quota transfers: thirty days, and first in good faith wins
A transfer of S.r.l. quotas is deposited with the register by the notary within 30 days, and Art. 2470 c.c. adds a priority rule that buyers rarely hear about in advance: where the same quota has been sold twice, priority goes to whoever registered first in good faith, not to whoever signed first. Declarations about the sole member and about the restoration of a plurality of members follow the same 30-day deadline. For a buyer of a quota in an Italian company, the deposit is not an administrative formality following the deal. It is the step that decides who owns what.
Annual accounts: 120 days to approve, 30 days to file
The draft accounts of an S.r.l. are presented to the members within 120 days of the end of the financial year, and the articles may extend that to 180 days where there is consolidation or where the company's structure or object requires it (artt. 2478-bis(1), 2364(2) c.c.). The approved accounts are then filed with the register within 30 days of approval (artt. 2478-bis(2), 2435 c.c.), in XBRL format, an obligation definitively in force since 2010. For an S.p.A. the accounts go in together with the directors' and auditors' reports, the minutes of approval and, for unlisted companies, the list of members as at the date of approval. Anyone buying a filed set of accounts from the register can convert the XBRL statement into PDF, HTML, XLS or CSV and into English, French or German at no extra cost.
Iscrizione or deposito: two different words for two different acts
Italian practice uses two verbs where English uses one, and the difference is real. An iscrizione is the recording of data in the register with the public-law effects described earlier. A deposito is the archiving of a document: for a filing of that kind the office checks the formal conditions, archives the act and its attachments electronically, and records the act's particulars in the register merely to acknowledge that the filing took place (Art. 14(7) D.P.R. 581/1995). Accounts are deposited. An amendment to the articles is registered. Confusing the two is how a company ends up believing that filing a document has changed its legal position.
What do Register filings cost in official fees?
Secretarial fees and stamp duty on each filing
Every filing carries two charges: diritti di segreteria (secretarial fees) payable to the chamber, and imposta di bollo (stamp duty) payable to the State. Registering the incorporation deed together with the sole-member notice costs EUR 90 in secretarial fees, with the stamp duty settled through the notary's single electronic filing. Depositing the annual accounts costs EUR 65 of stamp duty and EUR 60 of secretarial fees plus the OIC contribution, whose amount we do not state because the chamber publishes the fee without the total. Depositing an S.r.l. quota transfer drawn by an accountant costs EUR 65 and EUR 90. Stamp duty on register filings is EUR 65 for a società di capitali, EUR 59 for a partnership and EUR 17.50 for a sole trader, and on a notarial incorporation or amendment deed without a contribution of real property it is EUR 156. Registering or changing the company's PEC address costs nothing on either count. The figures come from the fee schedule published by the Romagna chamber of commerce, revision 16 of 27 January 2026, and electronic filings are paid exclusively through the Telemaco user area.
Registration tax on the incorporation deed
Imposta di registro on an incorporation with cash contributions is a fixed EUR 200. The tariff still carries the historic figure of 250 000 lire, raised to EUR 200 by art. 26(2) D.L. 104/2013, which lifted every fixed registration, mortgage and cadastral duty of EUR 168 to EUR 200. Note what this charge is: a tax on the deed, calculated as a fixed sum whatever the capital subscribed in cash, and not a fee for anyone's service.
The annual chamber fee: year one and every year after
Each registered business owes the chamber an annual fee, the diritto annuale. A newly registered società di capitali pays a base of EUR 100, which becomes EUR 120 at a chamber applying the 20 % surcharge, and it is due within 30 days of filing the registration application. An established società di capitali with turnover up to EUR 100 000 pays a fixed EUR 200, above that follows a scale running from 0.015 % down to 0.001 % with a ceiling of EUR 40 000, and the resulting amount is then reduced by half. A secondary seat or local unit of a foreign company pays EUR 66 in the Marche schedule, surcharge included. Payment is made on form F24 under codice tributo 3850. For 2026 the deadline for businesses already registered is 30 June, extendable to 30 July with a 0.40 % surcharge, and 20 July for ISA taxpayers, extendable to 20 August with a 0.80 % surcharge.
Register deadlines and official fees at a glance
| Action | Deadline | Official fee | Legal basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Notary files the incorporation deed | 10 days from the deed | Imposta di registro EUR 200, fixed, cash subscription | Art. 2330 c.c.; Tariffa Parte I art. 4(1)(a)(5) D.P.R. 131/1986; art. 26(2) D.L. 104/2013 |
| Register office makes the entry | 10 days from protocol, 5 days for electronic filings | Diritti di segreteria EUR 90 on the incorporation filing | Art. 11(8) D.P.R. 581/1995; CCIAA Romagna rev. 16 |
| Entrepreneur applies for registration, notifies changes or cessation | 30 days | Imposta di bollo EUR 65 per filing (società di capitali) | Art. 2196 c.c.; CCIAA Romagna rev. 16 |
| Foreign entrepreneur registers a sede secondaria in Italy | 30 days | Imposta di bollo EUR 65 per filing | Art. 2197 c.c.; CCIAA Romagna rev. 16 |
| Entry in a special section | 30 days from the start of the activity or the deed | Not separately tariffed | Art. 18(1) D.P.R. 581/1995 |
| S.r.l. quota transfer deposited | 30 days | Imposta di bollo EUR 65 + diritti di segreteria EUR 90 | Art. 2470 c.c.; CCIAA Romagna rev. 16 |
| Members approve the annual accounts | 120 days from year end, up to 180 where the articles allow | Not applicable | Artt. 2478-bis(1), 2364(2) c.c. |
| Annual accounts filed in XBRL | 30 days from approval | Imposta di bollo EUR 65 + diritti di segreteria EUR 60 plus the OIC contribution | Artt. 2478-bis(2), 2435 c.c.; CCIAA Romagna rev. 16 |
| Diritto annuale, first year of a società di capitali | 30 days from the registration application | EUR 100 base, EUR 120 where the chamber applies the 20 % surcharge; F24, codice tributo 3850 | 2026 chamber fee schedule |
| Diritto annuale, established società di capitali | Annual | EUR 200 fixed up to EUR 100 000 of turnover, then the scale, result halved | 2026 chamber fee schedule |
| PEC or domicilio digitale registered or changed | On any change | EUR 0 stamp duty + EUR 0 secretarial fee | CCIAA Romagna rev. 16 |
| Late or omitted filing | Filing within 30 days after the deadline cuts the fine by one third | EUR 103–1 032, increased by one third for omitted annual accounts | Art. 2630 c.c. |
Two separate clocks run at incorporation: ten days for the notary to file, and ten more for the office to make the entry.
What happens if a filing is late or the company is struck off?
The administrative fine: 103 to 1 032 euro
Failing to make in time the applications, notices or filings owed to the register carries an administrative fine of EUR 103 to EUR 1 032, and the same provision covers failing to state the Art. 2250 particulars in deeds, correspondence and online. Two adjustments apply. Where the filing is made within the 30 days following the deadline the fine is reduced by one third, and where what is missing is the annual accounts it is increased by one third (Normattiva: Codice civile, Art. 2630). The amounts are modest by design. Their function is to force the filing, not to punish the company.
The second sanction nobody counts: registration without you
Money is the lesser consequence. Where a mandatory entry has not been applied for, the office writes to the entrepreneur by registered letter and the giudice del registro may then order the entry by decree (Art. 2190 c.c.). A company with a director abroad and an unattended Italian address can therefore acquire a register entry it neither drafted nor saw, and the correction of that entry is a separate procedure with its own deadlines.
Article 2194 is a historical curiosity, not a live risk
One provision deserves a footnote rather than a warning. Art. 2194 c.c. still punishes a failure to apply for an entry with a fine da lire cento a lire cinquemila
, and no act converting that amount into euro has been found. Treat it as historical drafting left standing in the Code. The sanction that actually operates is Art. 2630 c.c.
Cancellation does not end the obligations
Strike-off closes the register entry and leaves the liabilities where they were. Once the final liquidation accounts are approved the liquidators apply for removal, and five days after the expiry of the period under Art. 2492(3) c.c. the conservatore enters the cancellation himself, provided no notice of complaints has reached him. Creditors who were not paid may then proceed against the members up to what they received on the liquidation, and against the liquidators where the non-payment is their fault. A claim brought within one year of the cancellation may be served at the company's last registered seat (Art. 2495 c.c.). Closing an Italian structure is therefore not the end of the exposure, and the address matters for twelve months after the company has gone.
From our practice: what non-residents get wrong about the Register
Treating the notarial deed as the moment the company exists
The deed is signed, the founder starts contracting, and legal personality has not yet arrived. Settlements, supply contracts and bank mandates dated in the gap between the deed and the entry regularly have to be redone once someone reads Art. 2331 c.c. properly.
Sending a visura where a certificato was required
Foreign banks and registrars ask for a certified document and receive an extract instead. The pack comes back, the account-opening cycle restarts, and several weeks are lost to a distinction that costs nothing to get right the first time.
Reading the REA number as the company number
On counterparty questionnaires the REA number lands in the "company registration number" field more often than any other value. A search on that number then fails to find the company, and the file stalls while everyone assumes the counterparty is fictitious.
Accuracy note: the secretarial fees, stamp duties and annual chamber fee above are given per the chambers' published schedules as at the update date of this page. Fee schedules differ between chambers and are revised periodically, so check the schedule of the chamber that is competent for your registered office before budgeting a specific filing.
Frequently asked questions about the Italian Business Register
Searching and checking a company
How can I check a company's registration in Italy?
Search the company on the Register's portal by name, codice fiscale, partita IVA or REA number, then order a document. A visura ordinaria for a società di capitali costs EUR 5.00, and the English Company Registration Report costs the same. For a document with legal force, order a certificato camerale.
How can I search for Italian companies?
Basic search of the Italian Business Register is free and open to anyone: it confirms that a company exists and shows its core registered details. Paid official documents are a separate step, and the full professional access route runs through a Telemaco account, which requires an Italian digital identity.
Can I get an Italian company extract in English?
Yes. The Register issues an official English extract, the Company Registration Report, at the same price as the Italian visura ordinaria, which removes any need for a sworn translation. A company's own representative can obtain the English extract free through the entrepreneur's digital portal.
What is the difference between a visura and a certificato camerale?
A visura reports the Register's data but has no certification value. A certificato camerale is issued as a certification, is enforceable against third parties and is valid for six months from issue. A visura has no set validity period. Banks and foreign authorities normally ask for the certificato.
Identifiers and numbers
What is the Italian company registration number?
The registration number is the company's codice fiscale. The number of entry assigned by the Register office of the chamber of commerce is that same number, and for a sole trader it is the owner's codice fiscale. Italy issues no separate company number in the British sense.
What is a REA number and how is it different?
REA is the Repertorio Economico Amministrativo kept at the Register office (Art. 9 D.P.R. 581/1995). A business has one Registro Imprese number nationally, but one or several REA numbers, one per province where it has a sede or a local unit. The format carries the province code, for example RM-123456.
Registering, filing and paying
How do I register my business in Italy?
The notary who takes the atto costitutivo files it with the Register office of the company's sede legale within 10 days (Art. 2330 c.c.). The office checks formal regularity and makes the entry within 10 days of protocol, or 5 days for electronic filings (Art. 11(8) D.P.R. 581/1995). The company acquires legal personality at that entry.
Who runs the Italian Business Register?
The Register office is established at each chamber of commerce (Art. 8(1) L. 580/1993). It is headed by a conservatore appointed on Unioncamere's proposal, and it works under the supervision of a judge drawn from the tribunal's specialised business section. InfoCamere runs the technical infrastructure and the portals.
Is the Italian Business Register public and free?
The Register is public by express provision: Art. 2188 c.c. states that «il registro è pubblico». Basic search is free. Official documents are paid: a visura ordinaria for a società di capitali costs EUR 5.00 and a visura storica EUR 6.00. Company owners get their own extract free of charge.
What documents does an Italian company have to file with the Register?
The incorporation deed and every amendment to the articles, appointments and terminations of officers, S.r.l. quota transfers, sole-member declarations, the PEC or domicilio digitale, the annual accounts in XBRL, the final liquidation accounts and the application to be struck off. Amendments have no effect until they are registered (Art. 2436 c.c.).
When must the annual accounts be filed?
The members approve the bilancio (annual accounts) within 120 days of the year end, or up to 180 days where the articles allow it in the cases the law provides. The approved accounts are filed with the Register within 30 days of approval, in XBRL format.
How much do Register filings cost in official fees?
Registering the incorporation deed carries EUR 90 of secretarial fees; stamp duty on filings by a società di capitali is EUR 65; registration tax on a cash-subscription deed is a fixed EUR 200; filing the annual accounts costs EUR 60 plus the OIC contribution. Registering or changing the company PEC costs nothing.
Does a foreign company have to register in the Italian Business Register?
Yes, where it operates in Italy through a secondary establishment. A sede secondaria with a permanent representative office is registered within 30 days, and Art. 2197 c.c. extends that rule expressly to an entrepreneur whose main sede is abroad. Foreign companies with an administrative seat in Italy go into the ordinary section.
Can the Register office register or cancel something without my application?
Yes. If a compulsory entry is not applied for, the office invites the entrepreneur by registered letter and the judge of the Register may then order the entry by decree (Art. 2190 c.c.). An entry made without the legal conditions is cancelled by decree (Art. 2191 c.c.), and the decree can be challenged within 15 days.
What goes wrong
What happens if a filing is late?
Art. 2630 c.c. sets an administrative fine of EUR 103 to EUR 1 032. It is reduced by one third if the filing is made within 30 days after the deadline, and increased by one third where the missing filing is the annual accounts. The office can also have the entry made on its own initiative.
If the register is the destination rather than the subject, two routes reach it. A company can be incorporated from scratch, in which case the ten-day and ten-day clocks above start at the notarial deed. Or it can be acquired already registered, with the entry, the numbers and the filing history in place, which is what Company in Italy: ready-made companies in italy covers.