How to pay contractors in Italy

How to choose: four questions for paying Italian contractors

Euros reach an Italian IBAN cheaply and fast, so four other questions decide.

1. How many contractors, and how much they invoice

Against a 3% fee per payout, a $29 monthly seat is cheaper once a contractor invoices more than $967 a month, a $49 seat above $1,633. A forfettario near the €85,000 ceiling invoices about €7,083 a month, where 3% is about €212. For smaller or irregular invoices the percentage wins, and a transfer service with no subscription costs least.

One partita IVA with a correct monthly invoice needs a contract and a bank transfer. Five means five invoice copies to check and five contracts to keep current; a platform that collects invoices and pays in batches then earns its fee.

If you pay one contractor occasionally: a usage-based transfer rail. If you pay a standing team: a contractor management platform, priced on your real invoice totals.

2. Whether the invoice you receive is right, and who checks it

Check four things on the first invoice:

• No IVA. A forfettario charges none to anyone (agenziaentrate.gov.it, checked 2026-09-29). A contractor on the ordinary regime charges none on a B2B service to a business abroad, which Article 7-ter of DPR 633/1972 taxes where the customer is established, nature code N2.1 on the e-invoice (agenziaentrate.gov.it, checked 2026-09-29).
• No ritenuta d’acconto line. Forfettari are not subject to it, and a non-resident without an Italian permanent establishment is not a withholding agent (ecnews.it, on Agenzia Risposta n. 297/2021, checked 2026-09-29).
• A VIES-registered number, for EU payers. A partita IVA must opt into the VIES archive to trade with businesses in other member states (agenziaentrate.gov.it, checked 2026-09-29).
• A €2 stamp duty above €77.47. VAT-free invoices over that amount carry a €2 imposta di bollo (agenziaentrate.gov.it, June 2026, checked 2026-09-29).

What you receive is a copy; the legal invoice is the XML the contractor sent to SdI with the code XXXXXXX (agenziaentrate.gov.it, checked 2026-09-29).

If you only need the money to arrive: a transfer rail. If you need the documents generated or collected with each payout: a platform that produces contracts and closing documents alongside the payment.

3. Where your euros come from

• You hold EUR in an EU account. Pay by SEPA or SEPA Instant. Italian banks may not price a SEPA transfer differently from a domestic one, and an instant transfer takes under ten seconds (economiapertutti.bancaditalia.it, checked 2026-09-29).
• You hold USD or GBP. Convert before the money reaches Italy. Wise showed USD 9.87 to send USD 1,000 to an Italian account funded by bank transfer, arriving in about two hours (wise.com, checked 2026-09-29). A USD wire into a EUR account is converted by the receiving bank at its own rate.

If you already hold euros: your own bank, or any platform with SEPA payout. If you fund in another currency: a provider that converts at a disclosed rate and pays out locally in EUR.

4. How the work is organised

Article 2 of Legislative Decree 81/2015 applies employment rules to collaborations that are mainly personal, continuous and carried out in a way the client organises (normattiva.it, checked 2026-09-29). A coordinated collaboration stays self-employed when the collaborator organises the work on their own within coordination both parties agreed (Art. 409 c.p.c., checked 2026-09-29).

Your hours, your tools, your manager setting daily tasks, no other clients: an employment profile, whatever the label. Deliverables, own schedule, own equipment, other clients: a genuine contractor. A former employee billing mainly you also loses the forfettario.

If the engagement is independent: a transfer rail or contractor management platform. If it is independent but single-client, and you want someone else holding the contract to reduce the risk: a Contractor of Record. 4dev acts as Contractor of Record — the contracting party for each contractor — which reduces reclassification risk. With any provider, read the liability clause in the COR agreement, not the product name. If it is really a job: an Employer of Record such as Deel, Remote, Multiplier, Oyster, Rivermate or Native Teams, or your own Italian entity.

Payout rails into Italy in 2026

Sources: SEPA timing, instant-transfer speed and domestic-equivalent pricing from the Banca d’Italia’s L’economia per tutti; price parity for instant transfers from the ECB; Wise figures from wise.com (all checked 2026-09-29).

There is no currency control: EU law prohibits restrictions on payments between member states and with non-EU countries (TFEU Art. 63, checked 2026-09-29). Since 9 October 2025 euro-area banks must offer a free verification of payee that compares the name you enter with the name on the IBAN before you send (ecb.europa.eu, checked 2026-09-29).

What the Italian contractor needs to get paid

To invoice you legally, a freelancer:

• Holds a partita IVA. Many sole traders use the regime forfettario: revenue up to €85,000, a 15% substitute tax (5% for the first five years if they ran no business in the previous three), no VAT charged and no withholding suffered. Passing €100,000 ends the regime in the same year (agenziaentrate.gov.it, checked 2026-09-29).
• Issues e-invoices through SdI. Mandatory for all forfettari since 1 January 2024 (Circolare 32/E, checked 2026-09-29). An invoice to a foreign client goes to SdI with recipient code XXXXXXX, which also serves as the cross-border report, and the contractor gives you a copy in electronic or paper form (agenziaentrate.gov.it, checked 2026-09-29).
• Pays INPS. A professional with no other coverage pays 26.07% to the gestione separata in 2026, on income between a floor of €18,808 and a ceiling of €122,295 (INPS Circolare 8/2026, checked 2026-09-29).
• Is in the VIES archive if you are an EU business (agenziaentrate.gov.it, checked 2026-09-29).
• Holds a EUR account in their own name.

Tax, INPS, requalification and IP are covered in our hiring guide.

Documents and tax on your side

IVA. A B2B service to a business established abroad is taxed where the customer is established under Article 7-ter of DPR 633/1972, and the e-invoice carries nature code N2.1 (agenziaentrate.gov.it, checked 2026-09-29). An EU client accounts for VAT at home under the reverse charge. From 1 January 2027 these rules move into the new VAT Consolidated Act, D.Lgs. 10/2026, which consolidates existing rules rather than rewriting them (fiscooggi.it, checked 2026-09-29).

Withholding. A non-resident without a permanent establishment in Italy is not an Italian withholding agent (ecnews.it, on Agenzia Risposta n. 297/2021, checked 2026-09-29), and forfettari are exempt from ritenuta d’acconto in any case. For a US payer, foreign-source income paid to a non-resident is not subject to NRA withholding and needs no information return (irs.gov, checked 2026-09-29). Collect a Form W-8BEN from an individual (W-8BEN-E from a company) and file no 1099. The US–Italy income tax convention signed in 1999 entered into force on 16 December 2009 (state.gov, checked 2026-09-29); it matters for US-source income, such as work done while visiting the US.

What to keep, per contractor:

1. The signed services contract with scope, rate, currency, IP assignment and the independence terms.
2. The copy of each invoice as received, with the SdI details if the contractor supplies them.
3. Proof of payment matching each invoice.
4. W-8BEN or W-8BEN-E (US payers), or the VIES check of the partita IVA (EU payers).

Where payments to Italy break

• A ritenuta d’acconto line. Templates built for Italian clients deduct it. Pay the net and nobody remits the difference, so the contractor is short. Ask for an invoice without it.
• IVA on a foreign business’s invoice. From a forfettario it should never appear; from an ordinary-regime contractor it can mean they treated you as a consumer. Ask for a corrected invoice before paying.
• The regime changes mid-year. A forfettario whose revenue passes €100,000 leaves the regime from that year and owes VAT from the invoice that crossed the line, so invoice wording changes.
• A former employee on the forfettario. Someone billing mainly an employer from the previous two tax years is excluded from the regime (agenziaentrate.gov.it, checked 2026-09-29), and re-engaging your own ex-staff also reads as disguised employment.
• A payee name mismatch. Verification of payee flags a trade name that differs from the account holder’s name, and a payer’s bank or platform may hold the transfer until the names are reconciled.
• USD sent to a EUR account. The receiving bank converts at its own rate; pay in the invoice currency.
• A first-payout KYC hold. Collect ID, codice fiscale and partita IVA at onboarding, not on payday.
• Requalification. The payment goes through; the risk sits in the relationship. Work that is personal, continuous and organised by you falls under employment rules under Article 2 of D.Lgs. 81/2015. If instead the relationship is treated as a co.co.co., the client owes the gestione separata contribution, two-thirds on its own account and one-third withheld from the collaborator, paid by the 16th of the month after payment (inps.it; INPS Circolare 12/2020, checked 2026-09-29). See the Contractor of Record rating.