In the UK the professional who does what a commercialista does is an accountant. We are ACCA and ACA qualified, members of ACCA, ICAEW and the IAB — and not members of the Italian register of dottori commercialisti. We look after your UK tax completely, and where something also has an Italian side, we work alongside your commercialista in Italy rather than guessing at it.

• Self Assessment tax returns
• Company formation and new businesses
• Bookkeeping in Xero and QuickBooks
• Year-end accounts and corporation tax

Registering is free and immediate

There is no UK equivalent of opening a partita IVA through an intermediary, with a cost attached. You register with HMRC for Self Assessment, receive a ten-digit Unique Taxpayer Reference (UTR) and begin. There is no central e-invoicing system to send invoices through and no professional pension fund to join. Registration is due by 5 October after the end of the tax year in which you started.

There is no regime forfettario

The self-employed pay income tax on actual profit — income less allowable expenses — in bands, after a tax-free personal allowance. Records of your expenses therefore matter far more than they do under a flat coefficient. Very small side income, up to £1,000 a year, can be covered by the trading allowance instead.

VAT starts at a threshold, not with the first invoice

You do not register for VAT because you are in business. You register when your taxable turnover passes £90,000 over the last twelve months, or you expect it to within the next thirty days. Below that, registration is optional and often not worth it. Crossing the threshold without noticing is expensive, because VAT is due from the date you should have registered, on sales where you never charged it.

National Insurance instead of contributions to a cassa

The self-employed pay National Insurance alongside income tax, and it builds entitlement to the UK State Pension. It is not a fund you choose; it follows from your profits.

A UK limited company is nothing like setting up an SRL. It is formed online at Companies House with no notary and no minimum capital, then registered with HMRC for corporation tax. Since 18 November 2025 its directors and people with significant control have had to verify their identity with Companies House. Running it still brings annual accounts, a confirmation statement and a corporation tax return, and how you pay yourself — salary, dividends or a mix — is a choice to make with the numbers each year.

Contractors in finance and tech who work through their own company also need to consider IR35, which can tax an engagement as employment whatever the contract says. In hospitality, an Italian café, deli or restaurant has to treat hot takeaway food as standard-rated for VAT while much cold food is zero-rated — something to get right at the till, not at the year end.

• Limited company accountant
• Contractor accountant and IR35 advice
• Accountant for restaurants, cafés and delis
• Accountant for online sellers

Italian law expects citizens who move abroad for more than twelve months to register with AIRE through their consulate. That registration matters to Italy. It does not decide anything for HMRC.

UK residence is decided by the Statutory Residence Test

Whether you are UK tax resident in a given year depends on the days you spend here and the ties you have to the country — not on AIRE, your passport or where you pay rent. Whether Italy still treats you as resident is a question for Italian rules and your commercialista. If both countries treat you as resident in the same year, the tie-breaker in the UK–Italy treaty decides which one has the first right to tax.

Split year

There are eight cases in which a year can be split, so that you are taxed as UK resident only from the day you arrived or until the day you left — five for arrivals, three for departures. None is automatic and each has conditions, so it is worth checking in the year itself, not three years later.

The first four years

Since April 2025, someone who becomes UK resident after at least ten consecutive years of non-residence can claim relief on foreign income and gains for their first four tax years here. It is claimed on the return and costs the personal allowance for that year, so it is a decision to make with the figures in front of you.

Going back to Italy

Employees leaving the UK can tell HMRC with form P85 and may be due a refund for the part-year. Any Italian incentives for people returning to work in Italy are a question for your commercialista; we can supply the UK figures and, where it is needed, an HMRC certificate of residence.

A UK resident is generally taxable here on worldwide income. Rent from a flat in Italy can also be taxed in Italy, where the property is; the UK then gives credit for the Italian tax, up to the UK tax on the same income. Italian bank interest is taxed here, with credit for Italian tax withheld. The credit always has to be claimed — it is never given automatically.

Pensions from INPS

Under the treaty, a private-sector pension paid by INPS to a UK resident is usually taxable only in the UK, and Italy can stop withholding tax once INPS has the treaty application. A pension for work in the Italian public sector is usually taxable only in Italy, unless you are also a British national. The UK taxes the whole of a foreign pension it has the right to tax. We read the pension statements and set out which applies to you.

Contributions paid to INPS are not transferred to the UK. Each country pays its own pension for the years worked there, and periods in both can be counted together to meet minimum qualifying conditions.

If Italy still considers you resident, it expects assets held abroad — a London flat, a UK bank account, an ISA — to be reported in the quadro RW of the Italian return, and it may charge IVIE on property abroad and IVAFE on financial assets abroad. IMU on a property you own in Italy, the cedolare secca on Italian rent and Italian succession tax belong to the same list.

These are Italian obligations. We do not advise on them, and you should be wary of anyone in London who says they can do both countries. Coordinate them with your commercialista in Italy; we will provide whatever UK figures and documents they need, so the two returns tell the same story.

Italy’s tax year is the calendar year. The UK’s runs from 6 April to 5 April, so every Italian year straddles two UK ones — which matters when matching Italian tax to UK income for a credit.

• 6 April — UK tax year begins
• 5 October — register for Self Assessment if you are new to it
• 31 January — online return filed and tax paid, often with a first payment on account
• 31 July — second payment on account, where one applies
• 22nd of each month — PAYE paid by employers

• Full UK tax calendar

The first meeting is free. Fees are agreed in writing before any work starts. We reply within one working day, in Italian, English, Turkish or Persian (Farsi), and we keep books in Xero and QuickBooks. Our office is in Finchley (N3), and everything can also be done by email, WhatsApp, phone or video.

The services we provide for the Italian-speaking community include VAT returns and registration and payroll. Each has its own page with what is included and how we work.