Italian-Speaking Accountant in London

Many of our clients run restaurants, coffee shops, delis, construction and trade firms, creative studios and online businesses. We understand how these businesses work and where the tax and cash-flow pressure points are. As an Italian business accountant in London we help you register correctly, stay on top of HMRC deadlines, claim the expenses you are entitled to, and plan ahead so there are no surprises.

• Company formation and registration for new businesses
• Bookkeeping, VAT returns and Making Tax Digital
• PAYE payroll and CIS for construction subcontractors
• Year-end accounts and corporation tax for limited companies
• Self-assessment tax returns for sole traders and directors

If you have income or property in Italy as well as the UK, your tax position needs care: residence and domicile, the UK–Italy double taxation treaty, foreign income reporting and rental profits abroad. We work through it with you so the same income is not taxed twice and everything is declared correctly to HMRC.

Come chartered accountants non ci limitiamo alla dichiarazione di fine anno: ti seguiamo mentre l’attività cresce. Pianificazione fiscale, flusso di cassa e tutta la corrispondenza con HMRC li gestiamo noi — tu pensa al tuo lavoro.

The Italian community in London is heavily represented in hospitality, food retail, construction and the design and creative professions. Each brings its own tax questions — the VAT split on hot and cold food, CIS deductions on site work, and the IR35 position for freelancers working through their own companies:

• Accountant for restaurants, cafés and takeaways
• CIS accountant for construction subcontractors
• Contractor accountant and IR35 advice

UK tax residents are generally taxable here on worldwide income, so an apartment let in Italy, Italian bank interest or a gain on an Italian sale all need to be reported on a UK return. The UK–Italy double taxation agreement means tax paid in Italy can usually be credited against the UK liability, so the same income is not taxed twice — but the credit is only given if it is claimed.

Se vive nel Regno Unito ma ha immobili o redditi in Italia, questi vanno generalmente dichiarati anche qui. La convenzione contro le doppie imposizioni permette di scomputare l’imposta già pagata in Italia, ma occorre presentare la dichiarazione e richiedere il credito.

Italians who arrive already self-employed tend to expect the UK system to be a variation on the one they know. It is not, and the differences run in both directions — some of it is dramatically simpler, and one part is harder than people expect.

Registering is free and immediate

There is no UK equivalent of opening a partita IVA with a professional intermediary and a cost attached. You register with HMRC for self-assessment, you are given a taxpayer reference, and you begin. There is no obligation to issue electronically formatted invoices to a central system, and no separate professional fund to join.

VAT works on a threshold, not from the first invoice

This is the difference that surprises people most. In the UK you do not register for VAT because you are in business — you register because your taxable turnover has crossed the registration threshold in the last twelve months, or because you expect to cross it within the next thirty days. Below it, registration is optional and often not worth it. Crossing it and not noticing, on the other hand, is the single most common expensive mistake we correct, because the liability starts from the date you should have registered rather than the date you did.

National Insurance replaces the contributions you are used to

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

Se sei arrivato da poco con una partita IVA ancora aperta in Italia, la prima cosa da chiarire non è quale regime convenga, ma dove sei fiscalmente residente. Le due posizioni non si escludono da sole, e la risposta dipende dai fatti concreti — non dalla sola iscrizione all’AIRE.

Moving between countries part-way through a tax year is where most of the genuine complexity sits, and it is also where people most often assume something simple and are wrong.

UK residence is decided by a test, not by a registration

Whether you are UK tax resident for a year is determined by the Statutory Residence Test — a set of rules about days spent here and the ties you have to the country. It is not decided by where you are registered, which passport you hold, or where you pay rent. Two people with identical paperwork can reach different answers because they spent different numbers of nights here.

Split-year treatment

Where you arrive or leave part-way through a year, it may be possible to split the year so that you are taxed as UK resident only for the part you were actually here. It is not automatic and it does not apply in every case — it depends which of the specific cases you fall into. This is worth checking in the year it happens, because it can make a substantial difference and it is awkward to revisit later.

We do not advise on the Italian side

And you should be wary of anyone who says otherwise. We handle the UK position properly and work alongside your commercialista on the Italian one; the two have to be consistent, and the fastest way to get there is for each side to do the part it actually knows. Where you do not have anyone in Italy, we will say so rather than improvise.

• Self-assessment accountant
• Restaurants, cafés and takeaways
• Start-ups and new companies
• VAT accountant