Guide · Entering Italy
Italian investment in Latin America: €40 billion. Going the other way: €2.6 billion. Hardly anyone has taken the road back.
A 31-page guide and a 67-step checklist for taking a Latin American company into Italy. Agent, branch or SRL? Then VAT and the treaties, visas for your people, hiring, incentives, banks and how business gets done here. Costs, timings and a 90-day plan included.
English, Spanish and PortuguesePDF · Excel · Google SheetsInstant download after payment
Six starting points, one arrival: Milan.
Where you are
An Italian customer asked for an Italian invoice. Where does your team even start?
The opportunity is real. Maybe it’s a distributor in Lombardy, maybe a manufacturer who’s tried your product, or a partner who’d like to open Milan. On the other side sit tax codes, apostilles, notaries, a national e-invoicing system and an agency law unlike yours.
Most of what you’ll find was written for Europeans, or for Italians going abroad. Very little looks at the road from Mexico City, Bogotá or São Paulo.
Four open items that hold up the first order.
What few people tell you
Three Italian rules that change your plan.
Notice to an agent grows every year
The Civil Code sets a minimum notice of one month in the first year, rising to six months from the sixth, plus an indemnity of up to a year of commissions. Better to know before you sign than when you want out.
The company registers in 15 days. The slow part comes first
After the notary deed, an SRL is registered in about 15 days if nothing is rejected. The months go before that: tax codes, apostilles, sworn translations and the bank account. Start there.
Some permits for your team sit outside the quotas
An intra-corporate transfer doesn’t depend on the yearly flows quota, and clearance comes within 45 days of the application. Many companies never consider it.
The price of improvising
What entering without a method costs.
Withholding without a treaty
Italy withholds 26% on dividends a subsidiary pays to a foreign parent. With Mexico or Brazil, the treaty cuts that to 15%. With Chile it’s 5% or 10%. Getting the lower rate comes down to paperwork, and it has to be sorted before the payment goes out.
The establishment nobody declared
An office that negotiates prices, or an agent who signs for you, can create a permanent establishment. Italy then taxes that profit at 24% IRES plus IRAP, often with penalties for the years nobody filed.
The incentive lost by spending early
Under Nuova Sabatini, if the investment starts before the application, with an order, an invoice or a payment, the aid is revoked in full. Other programmes work the same way.
Where you want to be
Now picture day 90.
Your distributor is already selling in Lombardy. The Italian company has a VAT number and invoices through SDI. Your engineer arrived on a permit outside the quotas, and the first big customer signed with an Italian counterpart.
No step sat waiting for months when it could have run in parallel. The first year closes without a tax surprise.
What’s inside
Seven files, three languages.
Entering Italy, the guide in English
16 chapters. First the big choice: agent, distributor, branch or SRL. Behind it wait tax and treaties, visas, hiring, incentives and banks, then the public sector and business culture. Last, a 90-day plan and a worked example.
Guía Entrar en Italia, in Spanish
The same guide, written directly in Spanish. Its examples come from Mexico, Argentina and Chile, for the people on your team across Spanish-speaking Latin America.
Guia Entrar na Itália, in Portuguese
The same guide again, in Brazilian Portuguese. Brazilian examples, and a closer look at the Italy-Brazil treaty.
Interactive checklist
Every step with owner, documents, typical time and cost. Set your entry model once and the totals leave out anything that doesn’t apply. It runs in Excel, and in Google Sheets too.
Checklist on paper
The same list in English, Spanish and Portuguese, with boxes to tick in the meeting with your accountant or lawyer.
A page from the guide
Chapter 7’s withholding taxes, country by country.
When your Italian company pays its parent, Italy withholds tax at source. This table sums up the treaty caps for the four countries that ask most often.
Chapter 7 · Tax basics and the treaties
Maximum withholding under the treaty
| Country | Dividends | Interest | Royalties |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 15% | 15% | 15% (25% trademarks) |
| Argentina | 15% | 20% | 10% or 18% |
| Mexico | 15% | 15% (10% banks) | 15% |
| Chile | 5% or 10% | 4% or 10% | 2% or 10% |
Italy withholds 26% on dividends and interest, and 30% on 75% of royalties.
For trademark royalties paid to Brazil, Italy’s own rule (22.5% in effect) beats the treaty cap (25%), so the Italian rule applies.
Caps checked on 7 October 2026. Treaty conditions and paperwork decide whether you get them; the guide has the detail and the other treaties in force.
The guide
One download, three languages.
€79
Instant download after payment
Buy nowBy the end of chapter 2 you know which entry model fits and which steps you can skip.
- The guide in English, Spanish and Portuguese (PDF)
- 67-step checklist for Excel and Google Sheets, with automatic totals
- Printable checklist in all three languages
- October 2026 edition, every file dated
- Licence for your own company or companies
How it works
Three steps, one afternoon.
Buy
Pay at checkout. That’s it, the download starts by itself, and we email you the link as a backup.
Decide
Chapters 1 and 2 ask you six questions. Your answers point to the entry model you’ll set in the checklist.
Move
The 90-day plan does the rest: for every step, who does it, which papers, how long, how much.
Why Adaxit
Written in Milan, facing your market.
Adaxit is an advisory firm based in Milan. We’ve been getting founders and SMEs ready to grow across Italy, Europe, the US and Latin America since 2019. Most of what’s in this guide, people normally pick up over several meetings with accountants, notaries and lawyers.
Checked
We checked each rule, amount and deadline against an official or professional source on 7 October 2026. They’re all listed at the end.
From your side
Treaties with Brazil, Argentina, Mexico and Chile, the apostille in each country and the visa routes that work for Latin American teams.
In sequence
The chapters put decisions in the order real life throws them at you; the checklist hands each one to somebody.
Plain about limits
It’s general information, not legal or tax advice. We don’t provide investment services, either.
Honest fit
Sound like you?
It’s for you if
- Your company’s in Latin America, and you’ve got something real in Italy: a customer, a distributor, or a concrete plan.
- You want to choose between agent, office, branch or SRL with numbers, not by instinct.
- You’ll move people to Italy or hire there in the coming months.
It’s not for you if
- You’d rather plan the entry with someone: that’s what our cross-border expansion service is for.
- You’re after a legal or tax opinion on your own case. By all means read the guide first, but you’ll still need that meeting.
Questions
Before you buy.
How do I get the files?
You download them right after payment, and a copy of the link is emailed to you.
Does it help if my company isn’t from Brazil, Argentina, Mexico or Chile?
Yes. Most of the guide applies to any company from outside the EU. The treaties with those four get full detail. The other treaties in force are named too, for example with Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Uruguay and Venezuela.
We’re on Google Sheets. Will it work?
Yes, once it’s uploaded to Google Drive and opened with Sheets. Formulas, drop-downs, colours: nothing gets lost on the way over, though Google does redraw the chart. No macros.
Rules change. Then what?
Each file carries its date. This one’s the October 2026 edition, checked on 7 October. Rules shift, so we’d always have your accountant or lawyer confirm what applies to you before acting.
Can it promise me a visa? Or an incentive?
No. You get each visa route and programme spelled out, conditions and timing included. Approval is another matter: no guide can promise it. Adaxit doesn’t provide investment services.
Can my team use it?
Yes, within your own company or companies: the licence covers your team. All we ask is that the files aren’t resold or posted publicly.
Is there more to read first?
Yes. Our free guides on opening a company in Italy as a foreigner and the Italia Startup Visa are a good start.
Your entry into Italy
A 90-day plan from the first decision to the first Italian invoice. Start today.
Buy now, then spend an afternoon this week on chapters 1 and 2. Which model? What will it cost? Which step comes first? You’ll know.
Rather plan it with us? See the cross-border expansion serviceSources: MAECI, Osservatorio economico, Italy-Latin America infographic on ISTAT data (April 2026), investment stock 2024; Italian Civil Code arts. 1750 and 1751; TUIR art. 162 (permanent establishment); Consolidated Immigration Act art. 27-quinquies; PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Italy, corporate taxes and withholding taxes (13 July 2026); Italy-Brazil and Italy-Argentina treaties; Chile SII Circular 5 of 2020; NotaiOnline, SRL formation costs (24 September 2026); MIMIT, Nuova Sabatini circular, point 6.7. All consulted on 7 October 2026. Contents: Adaxit, Entering Italy, October 2026 edition.