Italian Tax Code for Foreigners: Complete Guide 2025

Why foreigners need a tax code in Italy

The tax code for foreigners (in Italian, codice fiscale) is the single identifier that lets you exist, on paper, inside the Italian system. It is not optional. The moment you want to sign a job contract, open a bank account, or rent a flat, someone will ask for it — and without it, the answer is no.

I have watched people land in Italy on a Friday and discover, on Monday, that the apartment they had basically secured could not be put in their name. The landlord needed the code. The bank needed the code. Even the SIM card needed the code.

According to ISTAT, more than five million foreign nationals live in Italy, and every one of them holds an Italian tax code. It runs your paperwork. Lose sight of that and the bureaucracy stalls.

What you cannot do without it

• Work: sign any employment or freelance contract
• Healthcare: register with the National Health Service (SSN) and get your Italian health card
• Banking: open a current account or apply for a card
• Housing: sign a lease or buy property
• Utilities: activate electricity, gas, water, phone, internet
• Study: enrol at a school, university, or training course
• Vehicles: register a car, take out insurance
• Public services: set up SPID, deal with INPS, use municipal portals

Who can apply for a tax code

Short version: almost anyone who needs to be identified for tax purposes in Italy. Your nationality does not block you, and neither does the reason you are here. A student, a retiree buying a holiday home, a remote worker, a refugee — all eligible.

The two broad groups

And here is the part people miss: you do not have to live in Italy to get one. Buying property from abroad, receiving an inheritance, opening an Italian company — any of these can require a tax code while you are still sitting in another country. More on that further down.

Required documents

What you bring depends on where your passport is from and why you are applying. The lists below cover the standard cases. Keep originals on you — Italian offices like to see the real thing, not a photocopy.

EU citizens

• Valid ID card or passport
• Completed form AA4/8 (you can fill it in at the office)

Non-EU citizens

• Valid passport, with entry visa if your country needs one
• Residence permit, or the postal receipt (ricevuta) of your application
• Completed form AA4/8
• Proof of why you are staying: work contract, university admission, family reunion papers

Need the full breakdown by situation? We keep a dedicated guide on the documents required for the tax code.

Where to apply for a tax code

There is more than one door. Pick the one that fits where you are right now.

1. The Italian Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate)

This is the main route. Walk into any Italian Revenue Agencyoffice in the country, hand over your documents, and you usually leave with the code printed on a sheet of paper the same day. It is immediate, and it is free.

• No appointment needed for a plain tax code request, in most offices
• Typical opening hours are Monday to Friday, roughly 8:30 to 13:00
• The plastic health card follows by post in two to four weeks

2. Italian consulates and embassies abroad

Still in your home country and need the code before you arrive? An Italian consulate can issue it. This is the classic move for someone with a job already lined up, or a student finalising enrolment from afar.

3. The single immigration desk (Sportello Unico)

Non-EU nationals going through the residence permit process often get the tax code issued at the same time, at the Prefecture. Two birds, one queue.

4. The town hall (sometimes)

A few municipalities issue the code when you register your residence. It is not the norm, so do not count on it — but ask.

Online procedure

Can you skip the queue entirely and do this from your sofa? Sometimes. The Revenue Agency runs a digital channel, but it is narrower than people hope.

1. Log in to the Revenue Agency online servicesportal
2. Choose the tax code request option
3. Fill in your personal details
4. Upload scans of the required documents
5. Submit, then wait for the confirmation email

The catch: the online path generally assumes you already hold Italian digital credentials (SPID, CIE, or CNS), or that a tax representative in Italy is acting for you. For a brand-new arrival with none of those, the office counter is still faster. Honest truth.

Procedure for EU citizens

Citizens of the European Union, the European Economic Area (Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein) and Switzerland have it easy here. Freedom-of-movement rules cut the paperwork down to almost nothing.

Step by step

1. Go to a Revenue Agency office
2. Show a valid ID card or passport
3. Fill in form AA4/8
4. Walk out with the code, same day

Procedure for non-EU citizens

For everyone outside the EU bubble, the process asks for more — specifically, proof of your immigration status. Nothing dramatic, just a few extra documents.

What you typically need

• Passport with a valid entry visa, if your country requires a visa
• Residence permit, or the receipt of the application (the postal kit)
• For work: an employment contract or a letter from the employer
• For study: university enrolment or an admission letter
• For family reunion: documents proving the resident relative

Here is the reassuring bit. You can apply before the residence permit lands in your hands — the ricevuta, the receipt confirming you have applied, is enough for the Revenue Agency. Issue is still immediate when the file is complete; if they need to verify something, it can take a few days.

Processing times

How long until you actually hold the thing? It depends entirely on the channel you chose.

The paper certificate is instant at the counter. The plastic health card, which carries your code on a chip, is the slow part — budget two to four weeks of postal limbo for that.

Special cases

Babies born in Italy to foreign parents

A child born in Italy to foreign parents receives an Italian tax code automatically at birth, whatever the parents' nationality. No separate trip to the office.

Foreigners who do not live here

You can hold the code without ever residing in Italy. Common reasons:

• Buying property
• Receiving an inheritance
• Making a financial investment
• Trading with Italian companies, or directing one

Names with special characters

The code only uses the 26 letters A–Z. No accents, no umlauts. So the system strips them:

• Müller → MULLER
• José → JOSE
• François → FRANCOIS
• Björk → BJORK

Asylum seekers and refugees

Asylum seekers get a tax code when they formalise their request for international protection. It is the key that opens reception services, so it is issued early in the process.

Common mistakes to avoid with the tax code for foreigners

Most problems with a tax code for foreigners trace back to small data slips at the point of application. None of these are hard to avoid once you know to look.

1. Name mismatch: the name on the code must match the passport, letter for letter.
2. Wrong birth date: Italy writes dates as DD/MM/YYYY — double-check the order.
3. Wrong country of birth: it has to be the correct foreign state, with the right Z code (see below).
4. Expired documents: everything you present must still be valid.
5. Missing translations: some foreign-language documents need a sworn translation, which trips people up at the last minute.

Country codes for those born abroad

For anyone born outside Italy, positions 12–15 of the code carry a country code starting withZ. A few of the common ones, with the correct values:

• Z110 — France
• Z112 — Germany
• Z114 — United Kingdom
• Z404 — United States
• Z131 — Spain
• Z127 — Poland
• Z129 — Romania
• Z602 — Brazil

The mechanics behind these codes are set out in the founding legislation, DPR 605/1973, available on Normattiva. For a citizen-specific walkthrough, see our notes on the tax code for EU citizens.

Not sure your code is right? Run the data through our calculator, then check whether a tax code is valid in seconds. Holding a code and want to read it back — birth date, sex, country — without the paperwork? The reverse lookup tool does exactly that.

Frequently asked questions