Flat-rate scheme
Requirements, tax rates and when it pays off.
Open28 July 2026 · VAT number
Opening a VAT number mid-year: what really changes
The question almost always comes in September: "is it better to open my partita IVA (Italian VAT number) now or wait until January?" The answer depends on two mechanisms that hardly anyone knows about until they run into them.
01 · The flat-rate scheme
The first mechanism: the threshold is scaled to the days of activity
The flat-rate scheme (regime forfettario) applies up to €85,000 of revenue or fees received in the year. The point people miss is that, for the year in which the activity starts, that threshold is not looked at in absolute terms: it is scaled to the days of activity.
An example makes the idea clear. You open on 1 September and by 31 December you receive €40,000. In absolute terms you are nowhere near €85,000 and you feel safe. But €40,000 received in 122 days is equivalent, on an annual basis, to about €119,700: above the threshold. You have used the flat-rate scheme quite properly for that year, but from the following year you leave it, and you find yourself in the ordinary regime, with VAT, accounting registers and the sector studies (studi di settore), since replaced by the ISA reliability indices, that you had not thought about.
If you open in January, you have twelve months to stay under the threshold. If you open in September, you have four, and the effective threshold for those four months is about €28,400. This is not a detail: it is the difference between staying on the flat-rate scheme and not staying on it.
02 · The tax year
The second mechanism: the 5% is counted in tax years, not months
New activities that meet the required conditions pay a substitute tax of 5% instead of 15%. The benefit lasts five tax years, and a tax year is the calendar year: whether you worked twelve months or four, that year is used up.
If you open on 1 September 2026, you will have the 5% rate for 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030. In practice that is four years and four months of reduced-rate activity. If you open on 1 January 2027, you will have it for 2027-2031: five full years. All else being equal, opening in September costs you eight months of the reduced rate.
Be careful, though, not to turn this into an automatic rule. If you already have work to invoice in September, putting off the opening means giving up that turnover or collecting it irregularly, and neither is a good idea. The calculation must be done on the real numbers, not on the principle.
03 · The pension fund
And what about contributions?
Here the answer changes depending on the pension fund. Those who fall under the Gestione Separata of INPS (the Italian social security institute), typically professionals without a fund of their own profession, pay a percentage of their income: if income is low, the contribution is low, and opening mid-year does not create any extra cost.
Those who register instead with the artisans' or traders' scheme pay fixed minimum contributions, due regardless of the income they produce. Those minimums are proportioned to the months of registration, so opening in September does not make you pay for the whole year; but every month of registration costs money, even if you invoiced nothing in that month. It is one more reason not to open "just in case" a few months before you have clients.
04 · Before choosing
Three questions to ask before choosing when to open your VAT number
How much do you expect to receive between now and December?
If the annualised projection goes over €85,000, the flat-rate scheme will last only one year, and you might as well set up the ordinary regime from the start.
Do you already have work to invoice?
If so, the client decides the date, not the optimisation. If not, waiting until January is almost always more efficient.
Which pension fund will you end up in?
With fixed contributions, every month of opening early is a certain cost; with the Gestione Separata, it is not.
05 · To avoid
A mistake we see often
Opening a VAT number "to be ready", months before you have your first client. If things go reasonably well, you pay contributions for an activity that does not exist; if they go badly, you use up the first of the five tax years at 5% without invoicing a single euro. You open a VAT number when you need to issue your first invoice, not before.
The flip side exists and is just as wrong: receiving fees without a VAT number and putting off the opening. Occasional work (prestazioni occasionali) has narrow limits, and going beyond them is not only irregular but also triggers the obligation to register, with retroactive effect.
In short: the opening date is not a formality. It shifts the flat-rate threshold, it shifts how long the 5% rate lasts and, with some pension funds, it shifts your contributions. These are three variables that can be worked out in half an hour, before you open. Complete guide to opening a VAT number.
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