Employee or freelancer in Italy?
A salary offer and a freelance rate can't be compared as they are. Italian employees get paid holidays, severance pay (TFR), meal vouchers and unemployment benefit; freelancers on a partita IVA (VAT number) pay their own contributions and only earn on the days they work. This calculator turns both into one number: what you keep for each day you work, under 2026 Italian tax rules.
Employee
Freelancer (partita IVA)
[[ fmt(t.break_even_ral, { v: money(breakEvenRal) }) ]]
The yearly gross figure in your contract or offer. Italians call it RAL.
[[ fmt(t.break_even_revenue, { v: money(breakEvenRevenue) }) ]]
What you actually bill in a year, excluding VAT and already counting the weeks you don't work.
13 or 14, depending on the national contract (CCNL): the extra ones come in summer and December. It only changes the monthly figure, not the yearly one.
Tax regime
[[ t['help_regime_' + choice.regime] ]]
Value of each voucher, per day worked. Zero if you don't get them.
The director's fee always pays into the gestione separata. If the company is a craft or trading business and you work in it, you also pay artigiani or commercianti contributions on your share of the profit.
Where your contributions go. Professionals without a profession-specific fund pay into the gestione separata.
Contributions on top of the 9.19% INPS, such as the FIS and CIGS wage guarantee funds: they depend on industry and company size.
Costs you have only because you freelance: accountant (in Italy you'll want one), software, insurance. Switch regime for an estimate.
What you get on top of pay, in euros: health insurance, company welfare credit, car, phone.
Spending you'd have as an employee too but can deduct as a business: part of your rent, phone, car, training. It lowers your tax and doesn't reduce what you keep, since an employee pays for it out of net pay.
Set by your business activity code (ATECO): 67% for IT and consulting, 78% for technical and health professions, 40% for retail.
Flat tax rate
5% for the first five years of a new business, if you qualify; 15% after that.
What the company pays you. If it can't afford it, the calculator lowers it to what it can.
Days not worked [[ num(daysOff('employee'), 1) ]] days/year Leave, public holidays and sick days. Open to change them.
Holiday days plus paid leave hours (ROL) per year, in days. Usually 26 to 32.
Public holidays falling Monday to Friday: usually 10 or 11.
How many you expect in a year. 11.5 is the private sector average according to INPS, the Italian social security agency.
Days not worked [[ num(daysOff('freelance'), 1) ]] days/year The same days, except nobody pays you for them. Open to change them.
The weeks you take off, in working days.
Public holidays falling Monday to Friday: usually 10 or 11.
How many you expect in a year. 11.5 is the INPS average for private employees.
[[ fmt(t.pension_max, { v: money(pensionMax.employee) }) ]]
What you pay each year into a supplementary pension fund. At most €5,300 a year is deductible, the employer's share included.
Percentage of the gross salary, set by the national contract. Paid only if you pay in too.
[[ fmt(t.pension_max, { v: money(pensionMax.freelance) }) ]]
[[ t.pension_forfettario ]]
What you pay each year into a supplementary pension fund. Deductible up to €5,300 on the standard regime and in an SRL.
Being laid off
A key protection for Italian employees: if you are dismissed you get a settlement, then NASpI unemployment benefit. The calculator assumes a layoff after the years you set and spreads its value over each year worked.
Include the layoff safety net
How often you expect to lose your job.
Months on NASpI. The calculator assumes you worked long enough to get all of them (24 at most).
Cost to the employer
Social security, workplace insurance and the like, as a share of gross salary. Around 30-32%. Only used for the employer's cost.
What the company spends on you besides pay, like a company car. Only used for the employer's cost.
Same for both
These depend on where you live and your circumstances, not on the contract. On the flat-rate regime the local taxes and tax credits don't apply.
Your town's rate: 0.8% in Milan, up to 0.9% in Rome.
Not sure what to enter?Work them out with the tax deductions calculator
Euros of income tax saved per year: medical expenses (19% above €129), mortgage interest, dependent children, home renovation bonuses.
23% if you cash it before retiring, 9% to 15% if you keep it until retirement.
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[[ t.side_employee ]]
[[ money(emp.perDay) ]]
[[ t.side_freelance ]] · [[ t['regime_' + choice.regime] ]]
[[ money(free.perDay) ]]
[[ verdict ]]
[[ t.warn_forfettario ]]
[[ t.table_title ]]
| [[ t.table_item ]] | [[ t.side_employee ]] | [[ t.side_freelance_short ]] |
|---|---|---|
| [[ t['row_' + r.k] ]] [[ t['row_' + r.k + '_help'] ]] | [[ r.e ]][[ r.eNote ]] | [[ r.f ]][[ r.fNote ]] |
[[ t.chart_help ]]
| [[ t.table_item ]] | [[ t.side_employee ]] | [[ t.side_freelance_short ]] | |
|---|---|---|---|
| [[ t['part_' + p.k] ]] | [[ money(p.e) ]] | [[ money(p.f) ]] |
[[ t['detail_' + side.k] ]]
| [[ t['line_' + l.k] ]][[ l.note ]] | [[ l.sub ? money(l.v) : signedMoney(l.v) ]] |
[[ fmt(t.layoff_note, { sev: money(emp.layoff.severance), months: num(emp.layoff.severanceMonths, 1), naspi: money(emp.layoff.naspi.net), nmonths: num(emp.layoff.naspi.months, 1), monthly: money(emp.layoff.naspi.monthly), years: num(values.layoffYears, 1) }) ]]
How it works
The calculator applies the 2026 Italian tax and contribution rules to both sides: IRPEF income tax brackets at 23, 33 and 43%, the employee tax wedge cut, INPS or professional fund contributions for freelancers. Then it adds to each side what doesn't reach your bank account straight away but is still yours.
Why per day worked
An employee with 26 days of leave, 11 public holidays and a few sick days works about 210 days a year and is paid for 260. A freelancer who wants the same time off has to earn it all on the days they work. Dividing by days worked puts both on the same footing.
value per day = (net + benefits) / (260 − days not worked)
Employee: net pay plus benefits
From the gross salary come INPS contributions (9.19%, plus 1% above €56,224), then IRPEF with its tax credits, the tax wedge cut and the regional and municipal taxes. Meal vouchers and other benefits are added to that net, plus three things you get later:
- TFR (severance pay): every year the employer sets aside about one month's pay (gross / 13.5). When you cash it, it's taxed separately at your average IRPEF rate, which you'll find in the line-by-line view.
- Pension fund: what you and your employer pay in, minus the tax due when you cash it. Up to €5,300 a year is deductible in total: the example values use the whole allowance on both sides.
- Layoff: the settlement (6 to 36 months' pay under the Jobs Act rules) and NASpI unemployment benefit: 75% of monthly pay up to €1,456.72 plus 25% of the rest, at most €1,584.70 gross, dropping 3% a month from the sixth month. The net total is divided by the years worked. It's a subjective estimate: switch it off if it doesn't apply to you.
Freelancer: depends on the regime
Every regime starts from revenue, then takes off business costs, contributions and tax. What changes is how tax is worked out:
- Flat-rate (forfettario): taxable income is a fixed share of revenue (the coefficient); real costs don't count. On that income, minus contributions, you pay 5 or 15%. No IRPEF and no regional or municipal tax, but above €85,000 of revenue you're out of the regime.
- Standard (ordinario): IRPEF brackets on your real profit, revenue minus costs and contributions, with the self-employment tax credit and the regional and municipal taxes. Here it pays to deduct the costs you'd have anyway.
- SRL (limited company): the company pays IRAP (3.9%) and pays you a director's fee, with gestione separata contributions at 35.03%, two thirds paid by the company. The IRAP on the fee comes off the IRES corporate tax (24%) the company pays on the profit left. All the profit is paid out as dividends, taxed at 26%.
What it leaves out
- Dependants, the universal child allowance and other personal tax breaks: if you have them, enter them as tax credits.
- Contributions aren't lost money: they become your state pension. The calculator counts them as a cost on both sides and shows them separately in the comparison: an employee pays in 33% of gross salary in total, a freelancer in the gestione separata 26% of income, so the future pension will differ.
- The SRL is simplified: all profit comes out every year, as a fee or as dividends, and other partners or staff aren't considered.
- NASpI is taxed as if it were the only income that year, and the employee doesn't lose pay in the months out of work: it measures what the safety net is worth, not what happens in the year you're laid off.