If you decide to start your business as a sole proprietorship, you will start by using a very flexible instrument that is also easily adjustable according to your needs.
Its registration is quite simple. Only four elements are needed:
- a VAT number to be registered with Inland Revenue;
- registration on the list of national enterprises (Registro delle Imprese);
- registration with INPS (the National Social Security Institute);
- registration with INAIL (National Institute of Insurance against Accidents at the Workplace), if required for your business.
Based on the area that your company operates in, you will be asked to apply for some specific authorizations. Nonetheless, you will already be able to carry on business.
You can name your company. And such name will also include the your name and surname or your initials.
E.g.: possible names for setting up a company as a sole proprietorship could be: XYZ di Rossi Valerio (XYZ of Valerio Rossi), A. M. di Aldo Manzoni (A.M. of Aldo Manzoni).
Together with you, your wife or your husband and even your family members and relatives may also work.
In the first case, the individual firm will be referred to as a marital company.
In the second case, it will be referred to as a family business.
These forms of enterprise are described in Article 230 bis of the Italian Civil Code:
Unless consisting of a different relationship, the family member who works on a continuing basis in the family business has a right to maintenance, based on the income of the family and she/he has the right to share in the profits of the family business and the assets purchased with the profits as well as any increase in the company’s worth, also with regard to goodwill, in proportion to the quantity and quality of the work performed. The decisions relating to the use of profits and gains and those related to extraordinary management, productive guidelines and termination of the company are taken by the majority of the family members who participate in the company itself. Participating family members who do not have the full capacity to act are represented in the vote by those who exercise authority over them.
The woman's work is considered equivalent to the man's.
For the purposes of the provision in the first subparagraph, it is understood that the term relative refers to the spouse, relatives to the third generation and relatives-in-law to the second generation; as for family businesses the term refers to the spouse, the relatives to the third generation and relatives-in-law to the second.
The right to participate set in the first subparagraph may not be transferred, unless the transfer is made to a family member referred to in the previous paragraph and with the consent of all participants. Such right may be terminated by cash at the cessation of the work activity, for any reason, and also when the company itself is terminated. Payment can be made in more than one annual payment, to be determined by a judge if no previous agreement is reached.
In the event of a distribution of an estate or a company transfer, the subjects referred to in the first paragraph may pre-empt the company. If applicable, such right is applied according to the provisions of Article 732.
Family tacit co-ownerships in the agricultural field are regulated by usage if not in conflict with the previous regulations.