Video · From Italy
US Company from Italy? Managed Day to Day from Italy, It's Italian (2026)
Running a US company from Italy? Since 2024, a company managed day to day from Italy for most of the tax year is Italian-resident and pays Italian tax. 4:49 long, published .
Transcript
What the video says
0:00Can an Italian resident own a US LLC?
It's late afternoon in Milan, and Chiara's software has a buyer in the US. They'd rather sign with a US company, so she's wondering about forming one. On the American side, she can have one. No social security number, and no trip to the US. We're BaseAcross. We set up US companies for founders outside America, so we'll be straight with you. From Italy, the hard part is where the company is run.
Managed day to day from Italy, a US company is Italian.
0:29Do you need a US company for Stripe in Italy?
First, does she need one at all? For card payments, probably not. The big card processor already supports businesses in Italy, so an Italian S.R.L. can use it. A US company is for selling into the US as a US vendor, US contracts, US investors, or platforms that need one. If you already have an S.R.L., it can own a US company as its subsidiary. Check the rules on controlled foreign companies if the US company pays little tax.
Chiara's buyer wants a US contracting party, so she has her reason.
1:02Can Italy tax your US company as Italian?
Here's the Italian rule that shapes everything else. Since twenty twenty-four, a company is Italian-resident if, for most of the tax year, its legal office, its place of effective management or its principal place of day-to-day management is in Italy. Then it pays Italy's company taxes. Where the customers are doesn't decide it any more. The old test, based on the main business activity, was dropped.
A US company Chiara runs from her desk in Milan is the case to take to a commercialista before she forms it.
1:33Wyoming LLC or Delaware C-Corp, and an EIN without an SSN
The American paperwork is the simpler part. A Wyoming LLC suits an owner-run business selling to US customers, once you know where it will be managed. A Delaware C-Corp suits raising from US investors. The company needs a registered agent, an address in that state for legal papers, not where you work. Then the EIN, the company's US tax number. Without a social security number or an ITIN, the application goes on a separate IRS form instead of the online tool. You don't need an Italian S.R.L. to form it.
Prices are in US dollars, so check your card's exchange rate and fees.
2:10Which US accounts work from Italy?
Where can the dollars land? Founders living in Italy can apply to a US fintech bank, because Italy isn't on its list of countries it doesn't serve. The bank decides each application. A multi-currency account can give a US company run from Italy US dollar account details, and it reviews each business. Another US bank doesn't bar Italy, but it asks every owner for a physical US address. Each provider decides for itself. With a US account, Chiara's company can apply to the card processor as a US business.
It reviews the business and the person behind it, and can decline.
2:47Do you report the US company in quadro RW?
Then Italy's side. Your holding in the US company goes on your Italian return, in quadro RW, with its value and your percentage, and it bears IVAFE, a yearly tax on foreign financial assets. Here's the guide's illustration. Say Chiara puts one thousand euros into her Wyoming LLC as its capital, and owns all of it. She shows the holding at that value, and IVAFE comes to two euros for the year. That's an illustration, not a quote. The company's own US account, which she only runs as its manager, isn't hers to report. Her personal accounts abroad are, once together they pass a set amount in the year.
How Italy classifies the LLC, how to value it in quadro RW, and how its payments to her are taxed, are questions for her commercialista.
3:36Do you pay US tax, and is there a US–Italy treaty?
In America, there's an income tax treaty with Italy, and it's in force. It caps the tax the US withholds on interest, dividends and most royalties paid to you. Pay for work you do in Italy generally isn't US income, so the treaty matters less for a services business. A single-owner LLC with no US office or staff often owes no US income tax on it. It still files a report with the IRS when it has reportable transactions with you. Missing it is expensive.
For a calendar-year company, it's usually due in mid-April.
4:09What to do first, in order
Put together, the order runs like this. Start with your commercialista: whether you need a US company at all, how Italy will classify it, and where it will be managed day to day. Then choose the name and the registered agent, file the company with the state, and check the operating documents against your passport. Next the EIN, then the bank and payment accounts. Keep the company's books and a record of where it's managed, and put the IRS report, quadro RW and your Italian return on one calendar. The full guide, with every source and a checklist for your adviser, is linked below. And Chiara?
Before she signs with the buyer, she's settling where the company is run.
The founder in the video is an example, not a customer. The rules in it were checked when it was made; the guide carries the current sources.
The guide
Costs, documents, timelines and the rules in Italy, with sources.
Read the guide for ItalyWatch on YouTube