Italian Tax Residency Certificate and Treaty Relief

The Agenzia delle Entrate describes the attestato di residenza fiscale (certificate of tax residence) as an attestation a taxpayer may request to use the benefits of the double tax conventions (convenzioni contro le doppie imposizioni) and of EU law (its page on the attestation, updated 21 September 2026). It also appears as attestazione or certificato di residenza fiscale; in English, the certificate of tax residence or the Italian certificate of fiscal residence.

Several types of income from the same foreign State get one certificate. The legal basis the Agenzia lists is the Provvedimento (Director's decision) of 10 July 2013, which approved the model, and Directives 2011/96/EU (parent-subsidiary) and 2003/49/EC (interest and royalties). It is one of the cross-border papers beside accounting for a foreign-owned Italian company.

It is neither the municipal certificate of residence, which is not the tax test, nor the Business Register's certificato camerale, which attests registration.

Only a resident can ask. The Agenzia's page on how to obtain the attestation names resident individuals and these resident non-individuals:

• capital companies, such as an S.r.l. or an S.p.A.;
• commercial and non-commercial entities;
• collective investment undertakings;
• pension funds.

For partnerships and other fiscally transparent subjects, only the partners or beneficiaries resident in Italy may ask. The certificate records residence; it does not create it.

The request may go to any territorial office (Ufficio territoriale); no particular office is named for a company. A foreign company's Italian branch is not on the applicant list and its position is not stated: that point is for the Agenzia office. The branch question itself is set out in our branch or subsidiary set-up overview.

Art. 2(2) TUIR, as replaced by D.Lgs. 209/2023 and in force to 31 December 2026, makes an individual resident if, for most of the tax period, counting part-days, they have their residence, domicile or presence in Italy. Domicile is the place where their personal and family relations mainly develop.

Entry in the population register (anagrafe della popolazione residente) for most of the period is only a rebuttable presumption, so the municipal certificate of residence is not the tax test. Resident individuals are on the same applicant list as companies.

The request form has moved to a new address on the Agenzia's "Come ottenere" (how to obtain) page. The earlier version of the form asked for the foreign State where the income was produced, the year and the signer's capacity. Every field was compulsory, and a section let a named delegate collect the certificate.

That earlier form also carried a per-copy state charge. Its amount, payment code and channel, the language versions and the income categories were not re-read on the current form, so this guide prints none of them; the current form is the one to follow.

The resident has to act: for a refund of foreign tax, or the treaty rate at source, it gives the foreign payer or tax administration that authority's form, or an application. The form generally carries an attestation of Italian residence, signed and stamped by any Provincial Directorate (Agenzia delle Entrate, residents of Italy). Where the foreign State has prepared no model, the Agenzia's own model, approved by the Provvedimento of 10 July 2013, is used.

Some foreign administrations accept only their own form, stamped and signed. Where the foreign model is substantially similar to the Italian one, the office may attest residence on it and still issues the Italian certificate, which meets the domestic administrative duty (Agenzia delle Entrate, treaty FAQ).

The offices may add further statements a foreign administration asks for; the Agenzia's example is Italian pension funds, which Portugal and France ask for more than residence under the words "liable to tax" in Art. 4 of those treaties.

The Agenzia's models and instructions page lists forms for residents of Italy for seven countries: Austria, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, the United States and Switzerland. For any other State, the Italian model or the foreign State's own form applies, on our reading.

Legalisation is not automatic. Under Art. 33(1) D.P.R. 445/2000, signatures on documents formed in Italy for use before foreign authorities are legalised, where that authority requires it, by the competent Ministry's central or local organs or by the bodies it delegates.

Between Contracting States of the Hague Convention of 5 October 1961, which covers administrative documents (Art. 1), the apostille is the only formality that may be required (Art. 3). It cannot be required where the destination State's law or practice, or an agreement, abolished or simplified it, and each State designates its issuing authorities (Art. 6).

No source read says whether the Agenzia's attestation can be apostilled, or by which Italian office. The Milan Chamber of Commerce points to the local Prefecture (Prefettura) for an apostille on its own certificates only. The foreign authority says what it requires.

Under Art. 165(1) TUIR, text in force 7 October 2015 to 31 December 2026, an Italian resident deducts from the net Italian tax the foreign tax paid finally on foreign income, up to the share of Italian tax that income bears.

The deduction is calculated in the return for the period the foreign income belongs to, if the final payment comes first; a later payment follows comma 7 (Art. 165(4)). No deduction is due if the return omits the foreign income (Art. 165(8)); see tax returns in Italy. Foreign tax later refunded is therefore not a credit: the certificate recovers the excess abroad, on our reading.

Art. 169(1) TUIR, text in force 1 January 2004 to 31 December 2026, says that the TUIR applies, if more favourable to the taxpayer, also in derogation of the international agreements against double taxation. The taxpayer relies on the more favourable rule.

The payer withholds the domestic rate. On dividends to non-residents that is 26%, set by Art. 3(1) D.L. 66/2014 for income collectable from 1 July 2014 (Art. 3(6)); the higher rate still printed in Art. 27(3) D.P.R. 600/1973 is superseded. A company resident and taxed in an EU or EEA State pays a lower rate on request. Non-residents who prove final foreign tax on the same profits may claim a refund of up to 11/26 of the withholding (Art. 27(3), as in force in 2026). More on the dividend tax page.

Because, where relief at source is wanted, the papers must be in hand by the payment date, they are settled before the first payment abroad, with an English-speaking tax adviser in Italy; the certificate itself comes from the recipient's own tax authority.

A worked example built from the rules on this page, not a client case. An S.r.l. has its registered office in Milan and a foreign parent. Before it claims treaty relief abroad, its file holds the residence facts (the registered office, where the board decides), the foreign State's form or the Agenzia's model, and the channel: PEC with a digital signature.

Before the first dividend, where relief at source is wanted, the parent's own certificate and declaration must be in the company's hands by the payment date. On such a file we check the residence facts in the company's records, prepare the request, ask the parent for its home certificate and coordinate with the company's accounting provider.