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The FormaItalia Team in Milan

Four people in one Milan office prepare and review what you read on this site. Each card below shows what the person works on and the pages they prepare.

Stefano Colombo

Head of Corporate Structuring

  • Office: Milan
  • Years of practice: 15
  • Education: Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan (2010)
  • Career start: the company-law team of a Milan notarial practice
  • Languages: Italian (native), English (fluent), German (working)
  • Works on: vehicle choice for foreign groups, the holding layer, branch or subsidiary, S.p.A. governance, restructuring and liquidation, fiduciary holding, ready-made S.r.l. takeovers, IP in a company

Stefano Colombo designs the Italian side of foreign groups before anything is filed: the vehicle, the holding layer, the branch or subsidiary question, the capital and the governance. He began in the company-law team of a Milan notarial practice and now maps a client's ownership chart onto Italian deeds, statutes and Register filings, and coordinates the notary who receives them.

Reviews the pages the other three prepare.

Pages Stefano prepares:

Elena Riva

Formation and Register Lead

  • Office: Milan
  • Years of practice: 11
  • Education: Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca (2014)
  • Career start: the company-secretarial team of a large international advisory firm's Milan office
  • Languages: Italian (native), English (fluent), French (working)
  • Works on: S.r.l. and S.r.l.s. formation, the notary's checklist, registered office, Register filings and yearly duties, the beneficial-owner filing, tax code, PEC and VAT numbers, bank documents

Elena Riva runs the formation file from the first identity document to the Register entry: the tax codes, the notary's checklist, the company PEC, the registered office and the filings that follow. She started in company-secretarial work in Milan and now handles what non-resident founders find hardest: every Italian number and record in the right order.

Reviews colleagues' pages for formation, the Register and registration numbers.

Pages Elena prepares:

Andrea Sala

Tax and Cross-Border Compliance Lead

  • Office: Milan
  • Years of practice: 12
  • Education: Università Commerciale Luigi Bocconi, Milan (2013)
  • Career start: the corporate tax department of a large international advisory firm in Milan
  • Languages: Italian (native), English (fluent), Spanish (working)
  • Works on: corporate tax and yearly returns, which an authorised intermediary transmits, VAT for companies established abroad, e-invoicing, withholding on dividends and interest, treaties and residence certificates

Andrea Sala follows the money once an Italian company exists: its corporate tax, the tax withheld when profits, interest or royalties leave Italy, and the relief a foreign parent can claim. He trained in corporate tax at an international advisory firm in Milan and now builds each client's filing calendar with the intermediary who transmits the returns.

Reviews colleagues' pages for tax and cross-border compliance.

Pages Andrea prepares:

Silvia Brivio

Regulatory and Founder Mobility Lead

  • Office: Milan
  • Years of practice: 9
  • Education: Università degli Studi di Pavia (2016)
  • Career start: the compliance function of a payments business in Milan
  • Languages: Italian (native), English (fluent), Portuguese (working)
  • Works on: CASP, e-money and payment-institution files the client lodges, trade mark and patent filings, founder visas and permits, hiring from abroad and payroll coordination

Silvia Brivio prepares the files that let a business, or its founder, operate in Italy: a crypto or payments authorisation, a trade mark or patent filing, and the visa and permit route of the people who run the company. She came from compliance in a Milan payments business and checks each file against the authority's own list.

Pages Silvia prepares:

How a page is prepared and reviewed

  1. Prepared

    The person whose practice area the page covers writes it, tying every figure to the rule it comes from and the date that rule applies.

  2. Reviewed

    A colleague from a different practice area reads and checks it; an author never reviews their own page.

  3. Read before publication

    A person reads the whole page as a visitor would, before it goes live on the site.

  4. Kept current

    Each page shows the date it was last updated and is read again when a rule it cites changes.

Who does the reserved acts

  • The notary receives every deed of incorporation and statute change; we prepare and coordinate.
  • Tax returns are transmitted by an authorised intermediary or the company; we coordinate.
  • Payroll is run by an enrolled consulente del lavoro (labour consultant); we coordinate.
  • Shares held for a client sit with an authorised società fiduciaria (fiduciary company).
  • Licence and authorisation applications are lodged by the client; we prepare the file.
  • The statutory audit is reserved to registered auditors, and we do not offer it.
  • Opening an account is the bank's decision; we prepare the documents it asks for.

None of the four uses a regulated professional title. To reach any of them, write through the contact page; more about the firm is on the about page.