Employer of Record in Italy

How hiring through an employer of record works in Italy

The local employer signs the Italian contract, registers the employment and runs payroll, while your managers direct the daily work. Decree-Law 510/1996 requires a private employer to notify the employment service of a new relationship by the day before it starts.

The Decreto Trasparenza (Legislative Decree 104/2022) requires the written contract, or a copy of that notification, before work begins, with the remaining terms in writing within seven days, and some within a month.

Employer costs and contributions in Italy

An INPS circular gives the general rules: a 33% pension rate split 23.81% employer and 9.19% employee, maternity 0.24%, sickness 2.44%, and unemployment (NASpI) 1.31% plus a 0.30% training levy. The employer lines add up to 28.10% of taxable pay before other charges.

Further charges vary by sector, size and contract, and INAIL's accident premium falls on the employer. For 2026 INPS set a contribution ceiling of EUR 122,295 a year, which applies only to workers with no contributions before 1996, with an extra 1% paid by the employee above EUR 56,224.

Pay, hours and leave in Italy

• Minimum and extra pay: Decree-Law 62/2026 names collective bargaining as the way to set the "just wage", measured against the total package of the most representative national agreement, which includes additional monthly payments often called the thirteenth or fourteenth month. Identify the agreement before you set annual cost.
• Hours: the normal week is 40 hours and the average including overtime cannot pass 48 over four months, which agreements can extend.
• Overtime: premiums come from the agreement, and without one the law allows up to 250 overtime hours a year by agreement with the worker.
• Leave: at least four weeks of paid annual leave, which money cannot replace except when the job ends.

Probation, notice and dismissal in Italy

A probation clause must be in writing under article 2096 of the Civil Code, and either side can end the contract during probation without notice. The Decreto Trasparenza caps it at six months unless the agreement is shorter.

After probation, notice follows the collective agreement, custom or equity under article 2118, and whoever ends the job without notice owes pay for the notice period. For open-ended staff, Legislative Decree 23/2015 sets compensation for an unjustified dismissal at between 6 and 36 months' pay, which the court fixes after the Constitutional Court struck the two-months-per-year formula in ruling 194/2018, with reinstatement only in specific cases.

Severance pay (TFR) in Italy

On every termination the employee is owed the trattamento di fine rapporto. Each year adds annual pay divided by 13.5, and earlier balances are revalued every 31 December at 1.5% plus 75% of the ISTAT price rise.

Getting paid in stablecoins, USDC, USDT, tokens and crypto in Italy

Short answer: Not settled. Law 205/2017 has wages paid through a bank or post office by transfer, electronic payment instrument, counter cash or cheque, and bans cash handed to the worker. Article 2099 of the Civil Code allows pay partly in kind, but no official source says whether a token such as USDC fits either rule.

What the law says about the form of pay

Article 2099 of the Civil Code lets a worker be paid wholly or partly in kind. Article 1277 of the Civil Code settles money debts in legal-tender currency at face value. Law 205/2017 (article 1, paragraphs 910 to 913) requires employers to pay wages through a bank or post office, by transfer to the worker's IBAN, an electronic payment instrument, cash at a bank counter, or a cheque handed to the worker. Paying cash directly is prohibited, and breaches carry a fine of EUR 1,000 to 5,000.

What it means for employee salary

Italian salary stays in euros, and the official sources reviewed give no basis for planning USDC or USDT as a replacement for it. Crypto-assets are not among the listed channels, and no Italian statute or authority page we reviewed allows wages to be settled in them. CONSOB states that Italy's MiCA decree names CONSOB and the Bank of Italy as competent authorities, with the Bank of Italy alone supervising e-money tokens, but no source we reviewed says whether an e-money token counts as an electronic payment instrument under the wage rule.

Contractors

The same rule covers continuous and coordinated collaboration contracts (co.co.co.). We found no official statement on paying independent contractors in crypto-assets.

Tax on crypto and tokens

The tax agency's circular 30/E of 2023 treats tokens given to employees for their work as employment income valued at normal value, and the 2026 income tax code covers all sums and values received in connection with the job. A later sale is miscellaneous income. For gains realised from 1 January 2026, article 304(7) sets a 33% substitute tax, or 26% for euro-denominated e-money tokens, and converting between euro and such a token is not a realisation. The agency says resident individuals use form RW to monitor crypto-assets in wallets and pay the crypto-asset value tax.

How Toku handles it

Separately from what the law in Italy allows, Toku offers stablecoin payroll, including USDC, in supported arrangements and pays contractors in USDC or USDT through contractor management. Token grants are a separate arrangement from salary, administered through token grant administration. This page does not say any of these is available for a hire in Italy: that is confirmed before an offer.

Reviewed November 7, 2026 against the official sources listed below. General information, not legal or tax advice. Tax on crypto or tokens received depends on local rules and where the person is resident, so confirm it with a local adviser.

How hiring through Toku works in Italy

1. Share the role, location, salary and start date.
2. Toku confirms coverage, the contract type and the right to work.
3. The local employer issues the contract and onboards the person.
4. Payroll, contributions and filings run each cycle.

Toku confirms the role, work location and collective agreement before a start date is set. Prepare identity details, an IBAN for the euro salary and the signed contract, and expect the employment notification to be filed by the day before work starts. Your quote confirms the onboarding timeline for Italy.

What an employer of record costs in Italy

Where Toku supports the hire, its employer of record service starts at $599 per employee per month, with salary, employer contributions and benefit premiums itemized in your quote. Coverage in Italy is confirmed before an offer. See the published pricing.

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