Setting up a Business in Italy

When deciding what form of business organisation to set up in Italy it is worth bearing in mind that the most useful and most commonly exploited vehicle provided for by Italian law to foreign investors and corporations are capital companies.
Although a third and rarely used type of capital company exists which has some features in common with limited partnerships, there are basically two forms a capital company can take in Italy: the limited liability company (societ… a responsabilit… limitata) and the joint stock company (societ… per azioni), both of which are regulated by the Italian Civil Code, as repeatedly amended following the relevant EEC directives.
A major practical consideration to bear in mind is that a joint stock company has the advantage over a limited liability company of being able to trade its shares as paper and thus may be admitted to stock exchanges by way of proceedings before CONSOB (the Italian Securities Exchange Commission). Moreover, unlike the limited