Taxes
It is possible to pay Italian tax (not social security contributions) without an Italian bank account. You need to find the relevant account for the tax payment you want to make and then in the “causale” (description) box you put in the following
Tax code (fiscal code number) of the taxpayer
The individual code for the tax you are paying
Reference year (YYYYY) or reference month/year (MM/YYYYY)
The number of the relevant instalment, if applicable
Sanction code if you making late payment under the “ravvedimento” procedure
Example: AAABBB99M88C123D – trib. code 4001 – year 2015 – instalment 1 of 7 – rev.
This list has the relative IBANs issued by the authorities which you need to use to make the transfer of the relevant tax.
It is a bit of a palaver since you need to make a transfer for each type of tax and year. It is easy to make mistakes (it is is easy enough to muck up a normal F24 payment let alone a separate bank transfer) and the reconciliation process does not often run smoothly.
Many banks require you to put in the name of the beneficiary and the Tax Agency advise you to put in “Bilancio dello Stato”, or the name of the relevant Comune o Regione.
For the payment of Comunal taxes, the Tax Agency instructions advise you to write to the following e-mail address: div.serv.sdg@agenziaentrate.it
Tax credit offset
If you pay by bank transfer, you cannot offset overpayments or credits of one kind of tax in the current period against another kind. For example if you have a VAT credit (e.g.deriving from the fact that you habitually export services or have made no supplies in the period) you cannot use that VAT credit to reduce income tax due (as you would on a form F24). You can, subject to the normal rules and thresholds) make a payment net of any credits due for the same kind tax. So, if you made payments on account of an income tax liability last year which has actually turned out to be less than actual income tax liability, you can net off that overpayment in making the bank transfer. Also you cannot offset tax credits against social security contributions.
INPS
We’ve never tried it but it may be possible to pay social security contributions to INPS in the same way:
https://www.inps.it/nuovoportaleinps/default.aspx?itemdir=43163
Conclusion
Overall, paying his way is not an ideal solution especially for taxpayers with an extended range of payments. We always recommend the setting up of an Italian bank account. For the time being the major international online banks (e.g. N26, Transferwise, Revolut) or not able to offer a F24 payment facility.
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