Italy's Employer Calendar: Key Filings by Quarter

If you hire in Italy, your obligations do not stop at payroll. Some filings come once a year, and they cluster at predictable points. This guide groups the annual ones by quarter so finance and HR can plan around them.

The dates below come from a secondary source that tracks the 2026 deadlines. Treat them as a planning baseline. Confirm each one with your payroll provider before you commit resources.

What this calendar covers  

This article covers two annual items: the Certificazione Unica (CU) and the Modello 770. The CU is the annual certificate of income paid and tax withheld. The Modello 770 is the annual withholding tax return that the employer files.

It does not cover every recurring duty. Periodic payments and other routine tasks also exist. Your payroll provider should keep a full list for your setup.

First quarter: CU for employees  

The first big date is March 16. By then the CU for employees must be delivered to the workers. The same date applies to sending the CU data to the Italian tax authority (Agenzia delle Entrate).

In practice, one date drives two tasks:

• Give each employee their CU.
• Transmit the CU data to the tax authority.

The CU depends on clean payroll data for the whole prior year. Corrections made late in the process are harder. Review your year-end payroll records well before March 16.

Second quarter: CU for self-employed workers  

The next date is April 30. It applies to CU filings for self-employed workers, not employees.

This matters if you work with freelancers or other independent contractors in Italy. Many foreign companies track only their employees and miss this one. If you engage independent professionals, add April 30 to your calendar and make sure someone owns it.

Third quarter: no annual date in this calendar  

The verified dates for this guide do not include any in the third quarter. Use this window as working time.

Good uses of it:

• Check your payroll data against your contracts.
• Confirm who is responsible for each upcoming filing.
• Agree on a timeline with your payroll provider for the year-end close.

A quiet quarter is the right time to fix process gaps. Do not leave that work for the final stretch of the year.

Fourth quarter: CU for exempt income and the Modello 770  

The year closes with two items.

First, October 31 is the deadline for CU filings covering exempt income. This is a narrower category, but it has its own date. Check with your provider whether it applies to you.

Second, the Modello 770 is due on October 31 as well. In 2026 that date falls on a Saturday. The deadline therefore moves to the next working day, November 2. Plan for the earlier date internally. Treat November 2 as a buffer, not a target.

A simple way to use this calendar  

1. Put each date in a shared calendar, not in one person’s inbox.
2. Name an owner for each filing, with a backup.
3. Set internal deadlines ahead of the official ones.
4. Keep year-end payroll data reconciled so the CU and the Modello 770 draw on the same numbers.

The filings are linked. The CU you issue in the first quarter feeds the data you rely on in the fourth. Errors in one tend to show up in the other.

If you do not have an Italian entity  

Many foreign companies hire in Italy without setting up a local company. In that case, these filings still exist. The question is who handles them. An employer of record (EOR) takes on the employer’s local filings, so you do not have to track them yourself. Whichever route you choose, you should know the calendar and ask who is responsible for each date.

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