YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → SRLS: come creare una microimpresa, come funziona, come gestirla e tutti i costi

SRLS: come creare una microimpresa, come funziona, come gestirla e tutti i costi — Transcript

by Paolo Coletti · 16,270 words · 2,417 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:01Would you like to open an LLC and walk
0:03around acting like a big shot, calling
0:05yourself an entrepreneur? Would you?
0:08Well, in this video, we're going to
0:12look into the affairs of my micro,
0:15micro LLC—how to open an LLC, how I
0:18manage mine (rather than how it should
0:22be managed), and all the oddities of
0:25Italian bureaucracy, specifically
0:28regarding those tiny companies usually
0:31started as an alternative to a sole
0:35proprietorship. As many of you likely
0:40know, I opened my micro LLC primarily
0:43to manage this YouTube channel. A
0:46YouTube channel that, honestly,
0:48requires virtually no management other
0:51than the bureaucratic side. So, in this
0:54video, we are talking about an
0:56extremely small LLC. I won't be
0:58teaching you how to deal with employees
1:00because there isn't a single one in
1:02sight here. We will focus mostly on the
1:07bureaucratic aspects and everything
1:08surrounding them, intended primarily
1:10for those who are unsure whether to
1:12choose a standard sole proprietorship
1:14or an LLC. First of all, what is an LLC
1:18? An LLC is a capital-based company.
1:21Essentially, there are two types of
1:23capital companies in Italy: the LLC and
1:25the PLC, the public limited company.
1:28The difference mainly lies in the fact
1:30that the PLC makes it easier to
1:32transfer shares, is meant for trading
1:35shares among partners, is obviously
1:37intended for larger companies, and has
1:39different capital requirements and
1:41other burdens. The LLC, on the other
1:44hand, is a capital company. Being a
1:46capital company means that the partners
1:49are shareholders of capital rather than
1:52personal partners; therefore, it has
1:55what is called perfect financial
1:58independence, meaning the LLC's money
2:00is not the partners 'money. It has
2:04nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with
2:06the partners' personal money, except in
2:09rare situations, such as criminal
2:11liability of the director, but
2:12otherwise, nothing at all. Whereas in
2:16other typical partnerships, like
2:18general partnerships or limited
2:20partnerships, the personal money of the
2:22partners and the company's money are
2:24commingled. So the LLC is completely
2:28independent; it has its own funds, its
2:30own legal personality, and is, let's
2:32say, a separate entity. The LLC
2:37requires a director and a balance sheet
2:39—a balance sheet that must be made
2:41public, where "public" means it is
2:43filed with the Chamber of Commerce, and
2:45then you have to pay to see it. And
2:49precisely, the LLC, especially in its
2:51small version, is seen as an upgrade to
2:53a sole proprietorship or a sole trader
2:55business, which is essentially a
2:57VAT-registered business but in a more
2:59commercial version. So, scaling up when
3:03earnings start to become substantial—
3:05that "LL" stands for limited liability.
3:08It means the LLC is only liable for the
3:11money it has, and partners are liable
3:12only for the money they put in, meaning
3:15their initial contributions, their
3:16initial capital. So, unless a partner
3:23provides a personal guarantee, meaning
3:26they put their own money on the line,
3:28their personal assets remain intact, or
3:31unless the manager deliberately engages
3:34in gross mismanagement. It has its own
3:38VAT number, its own tax ID, which I
3:41honestly still haven't understood why (
3:43in 99%of cases an LLC's tax ID is the
3:46same as its VAT number, but there's
3:49that 1%of cases where it's a different
3:51number), it must have its own bank
3:54account, its own certified email; it is
3:57practically another, I won't say person
4:00, but entity. The law also defines
4:03micro-enterprises by setting limits
4:06that I believe are assets of no more
4:09than € 220,000, revenue of no more
4:12than € 440,000, and no more than five
4:15employees. In this case, you have
4:18advantages: the balance sheet is super
4:19abbreviated, there's no explanatory
4:21note to the financial statements, and
4:22no cash flow statement. I will talk
4:25about a business that is even more "
4:27micro," because you keep using those
4:30cursed ad-blockers, so we don't reach
4:32€ 440,000 in revenue here with the
4:35company. As I said, it is a company, so
4:39it has partners. It is also allowed to
4:42have a single partner, so only one
4:44owner, which is my case, obviously.
4:46What is the difference between an LLC
4:48and a Simplified LLC? Now, our
4:50fantastic lawmakers have invented this
4:53"Simplified LLC." You will hear me
4:55being a bit polemical, even though I
4:57have a Simplified LLC—the "S" stands
4:59for simplified, it is the simplified
5:01version of the LLC. What are the
5:03differences in a nutshell? Difference
5:06number one is that the share capital
5:08can be as little as € 1. Share
5:09capital is the money that partners pay
5:12in at incorporation, while in the case
5:16of a standard LLC, it must be at least
5:17€ 10,000, even though they can pay in
5:19only a part of it if there are multiple
5:21partners. Anyway, while an LLC requires
5:24a certain amount of share capital, a
5:25Simplified LLC requires one euro. I
5:28preferred to put in € 4,900, because
5:30when a Simplified LLC starts, it needs
5:32money just to pay the notary, the
5:34notary fees, and all the costs and
5:36oddities—which we will look at in
5:38detail with the numbers later—so it
5:41needs cash. It is quite irrelevant to
5:43start it with only one euro, also
5:45because you then have to make a
5:46shareholder contribution immediately.
5:49It has a standard charter, so you
5:51cannot include specific things in it,
5:53such as particular rights for the
5:55shareholders. Therefore, the charter is
5:58quite standard; there are a few fields
6:00that can be slightly changed, but
6:01nothing more, and it only admits
6:03natural persons as shareholders. By the
6:06way, I wonder what happens here if one
6:08of the partners—accountant friends,
6:11write in the comments—what happens if
6:13one of the partners decides to leave
6:15their shares to a legal entity. At that
6:18point, the simplified LLC (SRLS)
6:20becomes a contradiction in terms.
6:23However, by regulation, only natural
6:24persons are allowed. This makes it a
6:27bit more difficult for the SRLS to do
6:29what is called an exit, because
6:31normally an exit involves selling a
6:36large part of the shares to a fund,
6:38typically, or to a large company; so,
6:41the SRLS is destined if...If you want
6:43to exit, you must transform it into an
6:45SRL; it is always possible to do so,
6:48clearly. In my case, I created an SRLS
6:52on purpose to force myself never to
6:54have this bright idea of selling the
6:56channel management shares to a fund, so
6:58we are sure that I always manage it
7:00myself in the artisanal way that I
7:02think you appreciate. The advantage is
7:06that—and pay attention to this
7:08advantage—the notary you have to go
7:11to in order to incorporate the SRLS
7:13cannot ask you for a fee for the
7:15incorporation. Now, I think any sane
7:18person hearing this phrase of mine must
7:20have said, "What?" I mean, the notary,
7:24which is one of the best-paid
7:26professions in Italy, cannot—and he
7:28is a freelancer, meaning he is not a
7:31state employee—he cannot ask you for
7:34a fee for the SRLS. Now, promise to let
7:38me go on a tangent here. Can you
7:41imagine? You go to a notary who, let's
7:44say, is well-paid and you tell him, "I
7:46want to start an SRLS," and he has to
7:48take the time to examine your situation
7:50, examine your charter, set up a
7:51meeting, and so on and so forth without
7:53any compensation. But who made this law
7:57? What were they smoking? I mean, come
8:00on, let's be honest about it. So, I
8:04expect that in cases like this, the
8:05notary will often, at the very least,
8:07put you at the end of their appointment
8:09list, so you'll end up forming the SRLS
8:11next year. And rightly so, because,
8:14well, it also has a small constraint on
8:17the allocation of profits: at least 20%
8:20must be put into a legal reserve until
8:23the legal reserve plus the share
8:25capital reach € 10,000. Which is
8:28quite irrelevant. If you intend to
8:30build a company that makes a little
8:32money, you can always easily switch
8:35from an SRLS to an SRL, obviously,
8:37which only makes sense if you plan to
8:39bring legal entities in as shareholders
8:42. Differences between an SRLS and a
8:46standard VAT number. Oh, I won't even
8:48talk about the differences with the
8:50flat-rate VAT scheme, because I know
8:52very well that those in the flat-rate
8:54scheme are very careful not to switch,
8:56not to leave that tax regime; in fact,
8:58they would rather turn down work—I
9:00hope that happens to me too next year
9:01—they would rather turn down work
9:03just to avoid leaving that tax regime.
9:06Differences between a standard VAT
9:08number and an SRLS, an SRL in general.
9:11So, I'm speaking to those who are
9:13already on a standard VAT number,
9:15earning around 150—because with less,
9:17the flat-rate scheme might have been
9:20better—earning around 150, making
9:22150-200,000 euros in revenue and
9:24wanting to make the leap to an SRL. Now
9:26, the difference is essentially in
9:28taxation. The standard VAT number has
9:33its INPS contributions to pay,
9:35obviously, and is taxed according to
9:37income tax brackets which are 23%to 43%
9:40. If you are at the figures I mentioned
9:43before, you are surely in the 43%
9:44bracket, and furthermore, your INPS is
9:46likely capped. Perhaps you don't know,
9:49but INPS is not on everything you earn;
9:52apart from the taxable base limitation,
9:54there is also an upper limit of about
9:56110,000 euros, so you pay INPS up to
9:58110,000 euros and after that you don't
10:00pay it anymore because you are
10:02considered to have contributed enough.
10:05This is the standard VAT number. The
10:07SRL, on the other hand, the SRL in
10:09general, is taxed with IRES and IRAP.
10:13IRES and IRAP, just to give a rough
10:15estimate, a rough calculation, is about
10:1827%. Maybe 28%. IRAP depends obviously
10:24on the region; it's a regional tax on
10:27productive activities, so it depends on
10:30the region—calculate about 4%—so it
10:33comes to about 28%. So, the SRL is
10:40taxed at 28%, while personal income tax
10:44is in brackets of 23%, 33%, 43%. It
10:49seems obvious that the SRL is better,
10:51but no, because the SRL is taxed at 28%
10:57, but then the money belongs to the SRL
10:59; don't forget what I said at the
11:01beginning, it is a different entity.
11:03The money belongs to the SRL and, in
11:05theory, you cannot spend it on your own
11:08personal business. To spend it, to cash
11:11it out, you have to pay yourself a
11:13dividend. I am always talking about an
11:16SRL with few partners, so paying
11:18yourself a dividend means you agree
11:19with the other partners. Saying, "this
11:21year we pay a dividend," paying
11:22yourself a dividend on which you will
11:24pay an additional 26%. So in the end,
11:27the taxation you get on distributed
11:29profit, when all is said and done, is
11:32very, very similar to the famous 43%.
11:36Now, however, there are various methods
11:39to pull money out of an SRL which we
11:44might examine in more detail later.
11:47Clearly legal methods and clearly
11:48limited methods, eh; it's not like you
11:51can pull out 500 million euros without
11:53paying a single cent in taxes. There
11:55are limited methods, director
11:56compensation, reimbursements, and so on
11:58, which we might analyze later. So, the
12:00trade-off between a VAT number and an
12:03SRL is mainly based on that VAT tax
12:05rate, which is 43%. And it's also about
12:10liability. The SRL relieves you of
12:14certain responsibilities, unless
12:16there's mismanagement by the director,
12:18or unless you are one of those partners
12:21who provides a personal guarantee for a
12:23loan taken out by the SRL. This is one
12:28way to end up in personal bankruptcy,
12:31and except for these two cases, the SRL
12:33totally protects you; your assets
12:36cannot be touched, whereas if you're a
12:38sole trader and, say, someone sues you,
12:41then your assets are entirely at risk.
12:44If someone sues the SRL, only the SRL's
12:47assets are at risk. Anyway, we'll see
12:50these details a bit later in the video,
12:53but let's start by telling my personal
12:55experience setting up an SRLS. First of
13:01all, step one: go to an accountant. Why
13:04, though? For starters, the accountant
13:08—if they are an accountant worthy of
13:10the name and not just a bookkeeper—
13:12will advise you on whether a sole
13:15proprietorship, a freelance VAT number,
13:17a business, or an SRLS is better, or
13:20even the flat-rate scheme that you
13:22didn't notice, even though at this
13:24point you haven't even asked ChatGPT.
13:29In short, go to an accountant, present
13:31your whole idea, and get them to
13:32dedicate more than 3 minutes—because
13:34if the accountant only gives you a
13:35measly 3 minutes, it's a no-go—get
13:37them to dedicate, well, some time, and
13:39pay them if necessary. There's this
13:42idea that consultations in Italy
13:44shouldn't be paid for; I salute all
13:46those who ask me for free financial
13:48advice starting with "this isn't a
13:50request for consultation." So, you can
13:53go to the accountant, and if the
13:55accountant says, "Okay, an SRLS is your
13:57solution," then you proceed with the
13:59SRLS. You should also have a rough idea
14:01of how much you're going to earn, eh?
14:05Okay. So, the accountant is the first
14:07step, and then the accountant will
14:08likely be the one who follows your
14:09progress. The accountant prepares
14:11everything for you, and after that, you
14:13have to go to the notary. Now, I spent
14:16€ 410 at the notary's office. Initial
14:22costs. Now, don't ask me for what,
14:26because when the notary asks me for
14:28money, I pay and stay quiet. So, as I
14:31was saying, I asked the notary for an
14:34additional € 400 consultation, and
14:36miraculously, the spot, the appointment
14:39to set up the SRLS, happened quickly.
14:44So, unlike what I said before, in my
14:46case, the spot to get the SRL and to
14:48incorporate the SRLS came about quickly
14:50. In my case, I brought the share
14:55capital in cold hard cash—50 and 100
14:59euro bills, just straight cash. €
15:034,900 in cash, and to withdraw it from
15:05my bank in cash, I had to notify them
15:07beforehand. That wasn't enough, because
15:09even when I went there, they gave me a
15:10hard time and said, "Did you notify us
15:11a week ago, okay? I had to notify them
15:13in advance." And obviously, they even
15:15wanted the deed of incorporation to
15:17justify such a sudden withdrawal of €
15:194,900. I remember the good old days, 15
15:21years ago, when you could withdraw €
15:2310,000 in cash and nobody said a thing.
15:25Alright, so I deposited the capital.
15:28You'll see later, there's a smarter way
15:30than this—I discovered it, but later
15:32on, it's tied to the video's sponsor.
15:34There is a slightly smarter method than
15:36this. There's no need to bring cold
15:38hard cash, also because I then ended up
15:40with this SRLS that had everything in
15:43the till, meaning € 4,900 in cash. I
15:46said, well, for the first few months I
15:48paid everything I could in cash. Well,
15:51it seemed okay. Then other initial
15:56costs: the SRL must have a...the SRL
15:57must have a PEC (certified email);
15:59honestly, you can find it for € 6
16:01from a well-known PEC provider that has
16:03the address [email protected]. So don't get
16:08ripped off. It happened to a friend of
16:10mine; he got ripped off by some letters
16:13he received that made it look like he
16:15absolutely had to get the PEC with a
16:17certain provider. Instead, we—it took
16:202 years to convince him, "Look, you
16:21don't need to get it with the one that
16:23charges you € 50; get it with the
16:24other one that charges you six." Okay?
16:27So the SRL must have its own PEC, and
16:28the director must also have a PEC. But
16:32on this, let's say, in 2026, having a
16:33PEC as an individual is very convenient
16:35, because then you can send things to
16:36public administrations and pester them.
16:39Now, the University of Bolzano, for
16:40example, demands a PEC to participate
16:42in competitions; otherwise, no go. Then
16:46, uh, it must have an electronic
16:48invoicing system. We'll see this too;
16:50you can choose an independent one, or
16:52it can be linked to the sponsor we'll
16:54see in the video. Anyway, I'll tell you
16:58, usually, an electronic invoicing
17:00system costs relatively little, so up
17:02to now, we are at € 410 in mandatory
17:04expenses. Sit down for this one,
17:07because here begin the quirks of the
17:08Italian system that I just love. So,
17:11I’m reading: Chamber of Commerce
17:13registration, € 32. I mean, why do
17:17they have to charge such trivial
17:19amounts? Fine, okay. And for the
17:23accountant to set up the company, I
17:25spent € 300. Um, then, then, then
17:30here it is: I’ll say it: stamping of
17:35the accounting books. You have to have
17:39accounting books that need to be
17:40stamped. You might say, "But I keep an
17:42Excel sheet, I don't use accounting
17:44books." I keep an Excel sheet too, pal.
17:48I mean, I've never even seen these
17:49accounting books, let me tell you this
17:50anecdote. After I paid for the stamping
17:53of the accounting books—which I’ll
17:54tell you the cost of—a few months
17:55later I said to my accountant, "Sorry,
17:57but I paid for this stamping, shouldn't
17:58I actually have these books?" He says,
18:01"Oh, shoot.""That's true, we need to
18:02buy them and go to a notary." So the
18:07accountant bought the accounting books,
18:09went to a notary who physically stamped
18:11them—not my notary, one near his
18:13office—I’ve never even laid eyes on
18:15them. Right now, my accounting books
18:19are in the accountant’s basement, and
18:21the notary with the stamp—you know
18:24Checco Zalone, right? When the
18:26minister's assistant asks him, "And
18:28what did you do for a living?" Well, he
18:31does exactly this; yes, exactly like
18:33that, stamping books that will never be
18:35used in history. So, this stamping of
18:38the accounting books costs you, uh, let
18:41me see, € 309.87. That figure plus,
18:48um, € 16 for every 100 pages. Ok,
18:52that's fine. Plus € 77 I had to pay
18:57the notary to do the Checco Zalone job,
19:03to stamp the books, because apparently
19:04he really did stamp them. Okay. I mean,
19:07seriously now, I sometimes wonder: do
19:09we actually have lawmakers, or are they
19:11just playing dumb? I mean, not getting
19:13rid of this requirement is completely
19:14absurd, come on. Yeah, I read what's
19:16supposed to be written in those
19:17accounting books. For some companies it
19:20might make sense, but really—and by
19:23the way, I know an entrepreneur who, I
19:25happen to know, at one point told me, "
19:28Shoot, you know, I forgot I had to
19:30stamp the accounting books, I never did
19:33." So, he went and reported the
19:36accounting books as lost. Alright. Okay
19:40. Then, before you go to the notary,
19:42you need to get a personal certified
19:44email (PEC), okay? Better if you also
19:47get yourself a digital signature. The
19:50digital signature is real, it's not
19:52like you signed a piece of paper and
19:53scanned it; that is not a digital
19:55signature. There are digital signature
19:57providers that give them to you, not as
19:59cheaply as PEC, but they give it to you
20:01at a relatively low cost. Then I
20:03collect the tax ID codes of the
20:05shareholders and the share capital.
20:08Okay, well, it has to be communicated.
20:11The accountant will handle the
20:12communication to everyone, to the
20:14business registry to retrieve the VAT
20:16number, to the INPS, to the INAIL. Okay
20:19, the accountant does it all,
20:20fortunately. So, after one or two days,
20:23you have your VAT number and your
20:24articles of incorporation—well,
20:26nobody will ask you for the articles of
20:28incorporation, but everyone will ask
20:30you for the Chamber of Commerce
20:31registration, and you'll also have your
20:33VAT number. Do you think you can start?
20:38No, no, no, you don't need to get the
20:40whole thing up and running yet. So,
20:43plan on at least a week after you’ve
20:45created the articles of incorporation
20:47before starting business; you'll say, "
20:49What's the rush?" Well, usually, let's
20:52be honest, those who set up an SRL have
20:54already—in some cases, you do it
20:56completely blindly, like, who knows if
20:58it will work. In other cases, you have
21:02already tested this technology—excuse
21:05me, this type of business—perhaps
21:07with occasional self-employment work,
21:09so you're itching to start the business
21:11seriously with an SRL. Okay? There is a
21:16whole series of mandatory books that
21:18the accountant keeps. I haven't seen a
21:20single mandatory book, I haven't seen
21:22one at all. If I have to sign something
21:24, I obviously sign it digitally. I have
21:26no problem with my accountant, and he
21:29is very far from me. We do everything
21:32online, and my accountant has a large
21:35firm. The person specifically assigned
21:37to me, I haven't even seen them on a
21:38call. Wait, ah yes, maybe once on a
21:40call. Yes, okay. I refuse to do, um,
21:44but they always answer emails, so I'm
21:46fine. The head of the firm, however, I
21:50see for other reasons that don't have
21:52to do with the business because I knew
21:54him from before, but still, consider
21:57that if you have a micro-business, you
21:59can easily have an accountant who is
22:01far away, as long as they are sharp and
22:03handle the calls, etcetera. Attention,
22:07attention. As soon as your SRL is
22:10registered with the Chamber of Commerce
22:12, you will receive scam attempts. And
22:15I'm not joking. As soon as your SRL is
22:17put in the Chamber of Commerce, a scam
22:19attempt. Luckily for me, on the same
22:21day—and this probably saved me—I
22:23received two letters in the mailbox at
22:26my company's registered office, because
22:28, ah, the company has to have an
22:30address; it wouldn't be ideal if it
22:32were your home, but it could be your
22:34home. I open the mailbox and say, "Oh,
22:36they've already written to me, who
22:38knows, maybe it's the Chamber of...No,
22:42I open the first letter and there was a
22:45postal payment slip with a bizarre
22:47figure on it, like the one for stamping
22:49accounting books, 309, the classic
22:51public agency figure. You never
22:54understand why public agencies always
22:55have to ask you for these bizarre
22:57figures, they rarely ask for a round
22:58number." There was the classic public
23:02agency figure and, at that point,
23:03it’s on a postal slip, but consider
23:05that you're used to paying postal slips
23:07because you have to pay for the first
23:09stamping of accounting books with a
23:11postal slip since you don't have a
23:12business bank account yet. So, in short
23:16, it’s not that strange to pay for
23:18things with a postal slip, to wait in
23:20line with the pensioners withdrawing
23:22their pensions in cash. There. And
23:25luckily for me, in the same mailbox,
23:28there was another letter that I open.
23:30There is—there is another slip, very
23:32similar to the previous one, with
23:34another figure, this one again with a
23:37bunch of decimals, another figure, and
23:39a cover letter. Let's say these
23:42scammers have a slightly cleaner
23:44conscience, and they were two
23:46associations that had nothing to do
23:48with trade associations, nothing to do
23:50with mandatory associations you have to
23:52join, nothing to do with the Chamber of
23:54Commerce, that took the data from the
23:57Chamber of Commerce of new companies
23:59and try to send you that slip, which is
24:01a slip where you sign up for their
24:03association. Period. Practically
24:08non-existent associations. Luckily the
24:11second one was a bit more honest than
24:13the first and had an explanatory letter
24:14where you could read between the lines
24:16that it wasn't mandatory, and my luck
24:18was that they arrived together, so
24:20obviously I caught them; because if
24:21only one had arrived, I probably would
24:23have paid it. Let’s say that among
24:26all the 7,000 things you have to do, a
24:28new slip arrives, oh well, you pay that
24:30too, I mean, amen. So, keep your guard
24:32up; if you set up an LLC, you’ll get
24:35scam attempts immediately. I must say,
24:37I haven't received any more after these
24:39two, but let's say it was a definitely
24:41unpleasant start. Uh, there is a choice
24:44of the ATECO code to register with the
24:46Chamber of Commerce. Well, your
24:47accountant will help you with that. I'm
24:50telling you, add more than one if you
24:52have any idea of doing other stuff, or
24:54even just a vague idea, because
24:56otherwise you pay to add the ATECO code
24:58. You pay to add an ATECO code, okay?
25:01And don't try to do things by yourself.
25:04I tried changing my ATECO code on my
25:06own. At some point, I waved the white
25:07flag and told my accountant, "Fine,
25:09I'll pay you, you do it." There you go.
25:12So, put in multiple ATECO codes right
25:14away—I won't say as many as possible,
25:16but all the activities you have in mind
25:18; your accountant can advise you, and
25:20possibly a notary, if you pay for their
25:22consultation on the company's scope.
25:25The activities must clearly reflect the
25:26company's scope, even though there are
25:28companies that have one thing as their
25:29scope and then who knows what they
25:30actually do. And finally, to finish up,
25:35the company needs a business account, a
25:38specific business account. Be careful,
25:44because unlike for sole traders, it
25:46cannot be a personal account, so forget
25:48about special offers, because personal
25:51accounts literally throw zero-fee
25:52accounts at you. For business accounts,
25:56it's not like that, and it's precisely
25:59on this business account that the video
26:01sponsor comes in, because I wanted to
26:03sponsor the business account that I
26:05chose myself; actually, my accountant
26:08recommended it, and I went to them and
26:10bugged them saying, "Hey, I really like
26:12your account, let me sponsor the video,
26:14eh." Okay, my accountant suggested I
26:19use Qonto, see? Qonto, spelled Q-T-O.
26:23Business account. I've used it from the
26:26start, and I've been very happy with it
26:29. It gave me free instant transfers
26:32even before free—well, not free, but
26:35moderately priced instant transfers for
26:37individuals arrived, to the point where
26:39many people are surprised that I pay
26:42invoices in no time with an instant
26:44transfer. Above all, it's crucial that
26:48the business account supports F24 tax
26:51payments. I know you'll say, "Yeah, but
26:55I can pay them on the Revenue Agency
26:57website." Okay, okay. Yeah, but if you
27:01run a company, you have to pay F 24 s
27:04—I wouldn't say often, but there's
27:06always that € 30 F24 to pay here or
27:08there, and honestly, paying it directly
27:11through the account with a couple of
27:13clicks, it's gone without any hassle,
27:15it's much, much, much more convenient.
27:19Let's go take a look at the Qonto plans
27:21. These that you see are the plans for
27:24freelancers, which can however also be
27:26easily opened by limited companies; in
27:28fact, these are probably the
27:29recommended plans for micro-companies
27:31that don't need a lot of infrastructure
27:33and many people working for them. We
27:36have, well, the starter plan, an
27:37Italian IBAN—the IBAN is always
27:39Italian, eh—a virtual-only card, five
27:41free transfers per month, and obviously
27:43you can still make more if needed, it's
27:45not like they won't let you. Electronic
27:48invoicing is included, and then,
27:50obviously, it goes up starting from the
27:52smart plan, which also includes 1.5%
27:54remuneration and 5%as a promo for the
27:57first two months. Let's look at the
28:00specific plans for companies; if you're
28:02surprised by the prices, just know that
28:04business accounts generally aren't
28:06cheap. There's the essential, the
28:09business, and the enterprise, which is
28:10clearly only if you have a very large
28:11company. This one even has five
28:14physical cards and 50 virtual cards, so
28:17it's designed for those with employees
28:19or team members with specific roles,
28:21allowing you to grant legal access to
28:23the account beyond just the
28:24administrator. All of them offer 5%
28:28annually for the first 2 months and
28:29then 1.5%. I should also mention that
28:32professional accounts can also be
28:34opened by an SRL and thus function as a
28:37real business account. Clearly, F24 tax
28:40payments are included in all of them; I
28:42wouldn't have even mentioned it if they
28:44weren't. So, in general, be wary of
28:46business accounts that don't support
28:49F24 payments, because otherwise, you'll
28:51go crazy. And I remind you, you cannot
28:53use your personal account to make
28:55business transactions and then
28:56reimburse yourself. I mean, yes, in
28:58theory you could, but I want to see
28:59what happens to your accounting if you
29:01get audited; it would be a disaster.
29:04However, the account—it's called "
29:06Qonto"—and I'll show you, the name is
29:09written here. Here it is. Qonto also
29:11offers something that, if I had known
29:13about it or if it had existed in my
29:15time, I definitely would have used it.
29:18Open a company with an expert's help,
29:20meaning a guided procedure. Okay,
29:22request consultation from a dedicated
29:24accountant. This wasn't a necessity for
29:28me, but as you can see, they handled
29:31the process: signing the deed of
29:33incorporation, signing the deed online,
29:36okay? An appointment with a notary, one
29:40to two weeks for document collection,
29:42so for 99 plus VAT, besides giving you
29:46the business account on promotion for 4
29:48months, they also give you, if you want
29:50, an accountant and a notary
29:52appointment, which is not insignificant
29:54. And not only that, they also give you
29:58a specific IBAN before the company is
30:01incorporated, because the problem is
30:03that until you incorporate, you can't
30:06have a company IBAN since the company
30:09doesn't exist, yet you have to put the
30:12share capital somewhere. So, they give
30:15you a specific IBAN where you can
30:17deposit the share capital, avoiding
30:20having to go to the notary with
30:22rustling banknotes like I did, before
30:24it's moved to the company account. As
30:27you can see from the analysis here, the
30:32card is a debit card; I’ll tell you,
30:34it has always worked perfectly, it goes
30:36into Google Wallet without blinking,
30:38and if it works with Google Wallet, I
30:40imagine it surely works with Apple Pay
30:42too. Oh, now I see there are also 10
30:47PagoPA payments per month included,
30:49even though it's an SRL. It happened to
30:52me once that I had to make a PagoPA
30:53payment. As I was saying before, they
30:57also handle electronic invoicing if you
30:59want, so you can have electronic
31:01invoicing integrated with the account,
31:03which is very convenient; even if you
31:05don't make every payment from the
31:07account, having it integrated helps you
31:09keep your accounting more aligned. I
31:12find it quite difficult to keep the
31:14accounting aligned every time. So, this
31:16is the interface, briefly. Sorry for
31:18the calculator in the way, but there
31:20was a payment received from a person
31:22whose details I didn't want to show. On
31:25the other hand, Octopus Electroverse, I
31:27don't think anyone will be scandalized
31:29if I paid Octopus Electroverse for
31:30electric car charging. Here is the
31:34classic transaction screen. Well, as
31:37usual, I had to use the calculator to
31:39cover some names. It allows you to
31:42categorize them. Since I don't have
31:44invoicing associated, as you can see, I
31:46don't categorize them sometimes, though
31:48now I'll start categorizing them
31:50properly; but if you have invoicing
31:52associated, there's a sort of AI that
31:54tries to categorize them for you.
31:57However, it is very similar to a
31:59personal account, with the only
32:01precaution that you must always be
32:03careful—every single cent that goes
32:05out or comes in must be justified; you
32:07don't have the same freedom as with a
32:09personal account. One particular thing
32:12of interest is the customer service. I
32:15had to deal with customer service
32:16because I had to change the
32:18administrator of the SRL, and changing
32:19the SRL administrator is impactful for
32:21the account because the administrator
32:23is the person authorized to manage the
32:25account and must go through the whole
32:26identification process, etcetera,
32:28etcetera, etcetera, questionnaires.
32:31Well, I must say that the account's
32:34customer service resolved it for me in
32:3712–15 hours—not days, hours. So,
32:41try changing the account holder of a
32:43personal account; that's a hassle, I
32:45must say. So they are particularly
32:47attentive to the fact that you are
32:48running a business and cannot have your
32:50account blocked. In the meantime, the
32:52account was not blocked, so automatic
32:53payments still went through, and the
32:55card still worked. However, within 12
32:59to 15 hours, customer service—between
33:01calls, emails, back and forth...the
33:03procedure isn't easy, because I have to
33:05provide an extract from the Chamber of
33:07Commerce showing the new director,
33:09handle the entire onboarding of the new
33:11director as the person in charge,
33:13essentially the one authorized to move
33:15funds, and so on. So it’s a fairly
33:18complex procedure, and I must say I
33:20didn't expect to get it done. I had
33:23deliberately chosen a period when I
33:25didn’t have any outgoing payments,
33:27only incoming ones, but I didn't expect
33:29to resolve it in such a short time. The
33:32arrival of the new credit card, too—
33:34because the credit card is personal,
33:35meaning it doesn't have the company
33:36name on it, it has the director's name.
33:38Usually, credit cards are like that,
33:40and the new credit card arrived in a
33:42flash. The virtual one arrived
33:43instantly, the physical one arrived a
33:45few days later, but I don't really have
33:47any use for the physical one anyway. If
33:50you intend to open an LLC or if you
33:53already have one and want to open a new
33:55account, or change accounts, if you're
33:58interested, the promo code Coletti X3
34:01gives you 3 months free on any plan you
34:04choose, so a 3-month free trial on all
34:06account plans. So, Coletti X3. It's
34:13practically the only account I use. I
34:16find it so good, so streamlined, that
34:18at the moment, the LLC doesn't need a
34:20second account. And now, let’s play a
34:24game. In your opinion, what are the
34:28most impactful expenses for a micro-LLC
34:30that essentially creates nothing
34:32physical, meaning it lives in the
34:33digital world, obviously? So, think
34:37about it. The first one, the first one
34:40is the company headquarters. Now,
34:42that’s not the case for my micro-LLC
34:44because I use grandma's house. Exactly.
34:47When you see me with the fake
34:49background, this is the real backdrop.
34:52As you see, when you see me with the
34:54fake background, I’m at the LLC's
34:56headquarters. Let’s say it's not
35:00strictly mandatory. You could even use
35:02your own home; in that case, the cost
35:04drops to zero, but otherwise, you would
35:05have to pay rent for the LLC's
35:07headquarters. And if it's an entirely
35:10digital LLC, there is no reason to put
35:12it in the city center. I’ve seen,
35:15I’ve seen, I’ve seen things. I’ve
35:17seen LLCs that even have prestigious
35:19offices—yes, prestigious ones—that
35:22are located in a closet, and others
35:24that you might look into, that are
35:26based in a tiny room carved out inside
35:28a garage. I’ve seen LLC headquarters
35:32of all kinds, so it really depends on
35:35what you choose. Watch out, because
35:37along with the office, the LLC brings
35:39utilities: water, electricity, and gas.
35:42This is very unpleasant, I must say,
35:44because many suppliers, especially for
35:46electricity, don't tell you their rates
35:48, while they are extremely transparent
35:50with private individuals, telling you,
35:51"Join us and pay this specific rate."
35:56For business contracts, they stay mum;
35:58they don't tell you a thing, they just
36:00say, "Call our consultant." So, what is
36:03the result? The result is that I pay
36:06for the electricity, or rather my mom
36:08pays for the company's electricity. I
36:11kept the contract I had before that was
36:13in my mom's name, I left it as is,
36:14meaning my mom is paying and the LLC
36:16doesn't reimburse my mom—the
36:18accountant said no. The accountant said
36:21the contract has to be in the LLC's
36:23name, otherwise, nothing doing. I
36:25prefer to pay it as an individual, or
36:27rather, my mom prefers to pay it as an
36:29individual. Just imagine, for the LLC I
36:31have, the electricity contract is in my
36:33mom's name, and the water contract is
36:35also in my mom's name in the end. Yes,
36:37the building’s one, I believe. Well,
36:39anyway, it’s through the building
36:41management, and the internet line is
36:43actually in my name. So I pay for the
36:45utilities as an individual. Shall I say
36:47why? Because as soon as energy or
36:50internet service providers smell the
36:54business world, poof, their prices
36:57skyrocket. They soar or they inflate—
37:01both really—because they know you can
37:04deduct them, so wham. So, to avoid
37:08dealing with consultants—I didn't
37:10want to call a consultant who might try
37:12to stick me with a terrible rate—I
37:13kept my private contract instead. So,
37:16that's the business premises with
37:18utilities, second expense. The second
37:22expense in my case is zero, and at most
37:24, I ask the LLC to reimburse the
37:26building expenses that are the tenant's
37:28responsibility. Second expense: the
37:31accountant. For my LLC, I calculated
37:34that I pay including VAT, but you have
37:36to remove the VAT because for an LLC,
37:38VAT is transparent, so it’s as if VAT
37:40doesn't exist for the LLC; both the VAT
37:42it receives and the VAT it pays, it’s
37:44as if it didn't exist, it all comes
37:45back. So I pay € 4,680 per year
37:48including VAT. The accountant, mind you
37:51, does not issue the invoices. My
37:52accountant doesn't do the, or rather in
37:55my case, doesn't issue the invoices,
37:57because he taught me how to issue
37:59invoices, which is easy for Italian
38:01invoices; it gets much more complex for
38:03invoices involving foreign countries,
38:05which we will see later. He taught me
38:08how to do invoices, so I don't burden
38:10him with that task, unlike many
38:12entrepreneurs who have their accountant
38:14do their invoices. And so those 4180
38:17don't include the invoices, but it does
38:19include the balance sheet; I mean, he
38:20does the balance sheet for me, also
38:22because honestly, if I had to do the
38:23balance sheet, I would do it in a
38:25completely different way and probably
38:26totally against the law. Third. Third
38:30expense in terms of in terms of
38:34heaviness, you'll never guess it. Are
38:37you ready? No, it's not the stamping of
38:39the accounting books, that comes later,
38:41it's the RAI license fee. Yes, indeed,
38:45I pay 407.35 plus any extra charges,
38:51because every now and then they make me
38:53pay it with bizarre RAI fee methods,
38:54because obviously in my company, me and
38:56all my employees are there with the
38:58television on watching "Deal or No Deal
39:00" every single evening. I mean, fairly
39:03speaking, let's say that I pay those
39:05€ 407.35 very willingly for NOS, but
39:08I don't pay them willingly at all for "
39:10Deal or No Deal." Anyway, I'm super
39:13poisoned against that game because
39:14it’s really the proof that many
39:16people don't understand a damn thing
39:18about statistics. Um now uh why do I
39:22pay € 407? Even Chat GPT told me, it
39:25said, "Why do you pay € 407 when €
39:27200 is expected for offices?" I don't
39:30know. RAI asked me for this. I suffer
39:33eh passively eh when you are an
39:35entrepreneur very often you passively
39:37suffer these impositions from maybe
39:39public bodies because uh filing an
39:41appeal or fighting costs you much more
39:44than just paying, because in terms of
39:46lost work and therefore lost money.
39:49Anyway, I promise that soon I will find
39:51out why I am not just paying € 200.
39:54Forget about the € 100 for private
39:56individuals. Companies pay more. Okay,
39:59third expense, we already anticipated
40:01it, the terrible stamping of accounting
40:03books that must be repaid every year.
40:05Did you think—would you like to pay
40:06for the stamping of accounting books
40:08every year? Eh, once a year, only once.
40:11No, no, the notary every year. The
40:14notary. This time though, I didn't—
40:17this year I didn't pay the notary, I
40:19only paid 309.87 and € 16 to get the
40:22100 pages stamped. I don't know, maybe
40:25the accountant forgot to go to the
40:27notary to do it. Okay, fine. Then I pay
40:30€ 78 to the labor consultant for each
40:34payslip. You will say, who is the labor
40:37consultant? And that is exactly the
40:39same thing I said to the accountant
40:40when he told me, "You need to find a
40:41labor consultant," and I said, "But why
40:42, excuse me, can't you do everything
40:44yourself?" He tells me, "No, in Italy
40:47the laws governing the world of work
40:49are so complex that the accountant
40:51knows them a bit, but not in detail."
40:56So you need to turn to another
40:57professional, who I must say in my case
40:58is very professional because, I mean,
41:00every time I ask him questions, he
41:01answers me precisely, relevantly, and
41:03immediately. Even though he is far away
41:07from me, it's really immediate, and I
41:09must say I pay him very willingly, but
41:11I pay € 78 in my case for every
41:12payslip. So, every time I issue a
41:16payslip, I pay € 78 just to process
41:18the payslip. Now, if you consider that
41:21administrator compensation payslips are
41:23so simple that maybe I could even do
41:25them myself. Maybe, eh, I looked into
41:27it. But, when I used to see my own
41:29employee payslips, let me tell you:
41:30forget € 78! I would pay not to have
41:33to do that payslip, because it's
41:34incredibly complicated and has so many
41:35completely bizarre line items. Well,
41:38but the main problem with not using a
41:40labor consultant is that if a law
41:42changes, you're screwed, because
41:44theoretically you could do the payslip
41:46yourself, but one small rule change is
41:48enough for you to get the payslips
41:50wrong, and that's a headache. So, am I
41:53paying a lot? Yes, I pay a lot because
41:56in reality I issue very few payslips,
41:58because for example this year the
42:00fantastic company administrator will be
42:03paid only once in December to save on
42:05those € 78, or perhaps twice, in
42:08October and December. Come on, let's
42:10see if he’s behaved well, we can pay
42:11him in October too. There is no
42:13obligation to pay the administrator
42:15regularly, unless they are the ones
42:17complaining, but since I am the
42:18administrator, he doesn't complain. So
42:21you have to pay the labor consultant,
42:23and it depends on how many payslips you
42:24do. Clearly, if instead of one a year
42:27you do, eh, 170 a year because you have
42:29many employees, they won't charge you
42:30€ 78; they’ll ask for much less in
42:32that case. In my case, the € 78 also
42:35includes the consultation where I
42:37pester him by asking how fringe
42:39benefits work and things like that.
42:42After that, I pay € 127 for the
42:44financial statement filing, then I pay
42:47the bank commissions you saw earlier,
42:50of course, I pay € 120 for the
42:52Chamber of Commerce registration, we
42:55pay, we pay. Ah, then we pay for
42:58electronic invoicing and the PEC email.
42:59Oh well, the price went up, I see. Ah,
43:01no, € 12 because there's both my PEC
43:03and the company's, but oh well, I would
43:05have my own anyway. So, and electronic
43:07invoicing, which in my case is about
43:09€ 36 a year, so relatively little. I
43:12have it, uh, not detached from from the
43:16account, and if I could go back, I
43:18would probably make it integrated into
43:19the account. These are the expenses to
43:22keep an SRL (LLC) alive. So, apart from
43:25company-related expenses, let's figure
43:28that to keep an SRL alive you should
43:30budget € 500, for a micro SRL of this
43:32type. € 500 including VAT, uh, then
43:36that VAT comes back to you. Well,
43:39honestly, there's no VAT on the Rai
43:40license fee and also no VAT on many tax
43:41stamps, but for the accountant, for
43:42example, there is VAT. So count on
43:44about € 5,500 plus any expenses
43:47related to the company headquarters,
43:49plus any account fees which are quite
43:51limited. So if you're tight-fisted, and
43:55your office is at home, you can get by
43:57with € 5,500. It's definitely more,
43:59uh, in my opinion, infinitely more
44:01compared to a flat-rate VAT scheme, and
44:03definitely more than a regular VAT
44:05scheme, probably. Friends with a
44:06regular VAT number, write to me about
44:08how I keep the accounts. I wouldn't be
44:11required to keep accounts because the
44:12accountant does it. Exactly, the
44:14accountant handles it all. The problem
44:16is that if everything went through an
44:18invoice, then I tell you, I wouldn't
44:20keep it because the electronic
44:21invoicing software would handle the
44:23accounting. The problem is that in
44:25Italy not everything goes through an
44:26invoice. For example, the Rai license
44:28fee doesn't go through an invoice.
44:30Thank goodness that since last year it
44:31can be paid by bank transfer because
44:33before I went crazy paying it, and the
44:35stamping of accounting books doesn't
44:36involve an invoice at all. So the
44:39problem is that not everything goes
44:41through an invoice; some things use
44:43other payment systems, so not
44:46everything goes through a bank transfer
44:48and/or credit card. So I also keep my
44:51own accounting with an Excel sheet. I
44:53keep the accounts on a cash basis. I
44:56know that 17 accountants just died at
44:58this statement of mine. Exactly. The
45:00company must keep accounts on an
45:02accrual basis, but I keep it on a cash
45:03basis because I care about knowing
45:05what's in the till. That's what
45:07interests me, and above all, I keep the
45:09accounts because I want to make
45:10statistics, meaning I want to see how
45:11much money I spent. The image started,
45:15how much money I spent on this, how
45:16much money I spend on that, how much on
45:18bureaucracy, how much here. I'll tell
45:20you about them at the end. At the end I
45:21will also give you the exact little
45:23numbers and even how much I earned.
45:25I'll tell you, yes, yes, I'll tell you
45:26how much I earned. And how do I keep it
45:28? I keep it with a simple Excel sheet
45:30that has the following fields. Date,
45:32it's not, it's not trivial. Amount, VAT
45:35. I enter the amount including VAT, uh.
45:38VAT. Then if it's IRES deductible. Not
45:42everything is IRES deductible. If it's
45:44IRAP deductible. Not everything is IRAP
45:46deductible. And IRAP deductibility is
45:48different from IRES deductibility. Nice
45:51, right? If it's VAT deductible,
45:53meaning if the VAT can be reclaimed;
45:55for example, if you buy something at
45:58the supermarket for the company, pay
46:00with the company card, and get a
46:02receipt, you cannot recover the VAT on
46:04that receipt, so not all VAT is
46:06deductible. Madness, madness, madness.
46:09All right? Okay. And then who I paid or
46:12from whom I received money. I'm telling
46:15you the actual fields in my Excel
46:16sheets; I won't show them to you
46:17because otherwise other people's
46:18personal data would pop up. How I paid
46:21or received the money, whether from the
46:23account, card, in cash, or in chickens
46:26and capons, okay? Whether I was given
46:30an invoice, a receipt, an F24 form, or
46:33some other bizarre means. Okay. Then a
46:37few fields for the category,
46:39subcategory, type, and so on. Then a
46:43nice long field where you put the
46:45reason why you did that thing, and
46:48finally an identifier, an ID. What is
46:52that ID for? It's needed because when
46:55the accountant emails me saying, "
46:57Listen, we're missing the ID and proof
46:59for expense number 1374." I immediately
47:02look up 1374 in my Excel sheet, which I
47:04give her every month, and I see, "Oh,
47:07it was the ice cream I bought while on
47:09a business trip." Well yes, no, just
47:13kidding. And so I send her the ice
47:16cream receipt. So, having an ID for
47:19every line of expense and income makes
47:22it much, much easier to talk to the
47:25accountant who asks me, or rather, who
47:28tells me: "Why did you make expense
47:31number 1222?" instead of saying "Why
47:35did you make the expense of € 44.13
47:37on this and that date?" she gives me
47:39the ID and I've solved it. There. And
47:42by having several columns to categorize
47:44expenses, it also becomes easy for me
47:46to run statistics later. I mean, I want
47:49to see statistics on how much making
47:51videos earns me, how much it costs me
47:53to publish shorts instead, how much of
47:55this, how much I pay so-and-so, how
47:56much I pay someone else, it becomes
47:58much, much simpler. Everything is
48:02reconciled monthly by hand by me. I
48:06mean, every month, at the end of every
48:08month, I check my account, see what the
48:10balance is—and by the way, damn
48:12everyone who makes deposits on the
48:14first of the month because they throw
48:16off my balance and I have to...okay, I
48:18see what the balance is, and the
48:19balance on my Excel sheets has to match
48:21. I must say, at the beginning it was a
48:25nightmare; now I've gotten good at it,
48:27but thanks to this, to this check, I
48:29obviously discovered a few errors in my
48:31accounting. Okay, now I've gotten good,
48:35so usually I’m off by just one
48:36expense which I find right away, so
48:39I've learned a few tricks; every end of
48:41the month I reconcile my accounting
48:43with what’s actually in the account
48:45and what we really have in the cash box
48:47. There’s only 120 euros left in cash
48:49now out of the 4,000. And I'm all set.
48:54I send everything to the accountant:
48:56invoices, summary Excel sheets,
48:58receipts for all non-invoiced expenses,
49:01and that's it. That’s how accounting
49:03management works. I have to say it
49:06takes some time, yeah, but we’ll see
49:08now that the stuff that takes me the
49:10most time isn't this, isn't the
49:12accounting management itself, but those
49:14cursed self-invoices—damn whoever
49:15invented them. But I was almost about
49:20to forget the most important Excel
49:23sheet of all when you manage an LLC, or
49:26even a sole proprietorship. The "Who
49:30Needs to Pay Me" sheet. XLSX, an
49:35essential sheet. In my naivety, the
49:40first job I did, I asked for payment
49:42and they said, "Eh, we usually pay at
49:45two months." I say, "What do you mean,
49:49two months?""Ah, two months from the
49:52end of the month in which you send the
49:54invoice." I say, but if I paid my
49:57plumber with these timelines, no way
49:59would he ever come back. So, get it
50:02into your head right away that this
50:05Excel sheet is fundamental. I’ll show
50:07you an example here of the one I use.
50:10Here is the "Who Needs to Pay Me" sheet
50:12. XLSX. The numbers are made up, yeah,
50:15I’ll fix them for you in a second.
50:18Here is what we put in this nice sheet.
50:20First, we put who the client is, then
50:25the type of work. This is mostly used
50:28to see how much mentions earn me, how
50:30much videos earn me, how much video
50:32courses earn me, how much this earns me
50:34, how much that earns me. Then I
50:38recommend, well, obviously the money
50:40that needs to be paid, if there is VAT
50:43involved, if an agency is involved, a
50:45detailed, detailed description. Then
50:48other columns always made to categorize
50:52the, the, the type of work that you
50:54need to extract statistics. Then,
50:57basically, the fundamental columns are
51:00the dates. At first, I just used true/
51:03false, but dates are actually essential
51:06for when you proposed the work, so when
51:08you sent the quote. This is critical
51:12because people ignore you for two years
51:14, then reply saying, "Fine, I accept
51:15the quote," and you say, "But the quote
51:17is from two years ago.""No, you sent it
51:20to me a month ago." And you're like, "
51:22Haha, no, it's from 1125." They're
51:25delusional. Here is when the quote was
51:28accepted, this is also important; you
51:31have no idea, I have stuff that was
51:33accepted sitting there for a year for
51:35no reason. I regret only having a
51:37single "done" column. If I were to redo
51:41it now, or rather, I'll likely update
51:43it with two columns for when the work
51:45was due and when it was actually done.
51:49Okay. Then when you invoiced it, when
51:52the payment was due, that is, by when
51:55it had to be paid; usually, if there's
51:58no agreement, I give 30 days and I
52:01consider that generous. Hey, dear
52:04Italian entrepreneurs who pay at 90
52:07days. By the way, I'd like my editor to
52:11leave a comment here saying how long it
52:14takes me to pay him from the company
52:16account when he sends me an invoice. I
52:21mean, he sends me the invoice Saturday
52:23night at 9 PM and I'm at the club at 11
52:26PM, ping, instant transfer, gone, paid
52:29by midnight, and then when you were
52:31finally paid. This column that shows
52:35the timing is indispensable. Well, in
52:37this case, I set it as the difference
52:39between paid and invoiced. If you want,
52:41you could put the difference between
52:43paid and done or between paid and due
52:44date; it's up to you. And then other
52:47columns that I think are very useful.
52:49This one here is essential to see who
52:51is a snail and maybe who not to work
52:53with anymore, eh, or who to charge more
52:57money as a penalty for being a snail.
53:00And other essential columns are these.
53:02This is how much you collected, gross
53:04of VAT. In this case, I put, for
53:06example, how much it cost me? Because
53:09it might have cost me something. The
53:12editor for the video and, you know,
53:13what I had to—here, and how many
53:14hours did I spend on this? Inclusive.
53:18Inclusive of the hours spent on those
53:21useless calls we had. The useless calls
53:24. Right, inclusive of that. And here,
53:27the division of income minus costs
53:29divided by hours, which shows that some
53:32jobs pay a lot and others pay very
53:34little per hour worked. So, as you can
53:39see, this Excel sheet—no, I won't
53:41make it available to you, make your own
53:43—it highlights automatically; for
53:45example, you see, if I remove it, it
53:47turns green for items that have been
53:49paid, and red for things that are
53:50already past due. The 15th of the 9th
53:54means it's expired—I'm recording on
53:56the 29th of the 9 th—yellow for
53:58things not yet due, and light blue for
54:01things I still have to do. This one: a
54:05date effectively in the future, and
54:08dark blue for things I still have to do
54:10that are urgent—meaning they are
54:12expiring—and white for things that
54:15haven't actually been accepted yet. And
54:20a colleague of mine—I won't tell you
54:22who, but I think you can easily guess
54:25—a colleague has a very similar Excel
54:27sheet to which he had to add a black
54:29row for those intermediaries that don't
54:32pay. They didn't just delay, they
54:36actually told him, "Look, we're not
54:38paying you." So, the black row for
54:40being scammed. Well, fortunately, with
54:43my sponsors, I haven't had to add a
54:45black row. It is interesting to note
54:48that the payment time is totally
54:50independent of who the payer is. I mean
54:53, I had, just throwing it out there, a
54:55foreign cryptocurrency exchange that I
54:57would have expected to pay at 90 days,
54:59but they paid me the day before—I
55:01mean, the day before I even did the
55:03work, they had already paid me. I said,
55:06"How?" Oh well, they paid me the day
55:07before. I've had various banks or
55:10financial intermediaries that paid me
55:12within 7 days, which I consider
55:14exceptional. I've had others that paid
55:19me at 60 days. I had an event planning
55:25agency that paid me like 150 days later
55:29, so 5 months later. They probably
55:33forgot, but damn it. And after various
55:36reminders. So, it's totally—I've
55:38learned that it doesn't depend on the
55:40type. It's not like there are certain
55:41types, like big companies pay you
55:43sooner than small ones, no. No. It
55:47depends a lot on—usually the small
55:49ones tend to pay you sooner, but
55:50sometimes even they insist on having
55:52payment at 45 days and things like that
55:55. So, payment times don't depend on
55:58anything. I haven't derived any general
56:01rule at all. Divination, necromancy,
56:12clairvoyance, spells. Here are the
56:15invoices. No, the "fatture"(invoices/
56:20spells) we are talking about are not
56:22the spells a wizard casts on you, but
56:25the invoices you will necessarily have
56:27to issue, because if you have a micro
56:30LLC, you are the one issuing the
56:32invoices. Attention, in Italy we have
56:36an electronic invoicing system that I
56:38believe is light years, and I know I'll
56:40get a lot of criticism for this
56:41statement, but light years ahead of
56:43that of other countries. In other
56:46countries, the paper system often still
56:48prevails, meaning the sheet of paper
56:50that I could even make myself. I
56:52remember once I received an invoice
56:54from Canva and, being from Canva, it
56:56had a Canva-style decoration on the
56:58border, I mean, it had little leaves. I
57:01think, if I present this stuff to the
57:03Revenue Agency, they'll tell me it's
57:05fake, that I made it myself on Canva.
57:07Well, these are the invoices that
57:08circulate in some countries. Eh, in
57:10Italy there is the electronic invoice.
57:11How does it work? Basically, you have
57:14to create an XML, which you obviously
57:16create easily with a specific interface
57:17, so you fill in the fields and then
57:19the interface creates the XML. This XML
57:22that you create is the invoice, so the
57:24invoice you see, the one on the sheet
57:26of paper, is not the real invoice. The
57:28real invoice is the XML that lies
57:29behind it. This XML is sent to a system
57:33called the Exchange System, or SDI.
57:38Clearly, it is sent only by certain
57:40authorized providers that can interact
57:42with it and then it is delivered to the
57:43other party. If the other party is
57:46Italian, it is delivered from above,
57:48and usually, when you send an invoice,
57:50you are requesting payment, so when you
57:52send the invoice to someone else, you
57:54must also indicate who their
57:55intermediary is, their invoice manager.
57:58So you indicate the VAT number, the
58:00counterparty's invoice manager, all the
58:02data, the money you're asking for, etc.
58:04, etc., etc., and the invoice arrives
58:06from above directly in electronic
58:08format. If you have to send invoices to
58:11my company, please do not send them to
58:12me in PDF, I can't do anything with
58:14them at all. As soon as I see the
58:17invoice arrive, if it's legitimate, I
58:18pay it, I check it, so don't send me
58:20random invoices. If it is not
58:23legitimate, I won't pay it. There you
58:26go, so don't worry, it all works, it
58:29works perfectly, we're all set. And so,
58:32if the invoice is intended for a
58:34private individual, it's not certain
58:36that the individual has an electronic
58:38invoicing system, so you can, if you
58:41want, indicate their certified email
58:43address (PEC) and they receive a PEC.
58:46If you don't indicate anything, if the
58:48private individual has gone into the
58:50Revenue Agency's tax portal and
58:52activated the receipt and viewing of
58:54invoices...I think, I did it many years
58:56ago, I fiddled with it a bit, I went
58:58around the tax portal until I...not
59:00even the tax portal, sorry, the invoice
59:02management system. All the invoices
59:05they receive are found there. Very
59:06convenient for private individuals too.
59:09If only it were that simple. But no, of
59:13course not. So, let's start with these.
59:17These are standard invoices. Very well.
59:20Then, there's the split payment. Damn
59:25whoever invented the split payment. If
59:29you invoice certain companies with
59:31specific characteristics, they go under
59:34split payment. This means you don't
59:36have to show the VAT on the invoice.
59:38You issue a VAT-exempt invoice and the
59:41other company will take care of paying
59:43the VAT to the State. I mean, it's fine
59:49, but no, come on, just let me do them
59:52all the same. I think it's public
59:56companies plus others, so for certain
59:58firms you do this bizarre thing—it
1:00:00took me a while, the first time they
1:00:02told me I didn't understand what they
1:00:04meant or why the invoice was sent
1:00:05without VAT. Very well. Ok. Then if you
1:00:13invoice a foreign company—no, not a
1:00:16private individual, an individual is an
1:00:18end consumer so you have to charge it,
1:00:21but for a foreign company, you don't
1:00:23apply VAT. That's what I've understood.
1:00:27Luckily, I never invoice abroad. I
1:00:31receive invoices from abroad, but I
1:00:33never invoice abroad—you don't have
1:00:35to apply VAT, you send them an
1:00:37electronic invoice, but the one abroad
1:00:39will want the PDF because to them the
1:00:41XML means nothing. Okay? Big, big
1:00:45problem when you get an invoice from
1:00:50abroad. When they send you an invoice
1:00:52from abroad, two things can happen. The
1:00:56first thing, which I affectionately
1:00:58call getting "receipted," means that
1:01:00abroad they treated you like a consumer
1:01:02and not a business, so they applied the
1:01:04VAT to you. And you just have to take
1:01:08it. It’s like they gave you a simple
1:01:11receipt, so you just put it away. You
1:01:13file it away with the invoice as if it
1:01:15were a receipt. End of story, but you
1:01:18paid the VAT for nothing. When instead
1:01:23they send you a real invoice from
1:01:25abroad—and you'll say, sorry, an
1:01:27invoice without VAT—and you know it's
1:01:29an invoice because it has no VAT and it
1:01:32says "invoice" instead of something
1:01:34else, like "receipt," then the terrible
1:01:40self-billing kicks in. You get this
1:01:43invoice without VAT, but the Italian
1:01:45state wants to see the VAT somehow. So
1:01:48you have to issue an invoice to
1:01:50yourself for that amount plus VAT.
1:01:53Careful, you issue an invoice to
1:01:55yourself for that amount plus VAT as if
1:01:57the other party had issued it, and you
1:01:59have an incoming invoice and an
1:02:01outgoing invoice. These two offset the
1:02:03VAT. I would really like to know who
1:02:05invented this mechanism, because I've
1:02:07had it explained to me like fifteen
1:02:08times and I still struggle to
1:02:10understand it. I only know the steps I
1:02:11have to take. By the way, these cursed
1:02:14self-invoices have three different
1:02:15codes depending on whether it's a
1:02:17purchase of a service, a purchase of a
1:02:19good that was outside the Union, or a
1:02:20purchase from outside the national
1:02:22territory—I don't remember, I think
1:02:24the national territory—and the
1:02:25purchase of a good that was already in
1:02:27the national territory. Now, imagine
1:02:30when I buy from Amazon. If I buy from
1:02:32Amazon, if Amazon sells it to me,
1:02:34problem solved. Amazon Italy sells it
1:02:36to me, an Italian invoice. However, if
1:02:38an alternative shop sells it to me, I
1:02:40have no idea where the hell this shop
1:02:42is. Yes, Amazon puts up a notice, but
1:02:45half the time the notice is false. I
1:02:47mean, the notice is there, but it's not
1:02:48actually the case. I have no idea where
1:02:51the hell this shop is. I only find out
1:02:53later that the shop was Shun Shing Bing
1:02:55Bong Bing, and I'm not making up names.
1:02:57Actually, look, I'll pull out one of
1:02:59these shop names for you, that's why I
1:03:01don't want to be accused. Then, so on
1:03:0408/27/2026, I issued a self-invoice to
1:03:09Shen, Zen, Sid Le Le Xing. Shu Yuxangoi
1:03:15. with its headquarters at an address
1:03:22that doesn't exist, and I fear it's
1:03:23part of the name, but the name was
1:03:25written all as one word. Who knows,
1:03:28Ashenzen. Okay, there. And
1:03:32unfortunately, precisely, if Shen Shin
1:03:34Shen Shin Shin sends me merchandise and
1:03:36it arrives in one day, was this
1:03:38merchandise in Italy or abroad? You see
1:03:41, it arrived in one day, it was in
1:03:42Italy. Good. If it arrives in two days,
1:03:44it could have been in Austria for all I
1:03:46know; in Austria, it arrives here in
1:03:48two days, so I even have to make up
1:03:50whether it's national territory or not.
1:03:52So, as I was saying before, the real,
1:03:54the real nightmare isn't keeping the
1:03:56accounts. The real nightmare for me is
1:03:59these cursed self-invoices; a plague
1:04:01take whoever invented them, because
1:04:03every time I make a payment abroad—
1:04:05and I make a lot, because there's
1:04:07Streamyard, there's Canva, there's
1:04:09Supabase, there's, there's Anthropic—
1:04:11I really have so many. If I can, I
1:04:14always make the annual payment, even
1:04:16though it costs me less, but even if it
1:04:18cost me more I would do it, but often I
1:04:20can't do it, I have to make the payment
1:04:22there's VATS. All of these are
1:04:26deliveries, and every time I buy from
1:04:28Shenzhen Delx on Amazon, I find this
1:04:31bizarre thing; there are these shops
1:04:34with long Chinese names that have an
1:04:37Italian VAT number, yet they invoice
1:04:40you without VAT. I mean, they have an
1:04:43Italian VAT number, but they bill me as
1:04:45if they were abroad, the name is
1:04:47Chinese, and the registered office is
1:04:49abroad. I don't know, even my
1:04:51accountant was puzzled. Um, so I'll
1:04:54confess that for all the small things,
1:04:56if I see the shop is Chinese, I'm sorry
1:04:58, I stopped buying them as a company, I
1:05:00buy them as a private individual. I
1:05:04mean, I'm sorry, I actually still buy
1:05:07them, but as a private citizen I'd
1:05:09rather use my own money because I have
1:05:11to file a self-invoice for 5 euros,
1:05:13which means you have to fill in the
1:05:15data, send the invoice, save it as XML,
1:05:17and wait for the reply. Okay? So for me
1:05:22, the real plague of keeping accounts
1:05:24is self-invoicing. I do quite a few of
1:05:27them; let's see how many self-invoices
1:05:29I actually do. It's easy to check
1:05:31because I just need to look at my
1:05:33invoicing software to see how many
1:05:34invoices I've issued to myself. Seven
1:05:37last month, 7 last month—that's one
1:05:39every 4 days, come on. I mean, consider
1:05:42that this is a micro-business. In the
1:05:43last month, I had issued 30 invoices in
1:05:46total. That, however, excludes the
1:05:48invoices for "Tutto in Regola." For "
1:05:50Tutto in Regola," we use a different
1:05:52invoicing service. It's not mandatory
1:05:54to have only one, you know? Many are
1:05:56convinced that you can only have one,
1:05:57right? You can have as many invoicing
1:05:59services as you want with a different
1:06:01recipient code. So we use another
1:06:04invoicing service, and since we have a
1:06:06lot of transactions there, in peak
1:06:08months we easily exceed 200 invoices.
1:06:12That one generates invoices
1:06:13automatically. Deo Gratias, good old
1:06:16Simone set up an invoicing system. We
1:06:19had a few misunderstandings at the
1:06:21beginning because we were calculating
1:06:23the discount wrong, because anyone who
1:06:25does invoicing in Italy realizes that
1:06:27if you start from the taxable amount
1:06:30and add the VAT, you're fine. But if
1:06:32you are targeting consumers, you
1:06:34usually have to set a round price,
1:06:36already including VAT, and you can't
1:06:39always work backward with the right
1:06:41rounding. Alright? Anyway, there is an
1:06:43automatic system, and it generates the
1:06:45invoices automatically via API. And
1:06:49that works really smoothly. I must say
1:06:51that for 6 months now, we haven't had
1:06:53any issues or various snags with those
1:06:56invoices. It rarely happens that I have
1:06:58to sit down and make an invoice or a
1:07:00credit note by hand. I remind you that
1:07:03a credit note in Italy is an "
1:07:05anti-invoice," so you cancel an invoice
1:07:07by using a credit note. It gets a bit
1:07:11weirder when you have to cancel a
1:07:13self-billed invoice. There, a credit
1:07:17note doesn't exist; you have to create
1:07:19a bizarre self-billed invoice with
1:07:21negative amounts. All right. Okay. And
1:07:25now comes the juiciest part. Five
1:07:28months after I opened my LLC, I got a
1:07:32visit from the Financial Guard. Ta-da!
1:07:36Panic, I tell you, panic. How did it
1:07:38happen? First of all, it was the middle
1:07:40of August. In Bolzano, we work—dear
1:07:43Milanese friends, in Bolzano we work in
1:07:45August. The Financial Guard works too,
1:07:47and they assume they'll find you at
1:07:48your office. They arrived directly at
1:07:50my office and, obviously, didn't find
1:07:52anyone—not because it was August, but
1:07:53because by pure chance I wasn't there
1:07:55that day. So the Financial Guard
1:07:57arrived directly at the office and
1:07:59didn't find anyone. Since they didn't
1:08:02find anyone, they sent a certified
1:08:05email to the administrator and phoned
1:08:07the accountant. The accountant sent
1:08:10them all the invoices, VAT declarations
1:08:12, yadda yadda, this and that—acronyms
1:08:14I had never even heard of that they
1:08:16were asking for. As for me, I went to
1:08:19their office in person, since it was
1:08:21faster for me to just go there and pay
1:08:23my respects to the Financial Guard to
1:08:25explain things. I explained how the
1:08:29company works, I explained what the
1:08:30revenue sources are, I...well, they
1:08:32were extremely polite; I’m not joking
1:08:34, I’m not kidding, they were truly
1:08:36very kind. They explained in detail why
1:08:40they did the audit, and they said they
1:08:42audit new businesses, and although they
1:08:44didn't tell me, I think they did it
1:08:46because it was a strange business—
1:08:48that is, a company with zero employees
1:08:50where it’s not clear where the money
1:08:52comes from. Besides, the name didn't
1:08:56sound like a media company or a
1:08:57marketing agency, either. And
1:09:00essentially, the audit was meant to
1:09:03prevent people from creating fake LLCs.
1:09:06At which point I wondered, with all the
1:09:08hassle of creating an LLC, the costs,
1:09:10and the scams you're exposed to—the
1:09:12scam attempts you're exposed to—there
1:09:14are actually people who create fake
1:09:16ones, okay. Anyway, they then told me
1:09:18they still had to come to my office. So
1:09:21, they arrived at the office, I showed
1:09:22them around: "Look, here is the gear
1:09:24for live streams, here is this, that,
1:09:25and the other." You see? A glass of
1:09:28water—they didn't even want a glass
1:09:30of water—they signed the report, and
1:09:32that was it, the end. So, a whole lot
1:09:35of nothing to be afraid of. Because you
1:09:37get a little scared when the Financial
1:09:39Police call you—who knows? Since I
1:09:41was used to it, for those who saw my
1:09:43old video that I'll link here, the old
1:09:45video about the studio apartment in the
1:09:47historic center, I’ve been afraid
1:09:49ever since the Carabinieri called me,
1:09:51that’s it. And now let's see how to
1:09:54get money out of an SRL, because the
1:09:56SRL, as I said before, is the natural
1:09:58mechanism for taking money out: it’s
1:10:00paying dividends. The shareholders '
1:10:03meeting—which in reality is just a
1:10:05few people if you're a micro-SRL, or
1:10:07actually just you—decides to meet and
1:10:08decides to pay dividends. The dividends
1:10:12you can pay aren't unlimited, you know.
1:10:14For example, there are certain
1:10:15requirements; well, you can certainly
1:10:17take 80%of the profit without issues,
1:10:19but it’s not a given that you can go
1:10:21overboard. And it decides to pay
1:10:26dividends, but that is subject to a 26%
1:10:28tax, exactly the same one we pay on
1:10:30financial income and financial
1:10:32dividends. So, the dividend is the
1:10:35standard way. Consider that you have
1:10:38already paid IRES on the dividend, so
1:10:43you’ve already paid 24%. After that,
1:10:48you're hit with another 26%, right? It
1:10:51doesn't add up to 50%, it's a bit less
1:10:53because the 26%is only on what's
1:10:55remaining, so in the end, to take money
1:10:58out of an SRL as dividends, you’re
1:11:00looking at over 43%in taxes, sorry,
1:11:02which is usually a lot. Are there other
1:11:05ways to get money out of the SRL? Yes,
1:11:07but they are very limited, don't think
1:11:09you'll be pulling out millions. Method
1:11:11number one is the administrator's
1:11:12compensation. The administrator's
1:11:14compensation is when the administrator
1:11:16pays themselves a fee. This, of course,
1:11:18only works for the administrator. The
1:11:20administrator's compensation is subject
1:11:23to INPS and subject to IRPEF. The INPS
1:11:29tax is about 26%. But it's not money
1:11:36thrown away. Yes, I understand that for
1:11:38you at 25, it feels like money thrown
1:11:39away. For me, at almost 60, it's not
1:11:42money thrown away; it's money I'll see
1:11:44again soon. So, it still increases your
1:11:46INPS total. Furthermore, you only pay
1:11:49INPS up to € 110,000. If you give
1:11:52yourself a € 300,000 administrator's
1:11:54fee, everything above that is not
1:11:55subject to INPS. Technically, this INPS
1:11:59portion is 2/3 charged to the company
1:12:04and 1/3 charged to you. But if the
1:12:06company is yours, you couldn't care
1:12:08less whether it’s 2/3 for the company
1:12:10and 1/3 for you. Additionally, since it
1:12:14is income comparable to employment, it
1:12:16is subject to the usual IRPEF. So you
1:12:18are subject to the usual IRPEF tax
1:12:20brackets. So let's say it makes sense
1:12:23as long as: as long as your income is
1:12:26low, you stay in the 23%bracket. Once
1:12:29you hit 33%, considering there’s also
1:12:32the 26%for INPS, it starts to make much
1:12:34less sense; and at 43%, unless you
1:12:37really need the money, it makes even
1:12:39less sense, because 26%for INPS plus 43
1:12:42%on the rest is worse than paying
1:12:44corporate tax plus dividends. I must
1:12:49say, however, there is one advantage to
1:12:51having a director's salary: you can
1:12:54deduct all your personal deductible
1:12:56expenses, medical costs, mortgage
1:12:58interest, home renovations—which for
1:13:00some people are substantial—and your
1:13:02pension fund. Pension fund. Ah, don't
1:13:07think about getting a sectoral pension
1:13:09fund because they already told me no
1:13:10way, it has to be an open pension fund;
1:13:13so you can deduct all your personal
1:13:14expenses from the director's salary to
1:13:16lower your income tax, meaning you
1:13:18eventually only pay the INPS social
1:13:20security contributions. So, at the very
1:13:23least, it's worth giving yourself a
1:13:24director's salary that covers all the
1:13:26deductions you would already have. I
1:13:29always understand that if you're 25,
1:13:31your deductions are probably zero, but
1:13:33if you're almost 60, medical expenses
1:13:35abound—walkers and things like that
1:13:37—because I always find it bizarre
1:13:39when twenty-year-olds are convinced
1:13:41that sixty-year-olds walk around with
1:13:43walkers. Yes, maybe some do, and then
1:13:46there are home renovations because
1:13:47you’re at a certain age where you've
1:13:49bought property, and in your life,
1:13:51you've done a ton of work. I have about
1:13:53seven pages of tax returns just for
1:13:56renovations. Not seven lines, seven
1:13:58pages, each containing three [items] I
1:13:59think, right? So more than 20 lines of
1:14:02renovation declarations, plus all the
1:14:04others for energy savings, furniture,
1:14:06and various bonuses here and there.
1:14:10Furthermore, having a director's salary
1:14:12means having a payslip you can show if,
1:14:14by any chance, you are looking to rent,
1:14:16for example, or looking for a mortgage.
1:14:19Because if you're looking for a rental
1:14:20or a mortgage and you show that you
1:14:21receive dividends, they'll laugh in
1:14:23your face. If you show a payslip
1:14:25instead, the bank might realize it's a
1:14:27director's salary from your own LLC,
1:14:29which you effectively pay yourself, but
1:14:31a landlord might be perfectly fine with
1:14:34it. And so, because these days you
1:14:37can't get an apartment for rent without
1:14:39a payslip, it has this advantage:
1:14:41you're better integrated into the
1:14:43company. Obviously, there are also all
1:14:46the expense reimbursements. Every time
1:14:48the director spends money doing
1:14:50something for the company, they get
1:14:52reimbursed. Typically, these are travel
1:14:54expenses. If the administrator is
1:14:56traveling, they get reimbursed for the
1:14:58travel, plus they are given a per diem
1:15:00which is about € 46 in Italy, and I
1:15:02think maybe € 78 abroad. The per diem
1:15:06includes meals. So, it's not like the
1:15:08administrator is rolling in dough, but
1:15:10well, there are expense reimbursements.
1:15:13I’ve heard of certain administrators
1:15:15who would have the company pay their
1:15:16per diem just to go to the company
1:15:18office. In my opinion, that’s not a
1:15:22right, because you get the per diem
1:15:24going from the company office to
1:15:25somewhere else that isn't your home,
1:15:27but you don't get it for going from
1:15:28your home to the company office, even
1:15:30if it's in a different town. I usually
1:15:34think in these cases they use the
1:15:36loophole where the company has two
1:15:38locations, one in your town of
1:15:40residence, one outside, and you go to
1:15:43the one outside. In that case, it works
1:15:46, but be careful with these little
1:15:48games, okay, the administrator is
1:15:51entitled to meal vouchers, which at the
1:15:53moment are € 10, because obviously
1:15:56you make them electronic; you'd be
1:15:58foolish to do them any other way. If
1:16:01you use paper ones, which are limited,
1:16:03I think, to € 4 or € 10 a day, I
1:16:05clearly advise using them only on
1:16:06working days; don't include Saturdays,
1:16:08Sundays, or holidays, because that
1:16:10looks suspicious. The Revenue Agency
1:16:12could contest it. It’s unlikely an
1:16:14administrator with a micro-company who
1:16:16works one hour a week would need to
1:16:18work on Saturdays and Sundays. So, they
1:16:20even have meal vouchers which are
1:16:22practically cash. And I'll tell you
1:16:25right now, for meal vouchers—they
1:16:27aren't sponsors of this video—but
1:16:29there are basically only two big
1:16:31players, I imagine you know them both,
1:16:33one big one and one smart one. Anyway,
1:16:36let's not even name them, so there's no
1:16:38doubt that this video is sponsored.
1:16:41Then the administrator is entitled to
1:16:46Fringe Benefits, which are € 1000, or
1:16:48€ 2000 if they have children. And be
1:16:53careful, because many people are
1:16:55convinced that Fringe Benefits can only
1:16:57be obtained through gas vouchers or
1:16:59shopping vouchers. That is not true at
1:17:02all. I asked my labor consultant, and
1:17:05as you can see, what I pay them is
1:17:07definitely worth it. Because, this
1:17:09labor consultant says the fringe
1:17:10benefit, for example, can also be given
1:17:12as a rent reimbursement. So you show
1:17:14that you paid at least € 1000 or €
1:17:162000 in rent throughout the year—easy
1:17:18—or as a utility bill reimbursement.
1:17:20So fringe benefits can also be given as
1:17:22reimbursements; therefore, it can be
1:17:24much easier to receive them, and in
1:17:26that case, you receive them as a bank
1:17:27transfer, a direct bank transfer, boom.
1:17:31These are totally exempt. Exempt from
1:17:33INPS, exempt from income tax. Yeah,
1:17:34that's money going straight, € 1000
1:17:36or € 2000 straight into the
1:17:38administrator's pocket. As I mentioned
1:17:40earlier, there are ways to take money
1:17:42out of an SRL with much lower or no
1:17:44taxation, but they are very limited;
1:17:46it's not like getting € 100,000 in
1:17:48fringe benefits. Then there is
1:17:51corporate welfare; you should get
1:17:53informed here as it starts to get messy
1:17:55. It must be offered to all categories
1:17:59of employees, but since it's your
1:18:00micro-SRL, it's just you. So, for the
1:18:04administrator, corporate welfare can be
1:18:06a real minefield regarding what is
1:18:08included and what is not. It is not as
1:18:11common or convenient as fringe benefits
1:18:13. Let's move on to other ways that
1:18:16aren't tied to the administrator to
1:18:17take money out of the SRL. There are
1:18:21copyright royalties and trademark
1:18:23rights, which, by the way, are taxed in
1:18:25two slightly different categories on
1:18:28your tax return. You can get money out;
1:18:32you can ask your SRL to pay you
1:18:34royalties or trademark fees if the SRL
1:18:37is using a trademark of yours or
1:18:39products you authored. For example, in
1:18:43theory, I could ask my SRL to pay me
1:18:46copyright royalties on my videos.
1:18:48However, I don't actually do that.
1:18:50Instead, I will likely ask my SRL to
1:18:52pay me royalties on my trademark. The
1:18:54brand you see here, on that PC, is my
1:18:57trademark. "Educati e Finanziati" is
1:18:59also my trademark. Clearly, the
1:19:01royalties the SRL pays you must be a
1:19:03fraction of what it has earned. If it
1:19:06pays you double the royalties compared
1:19:08to what it earned, the tax authorities
1:19:10will really tear you apart if they
1:19:12conduct an audit; so obviously, it must
1:19:14be a sensible fraction of what the SRL
1:19:17earned. For a YouTuber, it's easy
1:19:19because you go to YouTube, see how much
1:19:21you earned just from YouTube, and take
1:19:23a fraction of that and transfer it to
1:19:25yourself as royalties. Copyright
1:19:27royalties are not subject to INPS
1:19:28social security contributions, and
1:19:30trademark rights aren't either, though
1:19:32they are subject to standard personal
1:19:34income tax rates. By the way,
1:19:36copyrights have a 25%tax deduction on
1:19:38the taxable amount, or 40%if you are a
1:19:40"lucky" young person. So copyrights are
1:19:44better, but usually, you have a
1:19:45trademark. The trademark must be
1:19:47registered; it's better if it is
1:19:48registered. It's best if it's
1:19:51registered before founding the SRL,
1:19:53otherwise someone might say you did it
1:19:56to bypass tax laws. So that is another
1:20:00fairly typical system, and it's mostly
1:20:02convenient because you don't have to
1:20:04pay INPS, which I understand young
1:20:06people see as a lost investment. There
1:20:10is also the end-of-mandate severance
1:20:12pay. It’s basically the severance pay
1:20:17, but for the director; however, it
1:20:19only works when the director’s term
1:20:21ends, so if you are on your own, forget
1:20:23about it. If, on the other hand, there
1:20:26are two or three of you, maybe you can
1:20:27take turns every now and then and
1:20:29provide for a severance indemnity. Uh,
1:20:31it must be decided beforehand, so there
1:20:33are some constraints, some constraints.
1:20:37And there is, as many of you saw in my
1:20:38video about the company car, my new
1:20:40company car, which I’ll link here:
1:20:42the option of buying a company car,
1:20:43I’m telling you, it’s not a bargain
1:20:45. Meaning that—and I will make a very
1:20:49, very specific video on this; so I
1:20:51won’t go into the details in this
1:20:53video. I’ll make an extremely
1:20:55specific video: whether it’s better
1:20:56to buy as a private individual, as a
1:20:58company car, or as a VAT holder. Well,
1:21:00obviously, often there isn’t really a
1:21:01choice, eh. But it’s not, it’s not
1:21:05what you think, unless you have a
1:21:07profession that explicitly requires a
1:21:10car (a sales agent, put simply), or you
1:21:12buy a truck and fill it with bricks.
1:21:16And if you buy a company car for the
1:21:18director to get around, well, what the
1:21:21company can deduct is very, very
1:21:23limited. It must be said, however, that
1:21:26you avoid paying the dividend; that is,
1:21:28in fact, the director uses the company
1:21:30car, and it’s an asset purchased by
1:21:32the company on which he didn't pay the
1:21:3526%dividend tax. So, even just being
1:21:38able to buy it with company money is
1:21:39convenient because you didn’t pay
1:21:40that 26%in dividends. Furthermore, I
1:21:43tell you, from personal experience, a
1:21:45company car purchased has the exact
1:21:47same discounts and the exact same price
1:21:48as one bought as a private individual.
1:21:51I had it done like, I mean, so it’s
1:21:53not like they increase the price for
1:21:54you because it’s bought as a company.
1:21:56I got a quote as a private individual
1:21:58and then I went there with that quote
1:21:59and said, "I want to buy it as a
1:22:01company." It’s not like they raised
1:22:02the quote on me, which is something I
1:22:04think they would definitely do for
1:22:06electricity. Besides, this corporate
1:22:09deductibility also depends on the type
1:22:11of fuel, which is the reason why I
1:22:13bought an electric car, both for the
1:22:15deductibility and because, since it’s
1:22:17for the director’s use, it increases
1:22:19the director’s income, but being
1:22:20electric, it increases it very little.
1:22:24So, these were the mechanisms, as we
1:22:26anticipated, and it’s obviously not a
1:22:29magic bullet, and the government isn't
1:22:32that stupid; however, there are ways to
1:22:34take out small amounts of money,
1:22:36clearly suited for a director who is
1:22:39running an LLC almost as if it were a
1:22:42sole proprietorship, and it’s not
1:22:44meant for the big-time executive. Or in
1:22:47that case, they resign themselves to
1:22:49paying dividends, or they award
1:22:50themselves a huge director's fee and
1:22:51pay all the social security
1:22:52contributions. Before leaving you to
1:22:58the last part of the video, which for
1:23:00many might be the most interesting,
1:23:02where I actually reveal the money this
1:23:04LLC earned and how it spent it, we’ve
1:23:06made a couple of notes here. And well,
1:23:10we will do, as I’ve already said, a
1:23:13video on cars: company car, car as a
1:23:15sole proprietorship, or personal car
1:23:18and the advantages. We’ll do the math
1:23:20, then I’ll give you the Excel sheet,
1:23:23as usual, to run all the calculations,
1:23:25and, um, we will also do a comparison
1:23:27video of ordinary sole proprietorship
1:23:29versus LLC, and maybe, if inspiration
1:23:31strikes, I’ll throw in the flat-rate
1:23:33scheme too, because, dear flat-rate
1:23:34friends living in a basement eating
1:23:36cheese rinds, not everyone lives your
1:23:38life. For some people, the flat-rate
1:23:41scheme isn't worth it and the ordinary
1:23:43one is better, for example, for those
1:23:44with many expenses or many deductions.
1:23:48But I wanted to tell you something even
1:23:50more important: if you have an LLC, go
1:23:53to the institutional websites, all of
1:23:55them possible, starting with the
1:23:57Revenue Agency and INPS, and get
1:23:59authorized; that is, get authorization
1:24:02to enter as a director of your LLC, so
1:24:04you also have access to the Revenue
1:24:06Agency site and the INPS site as an LLC
1:24:09. Okay? The accountant will probably
1:24:13ask you for authorization as well.
1:24:14Grant authorization to the accountant
1:24:16and also to yourself, so you can access
1:24:17it. Another thing, it’s not a bad
1:24:19idea to also get authorization for the
1:24:21Ministry of Labor, because every now
1:24:23and then you need to submit
1:24:24notifications for occasional work on
1:24:26the Ministry of Labor website. If you
1:24:29provide occasional work under certain
1:24:31conditions, you must submit an advance
1:24:33notification to the Ministry of Labor;
1:24:35I always do it, even when the
1:24:37conditions don't apply, so they don't
1:24:38complain. But you have to submit an
1:24:41advance notification to the Ministry of
1:24:42Labor. If you already have the
1:24:44authorization, you speed up the process
1:24:46, so a few authorizations for the
1:24:48Ministry of Labor, INPS, Revenue Agency
1:24:50; tinker around until you figure out
1:24:52how to get authorized as a company with
1:24:54a corporate VAT number. And here we are
1:24:56at the last part. This needs the
1:24:58accounts here. Um, so, the accounting
1:25:02for my LLC. Well, first let’s clarify
1:25:07what my LLC manages. My LLC manages my
1:25:10YouTube channel and my social media
1:25:12channels regarding advertising activity
1:25:14; it does not, however, manage me
1:25:16personally—that is, when I go to give
1:25:19university lectures or attend events,
1:25:21unless I’m advertising, which is very
1:25:23rare. Usually, when I go to conferences
1:25:27or lectures, all my academic, speaking,
1:25:30or event-based activity, as long as
1:25:33it's not advertising, is handled by my
1:25:35own flat-rate tax scheme. I finally
1:25:39opened a flat-rate tax account. I’d
1:25:41been drooling for years looking at that
1:25:43cursed 3%tax rate of yours. Well, I
1:25:46finally opened one myself. By the way,
1:25:48I might already be kicked out next year
1:25:50because if I write the book as planned,
1:25:51I think I’m at risk of exceeding the
1:25:53limit. Um, the LLC instead handles
1:25:56proceeds from YouTube and all
1:25:58advertising activity. Now, I keep, as I
1:26:03said, cash-basis accounting. I couldn't
1:26:06care less if the accounting by law is
1:26:08supposed to be accrual-based. Anyway,
1:26:11my LLC closes the year so well that it
1:26:14makes no difference. Cash basis versus
1:26:17accrual accounting barely differs
1:26:20because I keep very precise records, so
1:26:22I make all payments by December 31st to
1:26:25align the cash-basis accounting with
1:26:27the accrual, and so, in the end, they
1:26:30are quite aligned. So, I made
1:26:33projections for 2026; I'm recording
1:26:35this at the end of September '26. I
1:26:38made projections for October, November,
1:26:40and December, which will likely go like
1:26:42March, April, and May, because that’s
1:26:44how it is—the YouTube world has a
1:26:46dead summer with few sponsors, high
1:26:48peaks in autumn and spring, and winter
1:26:50is hit or miss, or rather, it's steady
1:26:52except for Christmas when there’s a
1:26:54spike. But since there wasn't a spike
1:26:57last year, I'm assuming there won't be
1:26:59one this year either. So I made some
1:27:02projections for these autumn months; so
1:27:05, for 2026, my LLC should make earnings
1:27:09(I mean cash-ins, so a skilled person,
1:27:12a real entrepreneur, would probably
1:27:16call it turnover) of € 264,000. Okay?
1:27:21So, honestly, maybe, just maybe, an
1:27:23ordinary tax scheme could have been
1:27:25appropriate. And to be precise, about
1:27:27€ 100,000 comes from the "Tutte in
1:27:30Regola" business. Our automatic
1:27:33declaration service for foreign brokers
1:27:36, because you all went crazy with
1:27:38foreign brokers; about € 130,000
1:27:40comes from sponsors or activities
1:27:42related to sponsors in some way. €
1:27:4526,000 is the meager revenue I get from
1:27:48YouTube. And why, by the way, is it a
1:27:51bit—why do I say "paltry"? Well,
1:27:53because last year it was, I won't say
1:27:54double, but almost; two years ago it
1:27:56was double. So actually, YouTube—the
1:27:59revenue from YouTube is in a sharp
1:28:02decline, partly because I, unlike many
1:28:04others, don't insist on putting in so
1:28:07many ads. Have you noticed that in my
1:28:10videos there’s an ad every 10 minutes
1:28:11, and in the live streams one every 15
1:28:13minutes? And I think almost all my
1:28:16colleagues use the "you decide" button,
1:28:19and if it's set to "you decide,"
1:28:20YouTube sometimes won't show any for
1:28:22half an hour, and then it throws one at
1:28:25you every 2 minutes. If it sees a part
1:28:28you're watching closely, bam, bam, bam,
1:28:29one every 2 minutes. And since I know
1:28:32this thing is annoying, I’d rather
1:28:34keep them constant, but, uh, properly
1:28:37spread out, 80s Canale 5 style. Um,
1:28:40very well. Then we have, for which I
1:28:42thank you, € 3,600 in donations.
1:28:45Thank you, thank you, thank you for the
1:28:47€ 3,600 in donations. Donations go
1:28:49right into the accounting, uh, they are
1:28:51VAT-exempt. But then we have the crumbs
1:28:54that come from Spotify—yes, Educati e
1:28:57Finanziati is also on Spotify—and the
1:29:00merch T-shirts, uh, and Amazon. You
1:29:04have, you see the Amazon links under
1:29:06every video. If you click on one of
1:29:09those and buy the item, or even buy
1:29:11something else, I get—let's say—two
1:29:13little chocolates, like the ones you
1:29:16liked so much in the last video, two
1:29:18little chocolates and three bits of
1:29:20chocolate. Right, so these are the
1:29:24activities. So the bulk is clearly made
1:29:26by sponsors, then comes Tutto In Regola
1:29:28. But Tutto In Regola, mind you, has a
1:29:32fairly large turnover, but it has costs
1:29:34, because Tutto In Regola has...Mr...
1:29:36When you write and Matteo replies,
1:29:38Matteo has to be paid handsomely, so
1:29:40avoid being a pain in his neck. And
1:29:45then YouTube, which, well, when I’m
1:29:47interviewed about YouTuber earnings and
1:29:49I say, "Look, with a finance channel
1:29:51that’s a tenth of mine, so 20,000
1:29:53subscribers, you can live comfortably."
1:29:57I mean living comfortably with YouTube
1:30:00revenues and sponsor activity. With a
1:30:02flat-rate VAT scheme, with an LLC I
1:30:04doubt it, but with a flat-rate scheme,
1:30:06with a finance channel that’s a tenth
1:30:08of mine, in my opinion, you can manage
1:30:10to live because clearly you have much
1:30:12lower expenses. Uh, in 2025 I paid a
1:30:16good € 30,000 in corporate income tax
1:30:19; I made an F24 payment of € 30,000.
1:30:23€ 1,000. Then I immediately made
1:30:26another one for the same amount because
1:30:27I had to pay the advance for 2026, so
1:30:29bam, bam, € 60,000 that just flew
1:30:30away. Okay, I had about € 36,000,
1:30:35wait no, sorry, in 2026 I will have
1:30:37about € 36,000 in bureaucratic
1:30:40expenses. What are bureaucratic
1:30:44expenses? How do I classify them? If an
1:30:46accountant hears me here, they'll drop
1:30:48dead, so if you're an accountant, stop
1:30:50watching this video. I classify taxes
1:30:53as bureaucratic expenses too, actually,
1:30:55but I've been kind enough to separate
1:30:57them for you. I classify as
1:30:59bureaucratic expenses all those absurd
1:31:01payments, TV license fees, stamping of
1:31:03accounting books, Chamber of Commerce
1:31:05registration, and so on. So, all the
1:31:08absurd payments to public bodies; I
1:31:10include the accountant, the labor
1:31:12consultant, and I also include all the
1:31:15INPS and income tax withholdings on the
1:31:17administrator's compensation. So, I
1:31:20classify INPS and income tax
1:31:22withholdings on the administrator's
1:31:24compensation, including those borne by
1:31:26the administrator, as bureaucratic
1:31:27expenses. Basically, my definition of a
1:31:30bureaucratic expense is one that I
1:31:32wouldn't have paid if I had run the
1:31:34business under the table. There you go,
1:31:36that is my definition. Since I didn't
1:31:39do it under the table, the € 36,000
1:31:41is clearly dominated by the accountant,
1:31:43INPS, and income tax on the
1:31:45administrator's compensation. Then I
1:31:49have € 84,000 in operating expenses,
1:31:52of which the biggest chunk goes to the
1:31:55VAT-registered payments for my
1:31:57collaborators, all fully compliant. I
1:32:02won't say exactly how much, otherwise
1:32:03you'll go and start poking around their
1:32:04finances. Um, so € 84,000 in
1:32:07operating expenses. Operating expenses,
1:32:10by my definition, are those expenses
1:32:12without which the company would stop
1:32:14working. So, aside from this HB pencil
1:32:17I use for notes, which I bought just
1:32:20yesterday and would have to
1:32:21self-invoice...no, I bought it from a
1:32:24professional droning retailer, an
1:32:26Italian one I think, so I don't need to
1:32:29self-invoice. Aside from the random
1:32:33gadgets I buy for the company on Amazon
1:32:35, like the camera—no, not the camera,
1:32:36that's a different expense. The random
1:32:39stuff I buy on Amazon, like a USB cable
1:32:41or things like that. Operating expenses
1:32:46are: the video editor for Shorts, the
1:32:48StreamYard subscription, the Canva
1:32:50subscription, the Anthropic
1:32:52subscription, my grandmother's
1:32:54subscription, and, well, the biggest
1:32:56part is made up by the team
1:32:58collaborators, which involves two and a
1:33:01half full-time people, plus myself. So,
1:33:06yeah, expenses add up there, and I
1:33:08honestly think € 84,000 is actually
1:33:10very, very low. And yes, in fact, I see
1:33:14here, ah, there are also the Stripe
1:33:15fees. Every time you pay, all above
1:33:18board, Stripe takes its commission.
1:33:21Then I had € 51,000 in superfluous
1:33:24expenses. The definition of a
1:33:26superfluous expense is an expense that
1:33:28I wouldn't have made if I hadn't been
1:33:30able to deduct it. For example, the
1:33:33camera you are watching me with, if I
1:33:34hadn't been able to deduct it, no way
1:33:36would I have bought it, I'd still be
1:33:38using...where is it? My grandfather's
1:33:43cell phone, this thing here that once
1:33:46served as a video camera. Yeah, no way,
1:33:49the microphone you see, no way I would
1:33:51have bought it, I'd still have that
1:33:53giant Yeti I bought used. So let's say
1:33:55these are the expenses I wouldn't have
1:33:57made if I hadn't been able to deduct
1:33:59them. Thanks to the fact that you can
1:34:02deduct both VAT and corporate income
1:34:04tax. Basically, it's like paying almost
1:34:06half the price for things, and so, well
1:34:08, it makes you want to spend. I must
1:34:09say that an LLC leads to crazy spending
1:34:12. For example, here's another expense,
1:34:14no way I would have bought this hat
1:34:16just to do a little skit of me sleeping
1:34:19. So, these are the expenses. You might
1:34:22say, "How € 51,000?" Well, come on,
1:34:25what about the camera, the phone, this,
1:34:26and that? Oh, and I also include the
1:34:30administrator's fee in these € 51,000
1:34:31, because if I couldn't deduct it, no
1:34:33way would I have paid it to myself, so
1:34:35I include that too. So, these €
1:34:3850,000-plus...they are expenses I could
1:34:40have avoided, to which we add €
1:34:4340,000 for a company car, a superfluous
1:34:45expense that I obviously only make
1:34:47because if I hadn't had the LLC—so if
1:34:50I had a regular VAT number—I would
1:34:52have only had the operating expenses of
1:34:54€ 84,000, the bureaucratic expenses
1:34:57of € 36,000, and the corporate and
1:34:59regional taxes would have been
1:35:01different. Okay, I think I've told you
1:35:04everything, absolutely everything. I
1:35:06even gave you the numbers; now I can't
1:35:08go into details, obviously, because
1:35:10other people are involved. But now you
1:35:16know how much a YouTube channel that
1:35:18does sponsorships makes, though all
1:35:20things considered, it does few of them,
1:35:22because I could...it does few, and the
1:35:24manager is a bit of a dud. at
1:35:27negotiating with sponsors. I usually,
1:35:30my negotiation with sponsors usually
1:35:32works like this. They say, "Let's have
1:35:35a call," answer: "No." Then, "How about
1:35:38we do a sponsorship?" Answer: "This
1:35:41much money, take it or leave it."
1:35:43Period. It's not like I go there,
1:35:45negotiate, talk, and say, "How about
1:35:47€ 100,000?""No, 60? No, we'll give
1:35:51you 1,000. So, 50? No." I name a figure
1:35:54, which is probably much less than the
1:35:56market rate. My colleagues, we have a
1:35:59group chat, we have...you should know
1:36:00that YouTubers have secret WhatsApp
1:36:02chats among themselves. I have several
1:36:05chats with groups of YouTubers
1:36:07categorized by different definitions,
1:36:08and I always get scolded for asking for
1:36:10too little. So, so this is what a
1:36:14YouTube channel of this size earns,
1:36:16with all in all little advertising,
1:36:18because not every video is sponsored
1:36:21and with, uh, an administrator who
1:36:23isn't very good at going after sponsors
1:36:25for money. Alright, the video is over,
1:36:29so I’ll force you to watch more
1:36:30sooner or later. I know I always
1:36:33promise videos that I don't end up
1:36:34making, but I’ll do these because
1:36:35I’ve crunched the numbers recently.
1:36:37The personal car video for a VAT number
1:36:40or an LLC, the costs with the whole
1:36:43Excel sheet, and then we could do a
1:36:45comparison video between a personal VAT
1:36:48number, sorry, flat-rate VAT, ordinary
1:36:51VAT, and an LLC. Um, although this one
1:36:56is more of a comparison video than an
1:36:57Excel sheet, because there are a ton of
1:36:59little details that are a bit specific.
1:37:02I repeat, don't take it for granted
1:37:04that a flat-rate VAT is always better,
1:37:06because if a person has many expenses,
1:37:08it clearly isn't worth it for them.
1:37:10Well, that’s all for this time.
1:37:13Greetings to everyone. Bye. Bye.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of SRLS: come creare una microimpresa, come funziona, come gestirla e tutti i costi by Paolo Coletti, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 16,270 words across 2,417 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to translate the transcript into 100+ languages.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, translation to 100+ languages, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.