Combine IRPEF income tax and INPS social security contributions to estimate your net Italian salary.
Net pay is gross salary minus IRPEF income tax (applied after subtracting INPS contributions, as Italian tax is calculated on income net of social security) and INPS employee contributions.
Illustrative estimate only, using simplified/rounded 2026 Italian tax figures — not tax advice. Regional and municipal surcharges vary by location. Always confirm with the Agenzia delle Entrate or a commercialista.
Italian take-home pay (stipendio netto) is calculated from gross salary (lordo) through several layers: INPS social security contributions (roughly 9.19% withheld from the employee), IRPEF national income tax on the reduced base after INPS (using the 23%/33%/43% bands), and regional plus municipal surtaxes (addizionale regionale and comunale) set independently by local authorities, applied on top of the national IRPEF calculation.
Because INPS is deducted before IRPEF is calculated, and regional/municipal surtaxes vary by location, two employees with identical gross salaries in different Italian regions can see meaningfully different net pay — a detail that surprises many people comparing salary offers between, for example, Milan and a smaller southern town, where both IRPEF deductions (via lower average incomes affecting local budgets) and municipal surtax rates commonly differ.
Because regional (addizionale regionale) and municipal (addizionale comunale) surtaxes are set independently by each of Italy's regions and municipalities, on top of the national IRPEF bands — two otherwise identical salaries can produce different net pay purely based on registered residence.
Before — the employee's INPS contribution (roughly 9.19% of gross) is deducted first, and IRPEF is then calculated on the reduced taxable base that remains, which lowers the effective IRPEF bill somewhat compared to calculating it on the full gross figure.
Many Italian employment contracts include an extra month's pay (tredicesima, and sometimes a fourteenth, quattordicesima) typically paid around December and/or June — check whether your contract includes this, as it affects annual take-home pay beyond a simple monthly-times-twelve calculation.
No — self-employed workers with a partita IVA are typically taxed under different regimes (such as the regime forfettario flat-rate scheme for smaller businesses, or ordinary IRPEF rules for larger ones) with separate INPS contribution rules via the Gestione Separata fund, distinct from standard employee payroll.