Converting your Italian consultant into an employee

It is a familiar story in Nordic tech and design companies. Two years ago you hired an Italian developer or product specialist as a consultant. They invoice monthly on a VAT number. Today they attend every stand-up, have a company email, report to a team lead and work only for you.

On paper, a consultant. In practice, an employee. Italian authorities look at practice.

Why it is a risk  

If a person works only for you, on your schedule, with your tools and under your direction, the relationship can be reclassified as employment. The consequences fall on the company:

• contributions that should have been paid, with penalties and interest;
• tax withholding that should have been made;
• employee entitlements the person never received, such as the 13th month, holiday and TFR;
• weaker position in any dispute.

The longer it runs, the larger the exposure.

There is also a people risk. A consultant has no paid holiday, no sick pay and no social protection beyond what they pay for themselves. Good people eventually take a permanent job elsewhere.

Signs that it is time  

• The person works only or mainly for you.
• They have fixed hours or are expected online during core hours.
• They use your equipment and accounts.
• They manage or are managed like staff.
• The engagement has no defined end or deliverable.

Two or three of these together are enough to act.

How conversion works with an EOR  

1. Agree the terms. Salary as RAL (annual gross), start date, role. The consultant’s daily rate is not the right reference: as an employee they lose some costs and gain protections and benefits. We help you translate one into the other.
2. Choose the CCNL and level. Based on the job and your sector.
3. Draft the contract. In Italian with an English version, with IP assignment, confidentiality and, if needed, a lavoro agile agreement.
4. Register and start. We handle the registrations and the first payroll.
5. Close the consultancy. The VAT number arrangement ends cleanly, with a final invoice.

The usual timeline is about 30 days.

What changes in cost  

For you, the monthly invoice from the consultant becomes the employment cost plus our fee: gross salary, employer contributions, INAIL, TFR, plus €250 a month. For the person, net income changes depending on their previous tax regime. Some flat-rate freelancers paid little tax; make sure the candidate understands the net figure before signing. The net pay calculator is a good starting point.

Probation and seniority  

A probation period in the new contract is possible but delicate for someone who has already worked with you for years. Discuss it openly. The past consultancy does not automatically count as seniority, but it does count as evidence if there is ever a dispute about the earlier relationship. That is one more reason to convert sooner rather than later.

Several consultants?  

The same process applies to a group. We also move employees from other EOR providers on the same timeline.

Questions we hear from Nordic companies  

Will the person earn less as an employee? Gross may look lower than the daily rate, but as an employee they gain paid holiday, sick pay, the 13th month, the TFR and social protection, and they stop paying their own contributions. Compare net income and protections, not daily rate against salary.

Does conversion admit that the past arrangement was wrong? Conversion changes the future relationship. It does not by itself settle the past. If the arrangement ran for a long time, discuss the history with an adviser; converting sooner reduces the period at risk.

Can we keep paying them as a freelancer for part of their work? Generally not for the same work. Mixing employment and freelance invoicing for the same tasks invites reclassification of both.

In short  

If an Italian consultant works only for you, in your team and on your schedule, treat it as employment before someone else does. Agree a RAL, choose the CCNL and level, write IP and remote terms into the contract, and close the consultancy cleanly. The conversion takes about a month through an EOR. It reduces risk for you and gives the person the protection they have been missing, which is usually what keeps good people.

For the alternatives, see EOR, own company or freelancers . Price the conversion in the cost calculator .