VAT number, registered office, REA: the mandatory data on your company's website

Anyone searching "VAT number, REA and registered office on the website" usually already runs a business and is wondering which of all these details are actually required by law, and which are just good practice without being law. The honest answer is that there isn't a single obligation: there are three, born from different laws, triggered by different things, and they don't apply to everyone the same way. A VAT number on the home page applies to anyone who has one, full stop. Registered office, business register and paid-in capital apply only to capital companies. Selling or offering a service online adds a third list, with the heaviest penalty of the three.

The VAT number applies to anyone with a website, even a pure showcase

The broadest obligation, and the one with the least room for doubt, is also the least known. Article 35 of DPR 633/1972, as amended by DPR 404/2001, requires the VAT number to appear on the site's home page. Italy's Revenue Agency clarified this in Resolution 60/E of 16 May 2006, answering exactly the case of a site with no selling function at all, used only for advertising: the obligation still applies. It covers every VAT-registered taxpayer, including those under the flat-rate scheme, with no exception for the size of the business (sources cited, checked on 15 October 2026).

Not showing it exposes you to a fine from 250 to 2,000 euros, set by article 11, paragraph 1, letter a), of legislative decree 471/1997 in the version in force since 2021. It's worth being precise about what this figure actually is: it's the generic penalty for an omitted communication required by tax law, not a provision written specifically for websites. It is the reading every tax source consulted applies by extension, but it remains an interpretive extension, not an article of law dedicated to this exact case.

Registered office, business register and paid-in capital: only for capital companies

Here the source of the obligation changes, and so does who it covers. Article 2250 of the Italian civil code, in its first paragraph, requires companies subject to registration with the business register to indicate their registered office and the register office with its registration number. Paragraph 7, added by law 88/2009, extends this obligation (together with the one on paid-in capital, liquidation status and sole shareholder, in paragraphs 2, 3 and 4 respectively) to whoever has "an electronic space for communication connected to a publicly accessible telematic network," meaning a website. But it does so by explicitly referring only to companies incorporated as a joint-stock company, a partnership limited by shares, or a limited liability company (spa, sapa, srl): partnerships (snc, sas) and sole proprietorships fall outside this specific rule.

The penalty, set by article 2630 of the civil code, runs from 103 to 1,032 euros in the amount in force since 15 November 2011 (law 180/2011 halved the previous figure), reduced to a third if put right within thirty days. That's an order of magnitude below the penalty for the third obligation, the one covering online sellers: the law treats a forgotten corporate detail very differently from an information duty owed to a customer about to pay.

Selling or offering a service online adds a third list

Anyone selling goods or providing services through their own site runs into a third obligation, with a wider reach than the one for capital companies: it applies regardless of legal form, including a sole proprietorship or a freelancer. Article 7 of legislative decree 70/2003 requires making easily, directly and permanently accessible the business name, registered office, a quick contact including an email address, the business register registration number (commonly called the REA number in practice) and the VAT number, plus the details of any professional register and a clear indication of prices (as I've already written about regarding the mandatory information on a site with a shopping cart, where this same obligation matters most at the moment of payment).

Exactly where the line falls between a pure showcase site and one that "offers information society services" isn't as clear-cut as the rest: the EU directive behind the decree defines this notion broadly, and the professional sources consulted don't draw one single, agreed line. What is certain is that if your site sells or takes bookings for anything online, the obligation applies without doubt. The penalty, set by article 21 of the same decree, rises up to 10,000 euros, doubled in cases of severity or repeat violation, unless the conduct amounts to a crime: it is the heaviest of the three, and it's no accident that it falls on whoever handles real transactions with customers.

Where to put this data, in practice

The law doesn't ask the same thing of all three obligations when it comes to where to publish them. Only Resolution 60/E of 2006 explicitly names the home page, for the VAT number. The other two rules simply require the information to be easily, directly and permanently accessible, without tying it to one specific page. In practice, a footer present on every page of the site, home page included, satisfies all three: that's why most company websites put it there, not because a single rule demands it identically for everyone.

Where to start

If you're not sure which of the three obligations applies to your business, the first step is simple: look at your legal form, not your industry. An srl that sells nothing online still has to show its registered office and business register entry; a sole proprietorship selling through its site has to show the article 7 data, but not the article 2250 data. Another obligation that follows the same logic, changing scope depending on your business's legal form rather than its revenue, is mandatory certified email for Italian businesses. If you want to take stock of this and the rest of your business's digital setup, we can cover it inside the digital check-up; otherwise write to me, a couple of lines are enough to know where to start.