key: taxcode title: "Codice fiscale: what it is, what it is for, how to get it" description: "Without a codice fiscale you cannot sign a lease, open a bank account or get a phone contract in Italy. Here is how to get one, free and fast." category: arrivare order: 3 updated: 2026-09-28
If you are arriving from abroad, the codice fiscale is the first thing to sort out. It is not a formality: without it you cannot sign a tenancy agreement in Italy, open a bank account, get a phone contract or register with the health service. Everything else comes after it.
What it is
A sixteen-character code identifying a person in dealings with the Italian public administration. It is not an identity document and does not prove who you are: it is an identifier. It is derived from your name, surname, date and place of birth.
It is issued by the Agenzia delle Entrate (the tax agency) and it is free. If somebody asks you to pay for one, that is not the right channel.
Three ways to get it
1. Through your university — the simplest route. Many universities request it on behalf of international students during enrolment. Ask the registry or the mobility office before you travel: if they do it for you, you save a queue.
2. At the Italian consulate in your country — before leaving. Timescales vary, but you arrive in Italy with the code already in hand, and that changes everything: you can sign a tenancy agreement the day after you land instead of two weeks later.
3. At the Agenzia delle Entrate once you are here. The most common route. You need:
- a valid identity document (passport, or ID card if you are an EU citizen);
- if you are non-EU, your visa or residence permit, or the receipt for the application;
- form AA4/8, filled in there or downloaded beforehand.
In Pavia the Agenzia delle Entrate office is in the centre. Go early in the morning and midweek: Mondays and Fridays are the worst.
What to bring, in practice
- Passport or ID card, plus a photocopy.
- Visa or permit, or the registered-post receipt, if you are non-EU.
- A sheet of paper with your name, surname, date and place of birth exactly as on your passport. It sounds unnecessary, but nearly every error comes from a name mistyped at the counter.
- An address in Italy, even a temporary one.
The code is issued the same day, on a sheet of paper. The plastic health card arrives later by post, if you register with the health service.
Mistakes that actually happen
A mistyped name. If you have two given names, or a compound surname, check the sheet matches your passport. A wrong codice fiscale has to be corrected, and in the meantime it blocks everything else.
The code “calculated” online. There are websites that generate the code from your details. The code they produce is often correct, but it is not registered: as far as the tax agency is concerned it does not exist. Do not use it to sign anything.
Two codes. If you end up assigned one twice with slightly different details, it has to be reported and merged. It happens to people who applied both at the consulate and in Italy.
Do you need it for a short stay?
Yes, even for one Erasmus semester. Without a codice fiscale you cannot sign a proper contract, and without a proper contract you have neither residency nor protection. Anyone renting off the books will tell you “you do not need it”: it is true you can pay for a room without one, and equally true that you would have nothing to fall back on.
The rest of the sequence
The codice fiscale is step one. Straight after come, in this order:
- Residence permit (non-EU), within 8 working days of arriving.
- A registered tenancy agreement.
- A bank account.
- Health service registration.
The full sequence, with the details of each step, is in the guide for people arriving from abroad.
If you get stuck
Write to us: we answer in English, and in the Student Forum there is nearly always somebody who went through the same procedure last month and knows when the queue is shortest.