Trade Registry Translation for Italy

Matching the fields to the Registro Imprese and the visura

The Italian side looks in your document for the fields it sees in the visura camerale obtained from its chamber of commerce. Submitted together, the certificate of activity and the TTSG announcement supply what a visura supplies: whether the company is active, where the sede legale is, who runs it and what the oggetto sociale is. Rendering those fields in the terms of Italian commercial law reduces the objection; a short covering note explaining that the document is the Türkiye equivalent is useful too, because a recipient expecting a single visura needs to see two documents doing that job between them.

The false-equivalent trap: an A.Ş. is not an “S.p.A.”

A common error is to translate the abbreviation for the company type into an Italian one. Writing A.Ş. as “S.p.A.”, or a Limited Şirketi as “S.r.l.”, equates the company with a different legal form, and these types do not map onto one another. In translation the abbreviation is left as it stands, with a bracketed explanation where one is needed. Translating the type – treating a Turkish limited company as an S.r.l., say – would mislead as to the rules on capital and liability.

The oggetto sociale, the field setting out the objects of the company, calls for particular care. In the Italian register the oggetto sociale is a legal text marking out the limits of the company’s activity, so what the Turkish document records there has to be carried across without widening or narrowing its scope. Sector-specific terms are given their established counterparts in Italian commercial usage, but without distorting the meaning; where the document carries an activity code of the NACE or ATECO sort, the code is an identifier and is left as it stands rather than converted into another coding system. Interpreting an item of activity freely can make the field the company is authorised to work in look different from what it is; the objects of the company are therefore translated so as to mirror exactly the scope set out in the source document, neither widened nor narrowed.

Capital, MERSIS and the traduzione giurata

The amount of capital and the currency (TL) stay exactly as they are in the translation and are not converted into a euro equivalent, because what the document records is registered legal capital. The oggetto sociale, the objects of the company, is carried across without widening or narrowing its scope. The QR code on the certificate of activity is marked with the notes [QR code] and [electronic verification]; the MERSIS number and the trade registry number are carried across exactly. Italy works with a sworn translator system: a translation going into an official procedure may take the form of a sworn translation made before a court in Italy (traduzione giurata / asseverazione), whereas in a translation produced in Türkiye a sworn translator signs, a notary certifies and an apostille is added.

Telling the current position from past changes

The certificate of activity shows the company as it stands today, whereas gazette announcements are a chronological record; and since an Italian visura also comes in current (ordinaria) and historical (storica) forms, which of them the recipient expects is decisive. Where a current record is wanted, submitting the most recent registration announcement together with a currently dated certificate of activity is more complete than sending a single old copy. Which announcements, by date, are to be translated should be settled at the outset: missing an announcement that records a relevant change leaves the file incomplete, while translating more old announcements than are needed drives up the cost. The translation keeps the date and issue number of each announcement.

The signature circular is a separate document

The signature circular, which shows the signing authority of the authorised representative, is a document apart from the certificate of activity and the gazette announcement; an Italian recipient may ask for it too when confirming a contract or a power to act. The principles on this page concern trade registry documents; where a signature circular is needed it forms a separate translation job, and its notarially drawn structure means it follows its own chain of certification. Translating the names and titles of individuals consistently across the two documents lets the recipient match up the authority without effort. Before delivery:

• Check that the type abbreviation has not been turned into an “S.p.A./S.r.l.” equivalent.
• Verify that the capital has been left in TL.
• Confirm whether the translation follows the asseverazione route or the Türkiye chain; obtain the apostille before the translation.

Italy is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention; confirm the current position from the official HCCH list. You can see the level of certification other documents need on our document types page, look at the cost on our pricing page and upload your document to request a quotation. Translations are handled from our single office in Ankara Kızılay. Institutional practice can change, so verify the position from an official source before you apply.