What is the codice fiscale?
Italy's universal personal identifier — a 16-character code that encodes who you are and where you were born, needed for nearly every formal act of Italian life.
The codice fiscale ("fiscal code", or Italian tax code) was introduced in 1973 to identify taxpayers, but today it works as Italy's de-facto national ID number: you'll be asked for it when opening a bank account, signing a rental contract, starting a job, enrolling at university, registering with thenational health service, sometimes even for a SIM card or a loyalty program. It is issued free of charge by the Agenzia delle Entrate, the Italian Revenue Agency.
Anatomy of the 16 characters
Unlike random ID numbers, the codice fiscale is readable. Take RSSMRA80A01H501U — Mario Rossi, male, born in Rome on 1 January 1980:
| Positions | Content | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1–3 | Surname (consonants first, then vowels) | RSS ← RoSSi |
| 4–6 | First name (with 4+ consonants: 1st, 3rd, 4th) | MRA ← MaRio |
| 7–8 | Year of birth (last two digits) | 80 |
| 9 | Month letter (A=Jan … T=Dec) | A |
| 10–11 | Day of birth (+40 for women) | 01 |
| 12–15 | Place of birth (cadastral/Belfiore code) | H501 = Rome |
| 16 | Control character (checksum) | U |
The clever details
- Day + sex in one field: women get +40 on the day, so
41–71means "female". One glance tells you sex and birthday. - Month letters skip ambiguous characters: the sequence is
A B C D E H L M P R S T— no I (looks like 1), no O or Q (look like 0). The system was designed in 1976 for handwritten forms, and it shows. - Born abroad? Positions 12–15 hold a country code starting with
Z(e.g.Z404for the USA) instead of a municipality code. - The last letter is pure math: computed from the other 15 characters, it exposes almost any typo.
Omocodia: when two people collide
Since the code is derived from personal data, two people with similar names born the same day in the same place can generate the same code. When that happens, the Revenue Agency assigns the second person a modified code: digits are replaced by letters, starting from the rightmost, following a fixed table (0→L, 1→M, 2→N, 3→P, 4→Q, 5→R, 6→S, 7→T, 8→U, 9→V), and the control character is recalculated. So a code with letters in "digit positions" is not broken — it's an omocodia variant, and our verifier recognises it.
Calculated vs officially assigned
Anyone can calculate a codice fiscale — the algorithm is public (that's what ourcalculator does). But the code becomes real only when the Agenzia delle Entrate assigns it and records it in the tax registry. For banks, contracts and the health service, the assigned code is what counts:here's how to get it (it's free).
Questions we hear often
Can I read personal data from a codice fiscale?
Yes, partially: the code openly encodes sex, day and month of birth, year of birth (without the century) and the municipality or country of birth. It does not contain the full name (only consonant hints), nor address, income or citizenship.
Why does my code contain letters where digits should be?
It is probably an omocodia variant: when two people would generate the same code, the Revenue Agency replaces one or more digits with letters (0→L, 1→M, 2→N, 3→P, 4→Q, 5→R, 6→S, 7→T, 8→U, 9→V) and recalculates the final character. Such codes are perfectly valid.
Try it yourself: calculate a code or verify one — free, in your browser, no data stored.