How to check the reliability of a sole proprietorship, which does not file financial statements

In brief: to verify a sole proprietorship you must look mainly at the owner, because they answer for the business's debts with all their present and future assets (art. 2740 c.c.). The business does not file financial statements: you check the VAT number, the chamber of commerce extract from the Registro Imprese, protests and proceedings, and the personal situation of the owner.

What is a sole proprietorship, and who answers for its debts?

It is a business with a single owner, who manages it and is its only responsible party. It is not a separate entity from them: the owner answers for the business's debts with all their present and future assets, under the general rule of art. 2740 of the Civil Code.

The same article admits limitations of liability only in the cases established by law, as with the SRL, where only the company answers for company obligations (art. 2462 c.c.). In a sole proprietorship this shield does not exist: you can take action against the owner's personal assets, but all their other creditors can do so too.

According to registroimprese.it, to start one it is enough to file the Comunicazione Unica (Single Notice) with the Registro Imprese, without a notarial deed, and this includes the assignment of the VAT number. The commercial entrepreneur goes in the ordinary section, the small entrepreneur in the special one.

Why does a sole proprietorship have no financial statements to consult?

Because filing financial statements with the Registro Imprese is an obligation of limited companies and cooperatives, not of the individual entrepreneur. Art. 2435 c.c., which requires directors to file them within thirty days of approval, belongs to the rules on joint-stock companies.

The 2025 guide of the Florence Chamber of Commerce on the filing of financial statements lists among the obliged entities SPA, SAPA, SRL, cooperatives and a few other entities: sole proprietorships are not among them. The commercial entrepreneur must keep the accounting records, starting with the general journal and the inventory book (art. 2214 c.c.), from which the Civil Code exempts small entrepreneurs. These, however, are internal documents, not published.

No net equity to read: for a sole proprietorship this is not a negative signal, it is the norm. Unlike a new supplier with no filed financial statements, here a public financial statement will not arrive, and the weight of the verification shifts to the person.

What can be checked on a sole proprietorship?

Five things, from the free ones to those on the individual: VAT number status, registration with the Registro Imprese, protests, adverse entries on the owner's real estate and insolvency proceedings. None of them alone tells you whether you will be paid.

In practice, in this order:

1. Check the VAT number on the Agenzia delle Entrate service: status active and the owner's name the same as on the invoice.
2. Look up the business in the Registro Imprese and check that the declared activity matches the one it is offering you.
3. Check protests and insolvency proceedings against the business.
4. Check the owner as a person: protests, adverse entries and proceedings against them.
5. Size payments and guarantees to the picture that emerges and to the amount at stake.

The first two steps are explained in how to check whether a company exists and is active.

How do I check protests and adverse entries against the owner?

Protests are searched in the Registro Informatico dei Protesti (Computerised Protests Register) of the Chambers of Commerce, which for natural persons shows surname, first name, tax code or date of birth and domicile, and keeps the records for five years from registration. Adverse entries at the Conservatoria are searched with a mortgage inspection at the Agenzia delle Entrate.

The protests register is public: it can be consulted at the chamber counter or online with the Telemaco service of registroimprese.it, across the whole national territory. Adverse entries presuppose real estate in the owner's name: channels and limits are in protest and adverse-entry search on a person.

A sole proprietorship can also end up in an insolvency proceeding. The commercial entrepreneur who cannot show that they meet, all together, the three limits of the small enterprise (annual assets up to €300,000 and annual revenues up to €200,000 in the three preceding financial years, debts up to €500,000: art. 2 of Legislative Decree 14/2019) is subject to judicial liquidation (art. 121). Otherwise, in over-indebtedness (sovraindebitamento), there is controlled liquidation (liquidazione controllata, art. 268).

What does Veryfy show about a sole proprietorship?

Two distinct checks: one on the business and one on the owner as a person. For a sole proprietorship the second weighs more, because the estate that guarantees the debts is theirs. Every data point has a source and a date; what the source does not provide remains absent, never estimated.

• Verifica Persona (€29), on the owner: protests, insolvency proceedings and adverse entries registered against them; for adverse entries, presence and number, not the detail of each formality. Source: Registro Informatico dei Protesti and chamber of commerce sources. As the purpose, the contractual relationship with the owner is declared.
• Verifica Persona Estesa (extended, €49): adds offices and shareholdings in other companies, and real estate in the name of the owner in the Land Registry (Catasto), without saying whether it is free of mortgages.
• Negatività and insolvency proceedings (€5.90), on the business: presence of protests and of insolvency proceedings registered against the sole proprietorship. It does not show adverse entries and is not instant: the result arrives by email.
• Verifica report (€19), on the business: part of the data is built for companies. The source calculates the rating only for limited companies, and the estimated operating credit line and sector comparison may be missing: in that case the report states “not available”, without inventing figures.

If you run only one check, on a sole proprietorship it is better to run it on the owner: the Verifica Persona also covers adverse entries, which the Negatività on the business does not show. No check says whether you will be paid: they show public facts.

How to protect yourself when working with a sole proprietorship?

With standard contractual tools, proportionate to the exposure: a deposit or payment on delivery, split deliveries, a modest initial credit line to be widened after the first punctual payments. These are prudent criteria: the decision remains yours.

If the counterparty is a freelance professional rather than a business, see how to verify a professional before entrusting them with an assignment.