[stefano]

Taxes at that income level are around 50%, including ~20k worth of social security contributions. You're probably mixing up VAT, advance payments and final balance payments to get to that 76%, which is NOT what you're really paying on your income, unless your accountant made some major mistake.

BTW, if you invoiced 65k instead of 80k, you could use the "forfettario" tax regimen, which would result in a higher net income (yes, it's that crazy: you earn more if you earn less).