@@ -56,7 +56,8 @@ def read(  # type: ignore[override]
         encoding_unused: str | None = None,
     ) -> list[str]:
         """Read a file name as UTF-8 configuration data."""
-        return super().read(filenames, encoding="utf-8")
+        # utf-8-sig also accepts a file that starts with a byte order mark.
+        return super().read(filenames, encoding="utf-8-sig")
 
     def real_section(self, section: str) -> str | None:
         """Get the actual name of a section."""
 
@@ -41,7 +41,7 @@ def read(self, filenames: Iterable[str]) -> list[str]:
         filename = os.fspath(filenames)
 
         try:
-            with open(filename, encoding="utf-8") as fp:
+            with open(filename, encoding="utf-8-sig") as fp:
                 toml_text = fp.read()
         except OSError:
             return []
 
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+- Fix: a configuration file (``.coveragerc``, ``setup.cfg``, ``tox.ini`` or
+  ``pyproject.toml``) saved with a UTF-8 byte order mark couldn't be read.
+  Now a leading BOM is ignored. `pull 2388`_.
+
+.. _pull 2388: https://github.com/coveragepy/coveragepy/pull/2388
@@ -57,6 +57,25 @@ def test_config_file(self) -> None:
         assert not cov.config.branch
         assert cov.config.data_file == ".hello_kitty.data"
 
+    @pytest.mark.parametrize(
+        "filename, section",
+        [
+            (".coveragerc", "run"),
+            ("setup.cfg", "coverage:run"),
+            ("tox.ini", "coverage:run"),
+            ("pyproject.toml", "tool.coverage.run"),
+        ],
+    )
+    def test_config_file_with_bom(self, filename: str, section: str) -> None:
+        # Editors on Windows can save files as "UTF-8 with BOM".
+        value = "true" if filename.endswith(".toml") else "True"
+        self.make_file(
+            filename,
+            bytes=f"\ufeff[{section}]\ntimid = {value}\n".encode("utf-8"),
+        )
+        cov = coverage.Coverage()
+        assert cov.config.timid
+
     @pytest.mark.parametrize("file_class", FilePathClasses)
     def test_named_config_file(self, file_class: FilePathType) -> None:
         # You can name the config file what you like.