Italy extends voluntary B2B e-invoicing to January 2019

The mandatory e-invoicing system is already in place for the Public Sector since March 2015, requiring all B2G invoices (Business to Government) issued to be registered and stored electronically.

Since January 2017 all Italian VAT registered taxpayers can already use voluntarily the e-invoicing and the electronic transmission of payments in their B2B transactions. In fact, opting for this system allows companies to have certain benefits in relation to their VAT compliance obligations.

According to the government, the main purpose of these measures is to reduce VAT fraud, to optimize the internal accounting processes of the businesses and make things easier between the government and taxpayers.
To promote the uptake of voluntary B2B e-invoicing, the Italian tax authorities provides benefits to the taxpayers: The most important is that taxpayers will not be required to submit electronically every 3 months all data concerning the invoices issued, received and any variations (the so-called “Spesometro”). Furthermore, taxpayers will be exempt from Intrastat returns related to the Intra-community movements of goods and services and from the communication of the transactions made with companies located in black listed countries.

Italian tax authorities will handle the VAT refund of those taxpayers within 3 months from the submission of the claim.

The period of the VAT statute of limitation will be reduced from five to four years as long as the taxpayer guarantee the transparency of payments.