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Tax Pills

Italian eInvoicing new system close to the milestone of 1 billion e-invoices processed

e-fattura

Six months after the introduction of electronic invoicing between private individuals, either for B2B operations or for B2C transactions, over 940 million e-invoices have been sent through the Exchange System managed by the Revenue Agency with over 3.3 million transferors and/or businesses involved. However, the biggest challenge is to make stakeholders and taxpayers understand that implementing eInvoicing is not only a legal or a mere fiscal obligation but also an opportunity that will be beneficial to all transaction parties.

How the Italian eInvoicing system works – Two pillars are highly strategic in making the entire electronic frame functioning: the eInvoicing platform and the eInvoicing management. Particularly, is the Italian State to offer a qualified exchange system (Sistema di Interscambio) for the all eInvoicing processing. This system is designed to process eInvoices before they can be transmitted to the public entities. Indeed, there are multiple ways to submit an eInvoice to single administrations through the Exchange System. These include: a Certified Electronic Mail (CEM); the web – through the website of FatturaPA; the SDICoop – transmission Service; the SDIFTP Service and the SPCoop - transmission Service. Noticeably, the different methods for submitting eInvoices have specific requirements, regarding the means of connecting to the eInvoicing platform and the eInvoice’s file size. Most economic operators use the solutions offered by major companies such as ‘Poste italiane’.

The Revenue Agency approach for receiving and processing eInvoices - The Italian operating model for eInvoicing follows a single exchange hub named Sistema di Interscambio with which senders and receivers of electronic invoices can be supported by their own service provider. The Revenue Agency manages the Sistema di Interscambio with technology and operational support from Sogei, an IT provider owned by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance. Essentially, economic operators submit eInvoices following the FatturaPA format through the Sistema di Interscambio. The Sistema di Interscambio works as an eDelivery service, transmitting each eInvoice to the addressed administration based on an addressee identifier (Unique Office Code). Only formal controls are performed by the Sistema di Interscambio. All the invoices are sent by the Sistema di Interscambio to the State General Accounting Department, responsible for performing audit functions on the financial administration of public institutions through inspection activities, for monitoring of public expenditure. Once received, the processing of eInvoices by contracting authorities is undertaken through an automation and integration process, which is normally proportional and varies according to the dimension of the contracting authority. The invoices are then archived digitally for ten years by the public administrations receiving the eInvoice. The Sistema di Interscambio does not archive invoices.

The crucial role of the Revenue Agency - The Italian Revenue Agency has put in place free services to support SMEs onboarding and facilitate the transmission and archiving of eInvoices. Particularly, the Revenue Agency developed a dedicated APP for smartphones to allow SMEs to create and transmit eInvoices. They have further created videos to show how easy is to implement eInvoicing.

The normative route towards Italy’s electronic invoicing – In law terms, the use of eInvoices in public procurement in Italy became mandatory firstly for ministries, tax agencies and national security agencies since June 2014. Successively, since 31 March 2015, it also became mandatory for all public entities. In details, the use of eInvoices is based on the following legal instruments: the Italian law number 244 of 24 December 2007 (Finance Act 2008); the Decree of 7 March 2008 for the identification of the Provider of the Exchange System for electronic invoicing; the Decree of 3 April 2013, which delivered first useful regulations on the issue; the Decree law of 24 April 2014, n. 66 (art 25); Circular of the State General Accounting Office number 37 of 4 November 2013, with the Operating Instructions for the implementation of the Regulation on the transmission and receipt of electronic invoices to be applied to public administrations and, at the end, the Legislative decree n. 148/2018, Transposition of Directive 2014/55/EU.

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