The Italian E-Invoicing Model
Meet Italian e-invoicing obligations and discover how to maintain compliance as you expand into new international markets.
Meet Italian e-invoicing obligations and discover how to maintain compliance as you expand into new international markets.
The legal framework for e-invoicing in Italy, set out in Legislative Decree of December 27, 2018, n. 148, Decree of April 3, 2013, n. 55, applies to public authorities and many other entities. B2G e-invoicing is mandatory for all central administrations, based on European Directive 2014/55/EU. The regulations were introduced gradually from 2014, when the obligation to use electronic financial documents rested only on ministries, tax offices and national security agencies. A year later, in 2015, all public entities in the country were obliged to do so. Italy was also the first EU country to make national e-invoicing mandatory for B2B and B2C. The obligation entered into force on 1 January, 2019.
Till December 2027, the European Union Council has granted Italy a derogation for an extension of its mandatory electronic invoicing system.
On June 4, 2025, the Council of Ministers approved a legislative decree that modifies tax compliance requirements. This decree introduces a permanent ban on electronic invoicing through the SDI for healthcare services provided to individuals, in order to protect the confidentiality of healthcare data in business-to-consumer (B2C) relationships.
2015Mandatory B2G e-invoicing
2019Mandatory B2B e-invoicing
2020Mandatory B2G goods e-ordering to entities associated in the National Health Fund
2022All cross-border invoices (export, import, intra-community, etc.) are sent to SDI on a transactional basis
2024
Italy uses the CTC (continuous transaction controls) system for e-invoices. Under the CTC SDI model, companies issue structured invoices in the tax authorities’ XML format, called FatturaPA. In B2G transactions, companies are obliged to issue a qualified electronic signature. This can be done by them or by a service provider. In the public healthcare sector, there is an additional flow of electronic orders via the NSO, which functions in the same way as the SDI.
The accepted format is Fattura-PA for accounts payable and accounts receivable. E-invoices must be issued in a prescribed format, signed digitally to guarantee their authenticity and integrity, and then sent to the exchange system called Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) by the taxpayers themselves or through designated intermediaries. The SDI platform is used mainly between public entities to receive, check, and send electronic invoices. Using PEPPOL is also possible.
SDI (Sistema di Interscambio) is a national Internet hub that provides a portal for sending and receiving e-invoices. All electronic invoices in Italy must be sent to SDI. All e-invoices are sent via SDI to the customer by identifying the buyer's IPA code.
Comarch is compliant with all standards and regulations connected to the SDI process. We have already helped almost 100 customers to be in line with Italian e-invoicing regulations.
According to the AGID (Agency of Digital Italy), which enforces e-archiving rules, each company should be able to provide a time stamp and signature, as well as structured, mandatory metadata in an XML readable invoice in PDF format. A documented description of the archive (Manuale dela Conservazione), together with obligations and responsibilities of the archiving process, are implemented.
The Italian government is very strict with its e-invoicing system and has applied a set of penalties for users. For the late sending of the electronic invoice to SDI, without consequences on the tax settlement (i.e., with correct periodic VAT settlement), the sanction provided for by art. 6, paragraph 1 of Legislative Decree 471/97 or the amount ranging from Euro 250 to Euro 2,000, for each document not sent or sent late. The deadline for sending the invoice to SDI is 12 days from the date of execution of the operation for immediate invoices and 15 days following the reference month for deferred invoices (with the end-of-month date).
All Italian companies have also been obliged to communicate cross-border invoices. There is an administrative penalty from EUR 2 to EUR 400 for each invoice not communicated correctly. However, the penalty is halved if the invoice is issued and corrected within 15 days.
Comarch provides full coverage in terms of conenctivity to the SDI platform, which is used within the existing CTC mandate. Comarch is able to generate or convert in-house formats to the required FatturaPA format.
