The Italian Revenue Agency: clarifications on end-of-year electronic invoices for taxpayers under the simplified accounting system

The clarifications of the Tax Authority regard the possibility of recognizing as valid, for registration purposes, invoices that refer to the date the transaction took place, contained in the “date” field of the respective file in XML format, in place of the date of transmission to the Digital Interchange System (“Sistema di Interscambio SdI”).

Article 66 of the CIT (TUIR), in its current version, subject to significant changes according to the 2017 Stability Law (L. 232/2016), establishes that the determination of income for enterprises under the simplified accounting regime is based on cash basis accounting, with some specific exceptions that follow the accrual basis accounting method (on the subject, the Revenue Agency provided numerous clarifications in Circular n. 11/E/2017). Based on this approach, therefore, it is necessary to maintain accounting records of receipts and payments to ensure that revenues and costs are accurately allocated to the period in which the corresponding financial transaction occurs. 

Within this context, a specific exemption is established within article 18, para. 5 of the DPR 600/73, which allows, through the application of a specific three-year option, VAT records to be kept without making any references to receipts and payments. In the presence of this option, for simplification purposes, a legal assumption applies according to which the registration date of the documents coincides with the date of receipt or payment. However, the obligation to record separately transactions not subject to VAT registration remains. 

It is in this context that the Italian Revenue Agency has provided clarifications through its recent FAQ, using a practical application, declaring that an invoice regarding a transaction occurred in 2023, prepared on December 29th, 2023, but sent to the Interchange System on January 8 of the following year, has to be registered in 2024. Consequently, it will contribute to the overall income in 2024. As for VAT, the transaction will be included in the liquidation of the period in which it is considered carried out, as established by article 6 of the DPR 633/72.

Moreover, these clarifications are aligned with the indications previously provided by the Italian Tax Authority regarding electronic invoicing and, in particular, with the details expressed within Circular n. 14/E of June 17th, 2019. In this practice document, it is specified that the date indicated in the field “Data” of the file XML of the electronic invoice must correspond to the date of execution of the transaction and that, however, the electronic invoice is considered issued when the transmission occurs through the Interchange System, which unambiguously and simultaneously attests (to the issuer, to the receiver and to the Revenue Agency) the date of transmission.

In this way, taxpayers in simplified accounting using the registration method, who have sent to the SdI (i.e., issued) up to January 12, 2025 immediate invoices for transactions carried in the previous year (thus with “invoice date” 2024), have the faculty to decide to bring forward the recognition for income tax purposes of revenues in the year the transaction takes place (thus 2024) or postpone it to the year invoices are sent to the Interchange System (thus 2025). ​

It should be noted that in general, article 23, para. 2 of the VAT Law (DPR 633/1972) states that “For every invoice, the progressive number and the emission date must be indicated (…)”, but this, considering the new technical and regulatory framework, requires a more in-depth understanding. In fact, the Italian Revenue Agency within its 2019 Circular had already clarified that in the current electronic invoicing system, a separation has arisen between the moment in which the relevant transaction for VAT purposes is carried out and the moment of issuance and transmission of the document. Therefore, according to the Tax Authority, the reference date of the invoice issued, to be entered into the relevant VAT register, is the one “indicated in the “data” field of the “general data” section” of the XML file. 

In other words, the date stated in the electronic invoice identifies the moment of the transaction and it allows to correctly determine the VAT settlement.