Italy

Legislation

The use of eInvoices in public procurement in Italy is mandatory for ministries, tax agencies and national security agencies since June 2014. Since 31 March 2015, it is mandatory for all public administrations. The use of eInvoices is based on the following legal instruments:

• Italian law number 244 of 24 December 2007, provisions for drafting the annual and longer term financial statements of the State (Finance Act 2008);
• Decree of 7 March 2008, identification of the Provider of the Exchange System for electronic invoicing and the relative attributions and duties;
• Decree of 3 April 2013, regulation on the issue, transmission and receipt of electronic invoices to be applied to public administrations;
• Decree law of 24 April 2014, n. 66. Urgent measures for the competitiveness and the social justice (art 25).

eInvoicing platform and eInvoicing management solutions

The Italian state offers the exchange system (Sistema di Interscambio) for eInvoicing processing. This system should process eInvoices before they can be transmitted to the public administration. There are multiple ways to submit an eInvoice to the government administrations through the Exchange system. Those include submitting it using:

• Certified Electronic Mail (CEM);
• the web – through the website of FatturaPA;
• the SDICoop – transmission Service;
• the SDIFTP Service;
• the SPCoop-transmission Service.

The different methods for submitting eInvoice 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’. 

Approach for receiving and processing eInvoices

The Italian operating model for eInvoicing follows a three-corner model whereby economic operators and public administrations are connected to a central hub named ‘Sistema di Interscambio’. 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.

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. Economic operators and public administration may make use of a solution provider for submitting/receiving invoices and control messages to/from the Sistema di Interscambio.

All the invoices are sent by the Sistema di Interscambio to The State General Accounting Department, responsible for performing control functions on the financial administration of public institutions through inspection activities, for monitoring of public expenditure.

Each Public administration chose the way they want to receive the invoices from the Sistema di Interscambio among:

• Certified Electronic Mail (CEM);
• the SDICoop – Reception Service;
• the SDIFTP Service;
• the SPCoop - Reception Service.

The processing of eInvoices once received 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.

Additional information

No additional information available.

Update information

As a member state representative you can edit this information via the eInvoicing user community. Updates will be automatically shown on this page. 

Last updated:  Mar 28, 2017 14:30