Italy (2017 eInvoicing Country Sheet)

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 entities. 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 authorities;
• Decree law of 24 April 2014, n. 66. Urgent measures for the competitiveness and the social justice (art 25).
• Circular of the State General Accounting Office number 37 of 4 November 2013, First Operating Instructions for the implementation of the Regulation on the issue, transmission and receipt of electronic invoices to be applied to public administrations. 

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 entities. There are multiple ways to submit an eInvoice to the government administrations through the Exchange system. These include:

• 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 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’. 

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.

Economic operators submit eInvoices following the FatturaPA[1] 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 entities 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 audit 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 through one of the following means:

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

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.

Additional information

The Italian government is currently developing the B2G e-invoicing infrastructure (Sistema di Interscambio) to make it compliant with Directive 2014/55/EU. This project, the eIGOR project, is funded by the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) programme. 

[1] The FatturaPA is the only type of electronic invoice that will be accepted by Public Administrations which, according to the Law, are obliged to make use of the Exchange System.

NOT VALIDATED BY THE EMSFEI MEMBER

Last updated:  Nov 29, 2017 17:33