Edited by Andrea Werner Beilin and Francesco Mariani
On January 31, 2025, the Italian Tax Authorities released a new version of the Technical Specifications related to e-invoicing (version 1.9), introducing changes following recent legislative updates.
In summary, the main updates, which will come into force from April 1, 2025, concern:
- the introduction of the code <TipoDocumento> “TD29” to be used by the buyer to communicate to the Italian Tax Authorities the omitted or irregular invoicing by the supplier (the so-called “spy self-invoice“), as provided for by article 6, paragraph 8, Legislative Decree 471/1997;
- the introduction of the code “RF20” to be used in the field <RegimeFiscale> to identify the new cross-border VAT exemption regime, pursuant to Title V-ter, Presidential Decree 633/1972;
- the elimination of the €400 threshold for simplified invoices, as provided for by article 21-bis, Presidential Decree 633/1972, as amended by the Ministerial Decree dated May 10, 2019, in cases where the seller adopts the flat-rate regime or the aforementioned cross-border VAT exemption regime.
Regarding the communication related to the document type TD29, as mentioned in our previous Newsalert, pursuant to Legislative Decree 87/2024, for violations committed from September 1, 2024, the buyer is required to communicate to the Italian Tax Authorities the omissions and irregularities in invoicing carried out by the supplier “within ninety days from the invoice issuance date or from the issuance of the irregular invoice” without the obligation to pay VAT.
In this regard, the new wording of article 6, paragraph 8, Legislative Decree 471/1997, established that the communication to the Italian Tax Authorities must occur “using the methods provided by the Italian Tax Authorities,” which, however, had not yet been identified until today.
According to the new Technical Specifications that will be in effect from April 1, 2025, the method has now been identified in the SdI, through which the buyer must send an .XML file with the code <TipoDocumento> “TD29”.
The code “TD20,” previously used, among other things, for the so-called “spy self-invoice” will still be usable in case of omitted or irregular invoicing for transactions subject to reverse charge (see article 6, paragraph 9-bis, Legislative Decree 471/97) and in the cases mentioned in article 46, paragraph 5, Law Decree 331/1993, namely when the buyer of an intra-community purchase does not receive the regular invoice within the second month following the month of the transaction.
That said, considering that the new guidelines provided by the Italian Tax Authorities will be applicable from April 1, 2025, there is still uncertainty regarding the behavior to be adopted until that date for cases of “spy self-invoice” referred to in article 6, paragraph 8, Legislative Decree 471/1997.
Finally, as clarified by the Italian Tax Authorities in the recent edition of Telefisco on February 5, 2025, in the case of omitted or irregular invoicing, to identify the correct applicable penalty, it is necessary to refer to the date on which the supplier/service provider should have issued the invoice pursuant to Article 6 of Presidential Decree No. 633/1972 (i.e., the “date of the violation committed by the supplier/service provider”). Consequently, with reference to the omitted invoices in the period prior to September 1, 2024, the previous penalty provisions apply.
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