This blog was last updated on March 20, 2019
What is Esterometro?
The Italian government’s e-invoicing mandate became effective on 1 January 2019. While cross-border invoices are exempt, all domestic B2B and B2C invoices must be cleared through the SDI platform.
This means that the Italian government and tax authority now have real-time access to the data of all B2B and B2C VAT transactions in the economy and can leverage the national tax collection. Receiving all invoice data from all domestic transactions also means that the VAT monthly reporting obligation becomes unnecessary, which is why the Spesometro report was abolished as of January 2019.
However, as it remains optional for taxpayers to issue cross-border invoices through the SDI, a new reporting obligation was created and is now mandatory for all taxpayers issuing invoices outside of the platform. The Esterometro is the fiscal obligation to report cross-border transactions for which invoices have been issued by different means, and it gives the tax authority access to VAT transaction data not captured by the SDI.
What are the details?
The Esterometro must be submitted by all Italian registered taxpayers who receive or issue invoices to or from non-residents in Italy. It applies to all cross-border invoices that have not been issued through the SDI platform.
The provision n. 89757 of 30 April 2018 has an entire chapter dedicated to Esterometro, in particular article 9.1, which establishes the mandatory data for Esterometro reports, and article 9.3 which establishes the deadline for submitting the report. It is important to mention that all cross-border invoices not issued through the SDI must be reported through Esterometro on the last day of the next month after issue. For example, for an invoice issued on 10 February 2019, the communication of the applicable data must be made by 31 March. For invoices received, the report must be submitted on the last day of the month following the date of receipt. The date of receipt is the date of registration of the invoice for the purposes of VAT liquidation. For example, if an invoice received on January 15, 2019, is recorded in September, the fulfillment must be made by October 31 of the same year.
What has changed?
The Italian government has just announced an extension to the deadline for when the first and second Esterometro reports, covering the months of January and February 2019, must be submitted. The deadline to transmit the last Spesometro (the domestic VAT report which was abolished in January 2019 with the advent of the SDI) was also announced. The deadline to transmit both the Spesometro and Esterometro reports has been postponed to 30 April 2019. In addition, the deadline for the transmission of Esterometro relating to March and April 2019 has been postponed to 31 May 2019. It is also possible that the Esterometro will become an annual, rather than monthly, report. This Proposal of Law (Pdl 1074) should be finalised by the end of this month.
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