From July 1, 2020, on an experimental basis, Italian taxpayers (i.e. businesses resident and established in Italy) may submit pre-completed VAT returns.
Specifically, Article 16 of recently enacted Decree n. 124/2019 provides that data gleaned from transactional information supplied from electronic invoices via SDI, cross-border transactions, as well as data collected on fees electronically will be used by Italy to pre-populate a VAT return to be later submitted by the taxpayer.
Much is yet to be understood regarding how this experiment will play out in Italy , but the Government is clearly expecting a positive outcome as the plan is to extend this regime to non-resident businesses as early as 2021. While the devil is in the details, this bold move is continued evidence of the changing role of periodic VAT returns in a world where invoice-level transactional information is provided by businesses to the government in real (or near real) time.
For further information on this tax simplification, please visit https://www.gazzettaufficiale.it/eli/id/2019/10/26/19G00134/sg.
