For software vendors and platforms, understanding the essentials of the Italian approach to e-invoicing is crucial to meet customer and compliance demands.
Public sector e-invoicing: mandatory nationwide
Private sector e-invoicing: broad mandates early on
E-invoicing standards and networks
Tax and compliance considerations
Conclusion
Since 31 March 2015, e-invoicing is mandatory for all public administration suppliers in Italy. Every invoice to a government entity must be submitted through the Sistema di Interscambio (SDI), a central platform managed by the Italian Revenue Agency.
SDI validates each invoice in the FatturaPA XML format before passing it to the relevant authority, providing real-time updates on status, offering great transparency to senders and reducing payment delays. Digital signatures are required for compliant long-term archiving, which must preserve authenticity and integrity over a ten-year retention period.
Italy became the first large European economy to enforce mandatory e-invoicing across the private sector from 2019 onward. This applies to all VAT-registered businesses, whether invoicing other businesses or consumers. Invoices must be sent via the SDI in FatturaPA format; exchanging paper or PDFs alone is not compliant for tax purposes. Since July 2022, this requirement has included cross-border transactions, meaning all relevant invoice data for international trade must also be reported through SDI.
This centralised model delivers several benefits:
Standardised invoice processing, replacing fragmented practices across the country
Enhanced tax compliance and fraud prevention
Improved efficiency and speed for both domestic and foreign transactions
As a result, businesses and their software partners must ensure SDI integration and FatturaPA generation are core capabilities within their invoicing solutions.
To ensure compliance, supporting the FatturaPA XML structure is non-negotiable for any solution provider in Italy.
Public procurement invoices can also be issued in European EN 16931-compatible formats, such as UBL or CII, which the SDI can process or convert as needed, ensuring cross-border procurement is also covered.
Peppol is also gaining traction in Italy, particularly within healthcare and some international settings, offering additional interoperability where needed. For software vendors, this means ensuring systems can generate FatturaPA, support relevant European formats, and facilitate Peppol connectivity where clients have such needs.
Italy’s clearance model fundamentally redefines when an invoice is deemed as issued. Only after SDI validation and time-stamping does an invoice become legally effective. This streamlines audit trails and reduces error rates. If the SDI rejects an invoice, it cannot be recognised by tax authorities until corrected and resubmitted.
Long-term, compliant archiving is mandatory and e-invoices must be digitally signed and preserved for at least ten years to ensure legal validity throughout the retention period. In addition, specific routing codes support secure and accurate delivery: the Codice Univoco Ufficio identifies public sector recipients, while the Codice Destinatario is used for B2B and B2C transactions.
Italy’s e-invoicing model demonstrates how clarity in regulations and standardisation in a technical sense can drive both compliance and efficiency. Remaining up-to-date with requirements like SDI connectivity and FatturaPA formatting is now essential for software vendors operating in Italy. Maventa’s e-invoicing API is built to manage these demands from fast integration to smooth daily operation, so your platform reliably supports compliance as rules evolve.