Italian VAT deregistrations and upcoming pre-completed VAT return
It is now more difficult to get deregistered in Italy. Also, the new e-invoicing comes with prepopulated VAT returns for established businesses.
Italian tax authorities recently updated its guidelines on VAT de-registrations. The authorities also announced plans to generate precompleted draft VAT returns based on SDI information provided via electronic invoices.
New guidelines on de-registration requirements in Italy
Going forward, Italian tax authorities will only allow de-registrations when all invoices issued have been correctly reported and the corresponding VAT has been paid to the authorities.
These guidelines are available at the Italian tax authorities´ website.
Pre-completed VAT returns in July 2020
The Italian government announced plans to introduce a pre-completed VAT return based on information provided by all taxpayers via their e-invoices and Esterometro returns.
All e-invoices are immediately submitted to the SDI , a database of the Italian tax authorities. Those transactions not falling within the e-invoicing obligation are normally reported in the Esterometro, so the Italian tax authorities have enough information to prepare a pre-populated VAT return for taxpayers to review and confirm.
This initiative will not affect non-established businesses because these companies are not required to issue their invoices electronically.