Italy e-invoicing through SdI: a practical guide

What Italian e-invoicing through SdI is

Italian e-invoicing is the obligation to issue invoices as FatturaPA XML files and send them through the Sistema di Interscambio (SdI), the exchange platform of the Agenzia delle Entrate, which checks each file and delivers it to the customer. It matters because an invoice that has not passed through SdI is treated as not issued, with VAT and penalty consequences for both parties.

Italy was the first EU country to mandate e-invoicing between businesses, from 1 January 2019, and the rule also covers invoices to consumers. It is a clearance model: the tax authority sees every invoice before the customer does. This guide covers how SdI works, addressing by codice destinatario or PEC, cross-border reporting, electronic till receipts (corrispettivi telematici) and legal storage (conservazione), as of September 2026.

Who must use SdI, and since when

The obligation grew in stages. Almost every VAT-registered business established in Italy is now in scope, including flat-rate taxpayers. The main milestones, checked against the Agenzia delle Entrate, are these.

• 2014 and 2015: e-invoices through SdI mandatory for supplies to public administrations, from 31 March 2015 for all of them
• 1 January 2019: mandatory for invoices between private businesses (B2B) and to consumers (B2C) under Budget Law 2018
• 1 July 2022: cross-border invoice data moved into SdI, replacing the separate esterometro return
• 1 July 2022 and 1 January 2024: extended to flat-rate taxpayers (regime forfettario), first those above EUR 25,000 of revenue, then all
• 1 January 2026: point-of-sale payment terminals must be linked to the electronic cash registers that transmit daily receipts
• 15 May 2026: FatturaPA technical specifications version 1.9.1 usable, published on 31 March 2026
• Special cases remain, for example health services to private individuals, which follow separate data rules

How SdI clearance works

The supplier's software creates the XML file and transmits it to SdI directly, through a certified channel or through an intermediary. SdI checks the file name and structure, the validity of VAT and tax identifiers, the consistency of the data and possible duplicates. If the checks fail, it returns a rejection notice (notifica di scarto) and the invoice counts as not issued.

Under the Agenzia's practice, a rejected invoice can be corrected and resent within five days, keeping its original number and date. If the file passes, SdI delivers it and returns a delivery receipt. If delivery is impossible, for example because the customer's mailbox is full, SdI issues a receipt of failed delivery and makes the invoice available in the customer's reserved area on the Agenzia portal: the invoice is still issued, and the supplier should tell the customer where to find it.

• Notifica di scarto: rejected, the invoice does not exist for tax purposes
• Ricevuta di consegna: delivered to the customer's address, with date and time
• Ricevuta di impossibilità di recapito: issued but not delivered, available in the reserved area
• Rejection reasons worth watching: wrong or ceased VAT number, rounding in discount fields, duplicate file
• Every received invoice can also be consulted in the Fatture e Corrispettivi portal

Codice destinatario and PEC: how an invoice finds the customer

SdI delivers to the electronic address written on the invoice: a seven-character codice destinatario, which identifies a channel such as the customer's software provider, or a certified e-mail address (PEC). Public administrations use a six-character office code from the IPA index instead. If the customer has registered a preferred address with the Agenzia, SdI uses that one whatever the supplier wrote.

Sending the XML straight to the customer's PEC mailbox without passing through SdI is a common mistake. The Agenzia's answer is unambiguous: an invoice sent directly to the customer's PEC, bypassing SdI, is considered not issued.

• Seven-character codice destinatario: delivery through the customer's chosen channel
• PEC address: delivery by certified e-mail when the customer has no code
• 0000000: customer without code or PEC, including consumers; the invoice lands in the reserved area
• XXXXXXX: foreign customer, used for cross-border data transmission
• Six-character IPA code: public administration offices only

Issue deadlines, document types and a worked example

An immediate invoice must be transmitted within 12 days of the transaction (article 21 of Presidential Decree 633/1972), and the invoice date is the date of the transaction. A deferred invoice (TD24), covering goods delivered with transport documents or documented services, may be issued by the 15th of the following month. The document type code tells SdI and the customer what the file is.

Worked example: on 10 September 2026 a Milan distributor sells goods for EUR 1,000 plus VAT at 22 percent, EUR 220, total EUR 1,220, and transmits a TD01 invoice the same day. The entry is Dr Trade receivables 1,220 / Cr Revenue 1,000 / Cr VAT payable 220. On 25 September goods worth EUR 200 come back: the distributor issues a TD04 credit note of 200 plus 44 VAT, 244 in total, referring to the original invoice, and posts Dr Revenue 200 / Dr VAT payable 44 / Cr Trade receivables 244. The customer now owes EUR 976.

If the TD01 had been rejected by SdI, the distributor would correct and resend it within the five-day window with the same number and date, so the numbering sequence stays intact and the ledger entry does not need to move.

• TD01: invoice
• TD04: credit note; TD05: debit note
• TD24: deferred invoice for goods with transport documents or documented services
• TD16: domestic reverse charge integration
• TD17, TD18, TD19: self-assessment documents for purchases from abroad

Cross-border invoices through SdI (the former esterometro)

Since 1 July 2022, data on transactions with parties not established in Italy travels through SdI in FatturaPA format instead of a separate periodic return. For sales, the Italian supplier sends the invoice to SdI with codice destinatario XXXXXXX and the foreign customer's country code and identifier, and gives the customer a copy in any form.

For purchases from abroad, the Italian buyer transmits a self-assessment document (TD17, TD18 or TD19) by the 15th day of the month after receiving the supplier's invoice or after the transaction. Transactions documented by a customs import declaration and invoices already exchanged through SdI are outside this reporting.

• Outgoing: XML with codice destinatario XXXXXXX, transmitted within the ordinary invoicing deadlines
• TD17: services bought from abroad under the reverse charge
• TD18: intra-EU purchases of goods
• TD19: purchases of goods already in Italy from non-resident suppliers
• Incoming deadline: the 15th of the month following receipt or the transaction

Worked example: a German service invoice and TD17

On 20 September 2026 an Italian company receives an invoice from a German consultancy for EUR 5,000 without VAT, marked reverse charge. By 15 October 2026 it transmits a TD17 through SdI with a taxable amount of 5,000 and Italian VAT at 22 percent, EUR 1,100, and records the VAT in both its sales and purchase VAT registers.

The entries are Dr Consultancy costs 5,000 / Cr Trade payables 5,000 for the supplier's invoice, and Dr Input VAT 1,100 / Cr Output VAT 1,100 for the self-assessment. For a fully taxable business the net VAT effect is zero, but a missing TD17 is still a reporting breach, and for a business with restricted deduction the 1,100 becomes a real cost.

Corrispettivi telematici: electronic daily receipts

Retail sales that do not require an invoice are recorded by an electronic cash register (registratore telematico) or the Agenzia's web procedure, which stores each sale, issues a commercial document to the customer and transmits the daily totals. Under article 2 of Legislative Decree 127/2015 this has been mandatory since 1 July 2019 for businesses with turnover above EUR 400,000 and since 1 January 2020 for all.

Since 1 January 2026, under Budget Law 2025, card and other electronic payment terminals must be linked to the registratore telematico, with the association made in the Fatture e Corrispettivi portal as set out in the Agenzia's provision of 31 October 2025. The point is reconciliation: the tax authority can now compare electronic payments with declared receipts.

• Daily receipt data transmitted within 12 days
• The commercial document replaces the old paper till receipt
• Payment terminals linked to the cash register since 2026
• Invoices requested by a retail customer still go through SdI

Conservazione: legal storage of e-invoices

Italian e-invoices must be stored electronically under the rules on digital preservation (conservazione) so that authenticity, integrity and legibility are guaranteed. Storage must be completed by the third month after the deadline for filing the income tax return for the year, and records must be kept for at least ten years under article 2220 of the Civil Code.

The Agenzia delle Entrate offers a free preservation service for invoices that passed through SdI. A business joins by signing the service agreement in the reserved area; invoices are then kept for 15 years, even after the VAT number is closed, and no digital signature is needed. The service does not accept paper or PDF invoices from suppliers outside the SdI system.

Stamp duty (imposta di bollo) of EUR 2 applies to e-invoices without VAT above EUR 77.47, such as those for exempt supplies; it is shown in the XML and paid periodically by F24 form. A system that stores only a PDF rendering of the XML, or loses the SdI receipts, fails the preservation rules.

• Keep the XML and the SdI receipts, not only a printable copy
• Complete preservation by the third month after the income tax return deadline
• Keep records for at least ten years
• Consider joining the Agenzia's free preservation service as a second copy

What an accounting system must do for Italian e-invoicing

In a clearance regime the invoice status is part of the invoice. Check a system, or the combination of a system and an intermediary, against this list.

• Produce FatturaPA XML in the current specification version and validate it before sending
• Show SdI status and rejection reasons on the invoice record itself
• Handle rejections within five days while keeping number and date
• Import supplier XML invoices from SdI and post purchases from the data
• Generate TD17, TD18 and TD19 for purchases from abroad by the 15th of the next month
• Manage codice destinatario, PEC, 0000000 and XXXXXXX correctly in customer master data
• Keep VAT nature codes and exemption references on each line, plus stamp duty where due
• Send XML and receipts to a compliant preservation service

Italian e-invoicing and Skyline Nexus ERP

Skyline Nexus ERP provides the ledger side of the Italian process. Invoice numbering schemes are defined per business location, tax rates and tax groups are maintained centrally, sales returns work as credit notes that post a reversing journal, and the VAT return and the VAT GL accounts are computed on the same basis. Posted journals are reversed rather than edited, and the Accounting Audit Trail keeps who changed what, with old and new values. Skyline Nexus ERP runs in English and Arabic, with interface translations for Italian among many other languages.

The native SdI connection with FatturaPA output is being rolled out market by market; tell us that you invoice in Italy and we will confirm your go-live date. Until then, the workable route is an accredited SdI intermediary fed with sales, returns, contacts and taxes through the Skyline Nexus REST API, with the XML files and SdI receipts sent to a preservation service. Ask for a demonstration with your own invoice scenarios.