B2B e-Invoice

Electronic invoicing between private entities represents another important step moving towards a more complete integration of the order-delivery-invoicing-payment cycle.

In order to promote B2B e-invoicing, the Italian Government – at first - issued the Legislative Decree number 127 on the 5^th of August 2015, containing rules on "Telematic interchange of Value Added Tax - VAT operations and control of the supply of goods realized through vending machines", introducing measures to stimulate, through the reduction of administrative and accounting burdens for taxpayers, the use of electronic invoicing.

In particular, the aforementioned decree n.127/2015 issued that - starting from 1 January 2017 - the Ministry of Economy and Finance (MEF) extends - in an optional mode - the functionality of the Interchange System (hereafter " SDI ") also to electronic invoices between private entities.

The Budget Law 2018 (Law 205/2017), which came into force on 1° January 2018, introduced a new important change establishing the obligation of electronic invoicing also in relations between privates.

 In particular, the aforementioned Law established that:

• from 1 July 2018, the obligation applies to the sale (and purchase) of fuels and operations carried out within the chains of subcontracts with the PA endcustomer;
• from 1 January 2019, the electronic invoicing obligation will be valid for all transactions between italian residents.

Starting from these dates, electronic invoices - prepared in XML format as of the date in force for invoices to the Public Administration - must be transmitted to their residents, established or identified in Italy, through the Tax Agency SdI.

In function of the strategic importance of such projects in general Italian digitization, and in view of this important and imminent change, the CBI Consortium is presented itself as an Intermediary already qualified and connected to SdI.

The CBI SDI Invoice Service - available as early as 12 January 2017 - allows the Consortium Financial Institutions to send electronic invoices to the Tax Agency, on behalf of their clients, in full compliance with the relevant legislation.

The technical documentation for the CBI SDI Invoice Service is published below, available only for Consortium members after login.

In the following figure is synthetically represented the service model identified with the CBI function "B2B Invoice", available for the e- invoice delivery to the interchange system through the Network of CBI Consortium, in line with the actual legislation.