New tax fulfilment for non domestic transactions (Esterometro)
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Starting from 1 January 2019, a new fulfilment has been introduced, and it is called “esterometro”.
The introduction of this instrument meets the primary purpose of a monthly communication to the financial administration regarding all the transactions not subject to the obligation of electronic invoicing, with particular regard to transactions from/to foreign businesses. This communication must be submitted by the end of the month following the date in which the document has been issued or the date of receipt the document proving the purchase.
Subjects for which the fulfilment is mandatory:
All the taxable businesses (entities and individuals) established in Italy adopting electronic invoicing practices and operating in international trade, are obliged to transmit the communication of cross-border data.
The following foreign entities do not meet the requirements for being considered established in Italy and therefore are excluded from the aforesaid fulfilment:
• Directly identified in Italy by the Article 35-ter of Legislative Decree n. 633/1972;
• Non-residents who have appointed their own tax representative in Italy pursuant to article 17 of the same decree;
• Foreign subjects without VAT number.
Data to be submitted:
The tax Agency, through the provision of April 30, 2018 n. 89757, has set forth the content of the communication, as following:
• Identification data of the transferor / service provider;
• Identification data of the transferee / buyer;
• Date of the transaction;
• Accounting date (for the documents received only and the relative variation notes);
• Document number;
• The tax base;
• The applied VAT rate and tax.
The last point of circular concerns the right to issue cross-border invoices electronically by filling in only the “Recipient Code” box with a conventional code consisting of the letter X for seven times (XXXXXXX) in case of foreign subjects directly identified and with no tax representative, or by entering a conventional code consisting of seven 0 (0000000) in case of foreign subjects directly identified or with a tax representative.
Transmission of the electronic invoice for transactions with foreign operators will result in the exemption of the new communication envisaged for active cross-border transactions.
The new fulfilment does not exempt the taxpayer from submitting the INTRASTAT reporting.
Penalties
In case of omission or incorrect transmission of cross-border data, the administrative sanction envisaged by article 11, paragraph 2-quater of Legislative Decree No. 471/1997, or 2 euros for each invoice, however, up to the maximum limit of 1,000 euros for each quarter.
The penalty can be reduced to half, so within the maximum limit of 500 euros, if the transmission is made within 15 days after the deadline or if, within the same term, the correct transmission of data is made.