The twelve-day rule for invoice’s issuing cannot always be adopted
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The invoice, pursuant to art. 21, paragraph 4, DPR 633/1972 must be issued at the time the transaction is carried out, determined in accordance with art. 6 of the same DPR. With the introduction of the electronic invoice, the provision introduced by art. 11 of DL 119/2018 (subsequently amended by DL crescita), in order to facilitate the sending of tax documents through the Exchange System has provided for a period of 12 days from the performance of the service.
Moreover, with Circular no. 14/2019, the Revenue Agency has specified the salvation, also with regard to electronic invoice, of the “wider terms of issue of the invoice provided for by special provisions”.
A first exception to the general rule is found in art. 3 of DM 31/10/1974 which states that: “for the sums received in deposit, globally and indistinctly, both as consideration and as expenses to be incurred in the name and on behalf of customers, the notaries, lawyers and accountants, must issue the invoice, in relation to the payment of fees, within sixty days from the date of constitution of the deposit”. The provision refers explicitly to the term of issue and not from the time of performance of the service: according to this provision, a self-employed legal worker who receives on September 1, 2019 sums in deposit, must issue the invoice no later than October 30, 2019.
Another special hypothesis is represented by the case of transfers of goods relating to contracts estimators, or those cases in which a party (tradens) delivers one or more movable things to the second (accipiens), which is obliged to pay the price unless it decides to return them within a specified period. For VAT purposes, the delivery or shipment of goods is not the moment of taxation, but the tax becomes payable when only when the goods are sold to third parties, or not returned at the expiration of the deadline or, residually, after a year has elapsed since delivery.
It is therefore considered that, after this period, the invoice certifying the the goods’ transfer must be sent to the SDI within the next 12 days.
The postponement of the transmission deadline is also applicable to the variation notes pursuant to Article 26 of DPR 633/1972. The issue of the credit note is subject to time limits expressly established by Article 26 of DPR 633/1972: in particular in the case of a reduction in taxable income or tax, the document must be issued within one year of the transaction to which it refers in order to allow the supplier to deduct the tax corresponding to the change.
Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator