DPA case 9451049 – Violation Found (Italy, 2020)

In December, 21st 2018 the Italian Revenue Agency issued a resolution describing the system used to store electronic invoices (in .XML format) and make them available to VAT operators and their clients, providing a specific application to let them join the consultation service by 60 days. However, in 2019 the Agency decided to defer the deadline to join the service by October, 31st 2019. Then, the Law Decree n. 124/2019 provided that "the .XML files of electronic invoices would be stored until the 31st December of the eighth year following the year of submission of the relevant VAT return or until the definition of any judgments [...]", in order to be used by the Guardia di Finanza and the Italian Revenue Agency for financial and tax monitoring purposes. To implement such provision, the Italian Revenue Agency has decided to draft a new guidance, replacing the one already confirmed by the Italian DPA in July 2020, and to postpone the deadline to join the e-invoice consultation service to March, 1st 2021. The Italian DPA acknowledges the deferral of the deadline to March, 1st 2021 to join the e-invoice consultation service.