e-invoicing in Italy

Italy has one of Europe’s most advanced e-invoicing systems. B2G e-invoicing has been mandatory since 2015, and B2B/B2C e-invoicing became mandatory for all VAT-registered businesses in January 2019. All domestic invoices — including cross-border (since July 2022) — must flow through the SDI (Sistema di Interscambio), Italy’s centralised clearance platform managed by the Revenue Agency (Agenzia delle Entrate).

Italy requires setup on both sides before any Italian company can send or receive invoices through Maventa. Contact Maventa support to configure your vendor key for sending to SDI, and ensure the Italian company has registered Maventa as their e-invoicing operator in their SDI account.

Italy company account registration

When registering a new Italian company via the API, the fiscal code or VAT number (Partita IVA / P.IVA) must be used as the company identifier. At the moment, company registration requires the vendor to have KYC approval from Maventa. Contact Maventa support to get started.

Identifier	Description	Format	Validation
Codice Fiscale	Italian fiscal code	`XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX`	Structural validation
Partita IVA	Italian VAT identifier	`IT12345678901`	Structural validation via VIES

Sending in Italy

SDI reporting and delivery

To start using Maventa as the e-invoicing operator through SDI, the Italian company must register Maventa’s Codice Destinatario (operator code) in the SDI portal:

61M0PS7

All invoices sent through Maventa for Italian companies are reported to SDI. When Maventa sends an invoice to SDI, the invoice is converted to the FatturaPA format — the official XML format mandatory for all transactions through SDI. When SDI accepts the invoice, Maventa marks it as SENT immediately. However, SDI validates invoices in the background, so an invoice can still fail after it has been marked as SENT.

Domestic invoices are routed to SDI by Maventa — the sender does not need to take any additional steps. SDI acts as the clearance and delivery platform, validating the invoice and handling forwarding to the recipient. No other delivery channel is used for domestic B2B, B2G, or B2C traffic.

Cross-border invoices are first reported to SDI (mandatory since July 2022). Once SDI confirms the invoice has passed validation — which can take hours or even a few days — Maventa sends the invoice to the recipient through standard routing. This means the invoice is delivered via the best available channel — internal Maventa network or Peppol — based on the recipient’s capabilities. Email and print delivery are also available if these fallback routes are enabled on the sender account.

For a foreign (non-Italian) recipient, set the Codice Destinatario to XXXXXXX (the letter X seven times). This is the standard SDI convention for recipients that have no Italian destination code, and it tells Maventa to report the invoice to SDI and then deliver it cross-border through the best available channel (internal network or Peppol). Domestic Italian recipients use their own 7-character Codice Destinatario instead.

SDI validates invoices in the background and responses can take hours or even a few days to arrive. If SDI rejects an invoice, Maventa sets the invoice status to error and notifies the sender via webhooks.

Email and print delivery

Email and postal delivery (printing) are available as fallback delivery channels for cross-border invoices when enabled on the sender account. For domestic traffic, SDI handles all delivery — email and print are not used.

Receiving in Italy

Receiving in Italy is handled via SDI. Peppol is available for cross-border transactions.

Receiving addresses for Italian companies

Address Type	Description	Example address	Activation Requirement
Codice Destinatario	7-character recipient code for B2B/B2C routing through SDI	1234567	Provided by recipient; used as SDI routing code
Peppol address	Identifier for cross-border Peppol traffic. Uses the VAT number with scheme `9906`.	9906:ITXXXXXXXXX	Created when the company registers to receive from Peppol

For step-by-step instructions on enabling receiving and registering for Peppol, see the invoice receiving integration guide.

Peppol SMP registration

When an Italian company registers to receive invoices via Peppol through Maventa, the following document types are registered in the SMP (Service Metadata Publisher). These registrations determine which document formats the company can receive over the Peppol network.

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 — Invoice

DocumentIdentifier urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:Invoice-2::Invoice##urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017#compliant#urn:fdc:peppol.eu:2017:poacc:billing:3.0::2.1

ProcessIdentifier urn:fdc:peppol.eu:2017:poacc:billing:01:1.0

Peppol BIS Billing 3.0 — Credit Note

DocumentIdentifier urn:oasis:names:specification:ubl:schema:xsd:CreditNote-2::CreditNote##urn:cen.eu:en16931:2017#compliant#urn:fdc:peppol.eu:2017:poacc:billing:3.0::2.1