Italy: Pre-prepared VAT return to launch in July 2020

The Italian government has announced a proposal that will see the Tax Authorities pre-populate VAT returns on behalf of taxpayers.
This new plan aims to reduce the VAT gap in Italy and is to be introduced by July 2020.

The plan is to take the transactional information processed through the Sdl e-invoicing system and the Esterometro to pre-populate a VAT return for resident Italian entities – these pre-populated forms will be regarded as drafts. Businesses will have the ability to review and amend the prepopulated return before approval. The taxpayer will then later submit the approved draft return.

It is hoped that this plan will be extended to non-resident businesses by 2021 – until then, all non-resident Italian VAT registered businesses will continue to prepare and submit their VAT returns as normal.