Tax innovation in regard to VAT on intra-EU services

by Studio Giambrone | Mar 21, 2012

From March 17, 2012, European Community law n.217/2011 comes into force governing the new rules for the billing of Intra-Community services received by taxpayers resident in Italy.

Under the new law, VAT, relating to general Inter- Community services received , as per art. 7-ter of Dpr. 633/72, to be resolved in “reverse charge” by the Italian customer with the integration of invoices received from taxable persons established in another EU State, under articles 46 and 47 of Decree 311/93 and no longer with the issuing of self – Billing-invoices as required by previous legislation. Basically, the generic Intra- Community services received from EU taxpayers, apply the same rules as for the purchase of assets within the Community.

The introduced innovation is actually a throwback, re- establishing the terms of issue and registration in force before the reform of 2010 but the obligation of issuing self- billing-invoice for the services received by persons outside of the EU under Article. 17 paragraph 2 of Presidential Decree 633/72 remains in force.

Community law also introduces a change in art. 6 of the Dpr. 633/72, to be considered in conjunction with the above mentioned changes as it establishes that the transactions as established in art. 7-b, are deemed to be carried out at the moment in which they are completed, including a specific prevision for those of a perpetual nature of more than one year.

Therefore for the services received by taxable persons established in the State territory this expressly refers to the benefits covered by the general rule of territoriality in relation to B2B (business to business) based on the customer’s location, who must comply with such invoicing requirements, legalization and registration under Articles. 46 and 47 of Decree 331/93.

With regard to the obligations of the billing, the invoice for the purchase of Intra- Community services must be numbered and integrated by the customer with an indication of the value in euros of the consideration in question, if in the case that it is expressed in foreign currency, also applying VAT according to the relative rate (usually that of 21 per cent).

On regularization, if the buyer does not receive the invoice within the month following the execution of the transaction, eg. the completion of services to be rendered, he must issue within the following month the invoice to the EU lender.

Regarding the requirements for registration, the purchase invoices for Intra-Community services, after integration, must be recorded within 15 days of receipt, separately in the invoice register, while the invoices relative to regularization must be entered separately in the purchases register within a month from issue

Studio Legale Internazionale Giambrone Law
Corporate & Commercial Office