UK SMEs partnering with Italy must go listed in Esterometro now and after Brexit – did you know of it?

Italian VAT taxable businesses, sole traders or professionals must report all supplies of goods and services to and from counterparts not established in the territory of Italy, without exclusion for small or micro enterprises or not VAT registered, in Esterometro declaration.

This, in summary, the explanation given by the Italian Revenue Agency to a query made by a UK resident accountancy firm that provides services to Italian VAT registered clients (Answer n. 85/2019)

The accountancy firm wanted to know if their VATable Italian clients would be required to include them as a supplier in the declaration, pursuant to the Legislative Decree of Esterometro (Article 1, paragraph 3-bis, LD 127/2015), since the UK accountancy firm is not VAT registered, subject to the “small companies” regime as per articles 281 and following of the directive n. 2006/112 / EC, and turnover is below the VAT threshold.
The firm was firmly convinced that their Italian customers were not obliged to include them in Esterometro communication, in analogy with Intrastat Italian law provisions.

Revenue Agency replied explaining that Esterometro is the Italian system of collecting information from Italian VAT taxable persons to provide an overview of the goods and services exchanged with counterparts not established in the State, without further limitations, and with the only exclusion of the transactions with an issued Customs bill or with an electronic invoice (Paragraph 3-bis article 1 of Legislative Decree 127/2015).
Unlike Intrastat Declarations where Italian VAT taxable persons must declare goods moved in and out of Italy to other EU VATable persons, Esterometro concerns all assignment of goods and provision of services to and from subjects not established in the territory of the State, without further limitations. So the case in question does not fall within the Intrastat provisions and the Italian taxable persons are bound to the “Esterometro”.
Furthermore, the Italian Revenue Agency added that the obligation will be mandatory after Brexit.
In fact purchases of goods and services from non-EU countries must be documented with self invoicing that don’t fall in the electronic invoicing system.