What happens when electronic invoices are not delivered?
Not all invoices accepted by the SDI are delivered to the recipient: this happens when invoices are sent without a recipient code or with the recipient code “0000000”.
When an electronic invoice is sent to the customer and SDI does not reject it, the invoice is considered duly delivered and is always filed in the customer's tax drawer.
If you have entered the recipient code or PEC (Italy's certified email) given to you by the client, or if the client has registered a primary electronic address, the SDI will deliver the invoice to that address. If there is a discrepancy with what the supplier has indicated, what the customer has set in their tax portal takes priority.
If delivery fails, the invoice is still considered issued but not delivered to the client; the client will therefore be able to download the electronic invoice only by logging into their tax drawer in the reserved area of the Agenzia delle Entrate (Italian Revenue Agency) (ivaservizi.agenziaentrate.gov.it).
So we can distinguish:
In the case of a person without a VAT number:
In this case "not deliveredis standard practice, as the private customer is not obliged to receive the invoice in electronic format and therefore has the right to receive it in the traditional format (paper, pdf, email, …). The invoice must in any case always be transmitted to the SDI, but without any need to state the electronic address inside the invoice and consequently without it being delivered.
In the case of a private business:
The SDI is unable to deliver the invoice to the recipient/customer for one of these reasons:
- the electronic address (recipient code or PEC) has not been entered in the invoice;
- the electronic address (recipient code or PEC) entered in the invoice is not correct.
In this case, whoever issues the invoice must tell the customer that they must retrieve the original of their invoice by logging into their restricted area of the Agenzia delle Entrate/Fatture e Corrispettivi.
It is important to know that, in the event of non-delivery, a customer who is required to issue and receive electronic invoices can deduct the cost and reclaim the VAT only if they have viewed it in theirrestricted area of the Agenzia delle Entrate/Fatture e Corrispettivi.
