As of January 1, 2019, all Italian businesses selling goods and providing services must adhere to e-invoicing requirements. To ensure compliance, Stripe collects necessary information during account activation and submits transaction data to Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) for e-invoice delivery. Italian businesses can receive e-invoices using a Codice Destinatario or PEC email address and must provide a VAT number or Codice Fiscale to claim input tax credits.

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Onboarding FAQs

What are the e-invoicing requirements in Italy?

On January 1, 2019, mandatory e-invoicing requirements were introduced for all Italian businesses that sell goods and provide services in Italy. To comply with Italy’s e-invoicing requirements, we need to issue e-invoices to all Italian businesses and individuals that use Stripe.

In order to do this, we collect the necessary information from you during account activation. We also submit transaction data to Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) so that they can deliver e-invoices to you.

I’m a Connect platform—do I need to collect any e-invoicing details from my connected accounts?

When required, Stripe will collect Italian e-invoicing details from businesses which we charge fees to, which may include some of your connected accounts. However, if you are an Italian based platform, we recommend consulting your tax advisor to better understand your obligations.

What is an RI/REA number?

An RI/REA number is a company registration number given to every company which registers with the "Repertorio delle notizie Economiche e Amministrative”. You can read more about this in the article linked here from the Italian Chamber of Commerce.

Am I required to submit a RI/REA as well?

Depending upon which entity type your business is set up as, if you are VAT registered or not, and what account type you are selecting, you may be required to submit an RI/REA during account activation. This is part of Stripe’s ‘Know Your Customer’ obligations which you can read more about on our support site.

What if I don’t have a Codice Destinatario or PEC email address?

A business can choose to receive e-invoices using either a Codice Destinatario or PEC email address. You can register your preferred method in advance with SDI. If you have registered your choice with SDI, there’s no need to provide the Codice Destinatario or PEC—your VAT number will be sufficient to allow us to issue a compliant e-invoice. You can read more about this on the Agenzia delle Entrate website.

What is a VAT Number?

A VAT Number, or VAT ID registration number, is a unique number assigned to all businesses that provide taxable goods and services in Italy.

In Italy, the VAT number is known locally as Partita IVA, and consists of 11 numerical digits with the ‘IT’ country code identifier as a prefix: IT 12345678901

Why are you collecting a VAT Number?

In Italy, to issue an e-invoice, we are required to collect a VAT number or a Codice Fiscale. The VAT number enables Italian businesses to claim input tax credits.

Why are you verifying my VAT Number?

We need to verify your VAT Number so we can successfully identify your VAT registration status and deliver your VAT e-invoice on a monthly basis.

What is a Codice Fiscale?

The Codice Fiscale is an alphanumeric tax code composed of 11 or 16 characters used to identify persons in Italy. If you are not VAT-registered, you can enter your Codice Fiscale while activating your Stripe account, and this will be used for e-invoicing.

What is a PEC email address?

A PEC (Posta Elettronica Certificata) is a certified email address which provides legal certainty of the email sender’s identity, as well as the date and time that the email is sent.

Effective from October 2020, all businesses in Italy must have a PEC email address by law.

Why are you collecting a PEC email address?

PEC email address is one of the methods through which you can receive your e-invoices. You can read more about this and other options on the Agenzia delle Entrate website.

How can I get a PEC email address?

PEC emails can be obtained from one of the various service providers certified by the Italian government agency AgID ("Agenzia per l'Italia digitale"), which determines the authorized PEC email providers, the legal framework of PEC, and the rules and terms of use.

Why can’t I use my Stripe account email as my PEC email address?

Most standard email addresses don’t meet the PEC certification format. A certified PEC email address generally has the format yourname@pec.it or yourname@legalmail.it. To obtain a PEC email address, you will need to subscribe with a registered provider.

What is a Codice Destinatario?

A Codice Destinatario is used to receive e-invoices. If you share it with us while activating your Stripe account, we will use it to deliver your e-invoices. For more information, see the explanation in the website of the Italian revenue agency: Come si riceve una fattura elettronica dal Sistema di Interscambio.

How does Stripe keep my information safe?

Visit our Privacy Center to learn more about how Stripe keeps your information safe.

What happens if I don’t provide this information?

We may not be able to issue you an e-invoice if we don’t receive the required information from you.

My entity type has changed—what information do I need to provide?

If you become registered for Italian VAT after activating your Stripe account, please let us know by entering your VAT number in the Tax Details page in your Dashboard Settings.

If you wish to change the delivery format for receiving tax invoices (e.g., from Codice Destinatario to the PEC email system, or vice versa), you can edit those details in the Tax Details page of your Dashboard Settings page.

What if I have a VAT number and a Codice Fiscale?

If you are VAT registered there is no need to enter both when activating your Stripe account. We will use your VAT number for e-invoicing purposes.

What if I need to edit my tax details?

You can edit your tax details in the Tax Details page of your Stripe Dashboard Settings. There you will find your VAT number or Codice Fiscale and your Codice Destinatario and/or PEC email address that we are using for e-invoicing.

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VAT e-invoice FAQs

What is the difference between the tax invoice in my Stripe Dashboard and VAT e-invoice?

The tax invoice(s) in the Stripe Dashboard represents an outline of transactions for a given month. You can find these tax invoices in the documents section of your Dashboard settings. While the contents of the Stripe tax invoices and the VAT e-invoices are essentially the same, Stripe tax invoices are not VAT-compliant. Only the VAT e-invoices sent to your destination channel via SDI can be used to reclaim VAT from the Italian government.

What is the difference between the tax invoice in my Stripe Dashboard and VAT e-invoice?

The tax invoice(s) in the Stripe Dashboard represents an outline of transactions for a given month. You can find these tax invoices in the documents section of your Dashboard settings. While the contents of the Stripe tax invoices and the VAT e-invoices are essentially the same, Stripe tax invoices are not VAT-compliant. Only the VAT e-invoices sent to your destination channel via SDI can be used to reclaim VAT from the Italian government.

Which document do I need to reclaim my VAT?

Your VAT e-invoice delivered through the Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) to your preferred destination is the only VAT invoice that can be used to reclaim your VAT.

Can I access the VAT e-invoices on my Stripe Dashboard?

Individual VAT e-invoices are not available on your Stripe Dashboard. Instead, e-invoices will be delivered to the destination channel you have provided to us during onboarding, or that you have set up directly with the Sistema di Interscambio (SDI).

Why did I receive more than one VAT e-invoice this month but only one Stripe tax invoice?

There are several reasons why you might see more than one VAT e-invoice for a given month including, but not limited to, the following:

• If you collect payments in multiple currencies via Stripe, you will receive multiple VAT e-invoices with each e-invoice corresponding to an individual currency
• You may receive e-invoices via the Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) (platform where invoices are validated and transmitted to their recipients) from other vendors other than Stripe

Alternatively, only one Stripe tax invoice will be available on your Stripe Dashboard per month. It is a single document that shows all the taxes and fees associated with your monthly activity on Stripe.

How do I reconcile the tax invoice in the Dashboard with the VAT e-invoice I just received?

The taxes and fees on your Stripe account’s VAT e-invoice should match the taxes and fees on the monthly tax invoice in your Stripe Dashboard.

If you have more than one e-invoice relating to your Stripe account, it means that you have processed charges with multiple currencies. The total amount of the individual e-invoice should match the total for that currency on your tax invoice.

Where can I find my VAT e-invoices?

Your VAT e-invoice should be delivered to you from the Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) at the destination you have entered on the Dashboard Settings page under Tax Details. If your Stripe account has processed transactions in a given month, we will send this information to the SDI so they can deliver your e-invoice to your preferred destination.

After editing my VAT e-invoicing details, how and when will I receive my new e-invoice?

After you have successfully submitted and updated your VAT e-invoicing information on your Dashboard Settings, we will automatically submit the updated VAT e-invoice with your new tax information to the Sistema di Interscambio (SDI), and you should receive the e-invoice to your destination within the next few days.

How do I re-issue my VAT e-invoice?

Use the Regenerate button in your Stripe Dashboard to credit and reissue your VAT invoice after you’ve made edits to your legal entity names or any tax information. We will first issue a credit note to cancel the original invoice, and then issue a new e-invoice to Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) using the updated information.

Learn more about regenerating your tax invoices.

If I do not have a PEC email, can I still obtain my VAT e-invoice?

If you do not have a PEC (Posta Elettronica Certificata) email address, SDI can deliver your VAT e-invoice to a valid Codice Destinatario. VAT numbers registered with Sistema di Interscambio can also be used as a destination channel for receiving your VAT e-invoice.

If I do not have Codice Destinatario, can I obtain my VAT e-invoice?

If you do not have a valid Codice Destinatario SDI can deliver your VAT e-invoice to a valid PEC email address. VAT numbers registered with Sistema di Interscambio can also be used for SdI to deliver your VAT e-invoice.

Without a Codice Destinatario or a PEC email, can I obtain my new VAT e-invoice?

If you do not have a valid Codice Destinatario or a valid PEC email address SDI can deliver your VAT e-invoice to your VAT number if you have registered it with Sistema di Interscambio.

Why did I receive my VAT e-invoice in my Codice Destinatario even though I provided a PEC email address?

If you have provided a Codice Destinatario, we will prioritize that channel for delivering your VAT e-invoice.

Why did I receive my VAT e-invoice in my PEC Email address even though I provided a Codice Destinatario?

If you provided both a PEC email address and Codice Destinatario but received your VAT e-invoice in your PEC email address, there might have been an error with your Codice Destinatario or Sistema di Interscambio was unable to deliver to that channel.

Why did I not receive an VAT e-invoice for the past month?

If you did not process any payments on Stripe in the past month you should not expect to receive a VAT e-invoice. However you should check your Stripe dashboard for notifications about your VAT e-invoices.

Can I receive an e-invoice in my Codice Destinatario and my PEC email address?

Sistema di Interscambio will only deliver your VAT e-invoices to a single destination channel.

Why is the regenerated button on my Stripe Dashboard grayed out?

If you have not changed any Tax details on your Stripe account since the last time you received your VAT e-invoices the regenerate button will be grayed out.

Where will Stripe store VAT e-invoices?

Stripe does not store your VAT e-invoices. We transmit data to Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) and they deliver your VAT e-invoices to your destination channel. Once they are successfully delivered to SDI, you’ll be able to access them there.

I have updated my Tax information, how can I regenerate my new VAT E-invoice?

If you change your Tax information on your Dashboard Settings and would like the most up-to-date information to be reflected on your VAT e-invoice, you can manually regenerate the past Tax invoice(s) and VAT e-invoice(s) via your Stripe Dashboard.

To regenerate past Tax invoice and VAT e-invoice:

You will have to go to your documents section [2] on your Stripe Dashboard and click on the regenerate button. Please note that this button will be available only if your tax details are verified and you have updated your tax information.

Once you click the regenerate button, a new Tax invoice will be delivered to your dashboard and an updated VAT e-invoice along with a credit-note for old VAT e-invoice will be sent to SDI to be delivered to your destination channel

I was asked to change my tax information by Stripe, when will I receive my VAT e-invoice and Tax invoice?

VAT e-invoices and Tax invoices will be delivered automatically after you have updated your tax information in your Dashboard Settings [1].

How do I know whether SDI accepted the VAT e-invoices?

If SDI is unable to deliver your VAT e-invoices at your destination method, we will notify you of the outcome and reason for delivery failure through your Stripe Dashboard.

When will the VAT e-invoices be delivered to me on a monthly basis?

You can expect to receive your VAT e-invoice between 4th and 10th of every month.

Why do I see a Tax line item under my Stripe fees?

Following the set up of a local branch of Stripe in Italy, we are required to charge Value-Added Tax (VAT) on all Stripe fees at a rate of 22% to Italian based users.. You can learn more about VAT being charged on your Stripe fees in our Support Article here.

Why is Stripe charging VAT at a rate of 22%?

Stripe has recently set-up a local branch in Italy. If you are an Italian user, Stripe will charge Italian VAT at a rate of 22% on our fees for payment processing technology services and other related products. You will be provided with a VAT e-invoice which can be used to reclaim back VAT incurred. To learn more about VAT e-invoices please visit our Support Article here.