Deferred Invoicing > The end-of-month reckoning
The deferred invoice is one of the types of invoice provided for by the Italian tax authorities for the registration of supplies of goods or services.
Let's see in this article what this type of invoice consists of and when it can be issued.
Deferred invoice: what is it? A definition
A deferred invoice is a type of invoice that is issued to certify the purchase of goods or the provision of services at a different time than when the actual transaction took place.
The deferred invoice may contain several documents received in a given period of time. In fact, the deferred invoice is also called a summary invoice, because it allows all payments received in the previous calendar month from a given customer to be summarised in a single tax document. In a nutshell, a single deferred invoice may be issued for several supplies of goods or services if they occurred in the same calendar month.
Deferred invoice: how and when is it issued?
A deferred invoice is issued in the same way as an ordinary invoice.
If, in fact, the invoice issuer is exempt from the obligation to apply electronic invoicing, he will only have to issue the invoice in paper or PDF format. If, on the other hand, the issuer is bound by the electronic invoicing obligation, it will have to issue the invoice in XML format and send it to the Interchange System.
The deadline for the deferred invoice is: the 15th day of the month following the month in which payments are made for a good sold or a service provided. The indication of the reference month of the transaction is necessary for VAT settlement purposes (with reference to Articles 21 and 23 of Presidential Decree No. 633/1972). The exact period in which the sale of the goods or the provision of the service took place must also be mentioned on the invoice for VAT settlement purposes. In fact, legally, VAT must be paid by the 16th of the following month.
☝ The deferred invoice differs from the immediate invoice in that the latter must necessarily be issued within 12 days after the relevant transaction has taken place.
Deferred invoice → for goods
If the subject of the invoice (i.e. the transaction to be recorded) is a sale of goods, proof of delivery is required. That is why it is also necessary to include in the summary invoice the various Delivery Notes (Transport Documents) relating to each delivery.
👀 In case the goods in question are EU goods, the date on which the goods were dispatched is to be taken into account.
Deferred invoice → for services
The deferred invoice is only applicable for services from 2013 onwards. However, in order for the summary invoice for services to be valid for tax purposes, the appropriate documents certifying the actual performance of the service must also be included in it. The documents that must be included may be the following:
- The tax receipt;
- The contract;
- The delivery note;
- The professional report, etc.
In these documents, the nature of the service provided must be clearly identified. Essential in this context are: the date and the contracting parties, as well as a description of the service itself.
👀 In the event that the service is provided to or by a person residing in another country, then the invoice to be issued is the one that is not subject to VAT in accordance with Article 7-ter of Law No. 633/1972.
Deferred invoice and super deferred invoice: the differences
In the context of the deferred invoice, there is a small clarification to be made. In addition to the latter, there is an invoice called super deferred invoice.
The super deferred invoice is a special variant provided for in the context of triangular transactions of domestic goods. This means that the super deferred invoice comes into play in the case of a supply of goods or services to a third party acting in the place of the primary customer in the context of a goods or services transaction.
In this case, the issuer may send a super deferred invoice to its customer by the end of the month following the month of delivery of the goods or provision of the service. So, to clarify:
→ The deferred invoice = must be sent by the 15th day of the month following the month in which it was made;
→ The super deferred invoice = must be sent by the end of the month following the month of delivery or provision.
Transactions for which the deferred invoice is applicable
Transactions for which the deferred invoice is applicable are:
- Provision of services in Italy.
- Supply of services in other European Union Member States → as mentioned: it is possible to issue a deferred invoice for services rendered to taxable persons established in the territory of another European Union Member State, not subject to tax pursuant to Article 7-ter of Presidential Decree No. 633/1972.
- Supplies of goods in Italy.
- Supplies of goods in other Member States of the European Union → in the case of intra-Community supplies of goods: the same rules apply as for Italy. The reference date is the date of departure of the transport or dispatch of the goods from Italy (or from the other Member State as regards purchases).
Electronic Deferred Invoice
The deferred invoice can be drafted and sent using electronic invoicing software. The parameters remain the same; with the introduction of electronic deferred invoicing, it has been agreed that the date of issue of any invoice must coincide with the date of supply of the goods or services (Circular 14/E of 2019). Thus, the deferred invoice is an exception.
☝ Very often the doubt arises as to which date to record in the "Date" field of the "General Data" section in the case of several supplies of goods or several supplies of services. Clarification in this regard was provided by the 2019 Interpello No. 389. In it, the following alternatives are presented:
- Date of the last DDT or corresponding document suitable for attesting the service;
- Date of the end of the month (of the month in which the transactions were carried out);
- Date of transmission of the invoice to the SdI, if this is at the same time as its issue (i.e. it can correspond to any day between the date of the last delivery note on the invoice and the 15th day of the following month).
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Article translated from Italian