Codice Destinatario: the 7-character SdI address

Every FatturaPA invoice carries a Codice Destinatario (CD), a 7-character alphanumeric code telling the SdI where to deliver the invoice. The CD identifies a reception channel: the recipient's accredited intermediary, their directly connected ERP, or a degraded mode via PEC.

7-character code structure

The CD is an arbitrary identifier assigned by AdE during accreditation. It has no internal semantics (no hierarchy, no encoded suffix), but it must follow three syntactic rules:

• Exactly 7 characters (no leading zeros may be omitted).
• Latin uppercase alphabet A-Z + digits 0-9; no lowercase, no accented characters.
• Either present in the AdE accredited-intermediaries registry, or one of the two special codes.

<DatiTrasmissione>
  <IdTrasmittente>
    <IdPaese>IT</IdPaese>
    <IdCodice>01234567890</IdCodice>
  </IdTrasmittente>
  <ProgressivoInvio>00001</ProgressivoInvio>
  <FormatoTrasmissione>FPR12</FormatoTrasmissione>
  <CodiceDestinatario>M5UXCR1</CodiceDestinatario>
  <PECDestinatario>ufficio@pec.example.it</PECDestinatario>
</DatiTrasmissione>

Special codes: 0000000 and XXXXXXX

The SdI reserves two codes for specific cases where no accredited intermediary is involved.

• 0000000 (seven zeros) — The recipient has no accredited intermediary or wants to receive invoices via PEC. The SdI then reads the PECDestinatario element and delivers the XML by certified email. This mode is still used by ~25% of recipients in 2024 (AdE report).
• XXXXXXX (seven Xs) — Reserved for B2C recipients (end consumers), foreign recipients without an Italian VAT number, and reverse cross-border operations. The invoice is kept by the SdI in the Stanza del Contribuente without active delivery: the recipient retrieves it via the Fatture e Corrispettivi portal.

Accredited intermediaries

The AdE publishes a public registry of accredited intermediaries (~12,000 active codes in early 2024). Major players on the Italian market:

Issuance of a Codice Destinatario requires an accreditation convention with the AdE: the candidate intermediary provides its SSL/TLS certificate, its SDIcoop endpoint and its technical contact. Accreditation is tacitly renewed.

PEC fallback (Posta Elettronica Certificata)

For small issuers and recipients who do not want to accredit themselves or to use a paid intermediary, PEC remains an official channel. PEC is the Italian equivalent of certified registered mail with acknowledgement of receipt (regulated by DPR 68/2005 and the Codice dell'Amministrazione Digitale).

• Sending. The issuer attaches their signed XML to the PEC mail and sends it to sdi01@pec.fatturapa.it (production) or fatturapa@pec.agenziaentrate.it depending on the enrolment channel.
• Receiving side. If CD = 0000000, the SdI relays the signed XML to the declared PEC. PEC is mandatory for any Italian company under Legge 2/2009.
• Limits. Not suitable for volumes > 50 invoices / day; no automated callback to the recipient's ERP; risk of spam-filtering.

Code lookup and QR registry

Several channels allow you to find a recipient's CD before issuing:

1. Fatture e Corrispettivi — every VAT-registered person can check and declare their preferred CD via the Stanza del Contribuente. This is the most reliable official channel.
2. Invoice QR code — any Italian invoice can display an AdE QR code encoding the recipient CD + VAT number + address. The issuing ERP scans it to pre-fill DatiTrasmissione.
3. AdE public API — the AdE exposes a REST endpoint /registroIntermediari to check the validity of a CD, but not to find the CD of a given VAT number (only the recipient can do that).
4. Client-side XSD pre-check. Before sending to the SdI, the ERP should check that the CD has 7 characters and belongs to the allowed alphabet: a scarto for malformed CD is easy to avoid locally.

Errors and scarto codes

Mishandling the Codice Destinatario triggers an SdI Notifica di Scarto (NS). Most common error codes:

Cross-links

• Italy hub — complete e-invoicing mandate
• SdI and FatturaPA — overview
• FatturaPA XML specification
• SDIcoop — cooperative API
• Agenzia delle Entrate portal
• AdE — Fatturazione elettronica
• Legge 2/2009 (mandatory PEC)