Esterometro

The Esterometro lets the Italian tax authority capture purchases and sales made by Italian taxpayers with counterparties not established in Italy.

Definition

The Esterometro is Italy's reporting obligation covering cross-border transactions, meaning purchases and sales carried out with counterparties that are neither established nor identified in Italy. It complements domestic e-invoicing, which only covers transactions between Italian parties.

Originally a separate periodic summary return, it now reports data on a transaction-by-transaction basis since 2022.

How it works

Since 2022 the Esterometro is no longer a separate summary file: the information flows through the Sistema di Interscambio (SdI), the same channel as domestic e-invoicing, in FatturaPA (XML) format.

• For outbound sales, the supplier issues an electronic document with a conventional recipient code (for example XXXXXXX).
• For inbound purchases, the Italian buyer generates an integration or self-billing document (integrazione / autofattura) and transmits it to the SdI with the appropriate document type.

Good to know

By unifying the transmission channel, the reform removed a dedicated return: cross-border and domestic transactions now follow the same technical plumbing, and submission deadlines are aligned with those of ordinary e-invoices.

Transactions already documented by an electronic invoice received through the SdI, or by a customs declaration, are generally out of scope.