Esterometro
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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.
Since 1 July 2022, purchases from abroad are reported with the TipoDocumento codes TD17, TD18 or TD19 (integration or self-billing), for example TD18 for an intra-Community purchase of goods.
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.
The obligation stems from article 1, paragraph 3-bis, of Legislative Decree 127/2015.
Related terms
- TipoDocumento (TD) — TD17, TD18 and TD19 codes used for the esterometro.
- SdI — transmission channel since 2022.