After opening: choosing the regime and the obligations that follow

Marta opened her VAT number as an illustrator and forgot to state on the form that she would use the flat-rate scheme. She is still entitled to the scheme, but the omission carries an administrative penalty of 250 € to 2,000 €. The first year with a VAT number is made of choices like this one: few of them, but each to be made at the right moment.

The regime is notified, not requested

With the VAT number comes the first weighty choice: the tax regime. For an individual starting out there are two roads, the flat-rate scheme, called regime forfettario, and the ordinary regime. The ActioFin course on the flat-rate scheme explains its conditions, exclusions and substitute tax; here only what happens at opening matters.

The flat-rate scheme is a default regime. Someone starting an activity who expects to meet its conditions must say so in the start declaration, that is precisely in form AA9/12. That notice is not an election: it is required for registry purposes only, so that the Agenzia knows under which regime you will be working.

Precisely because it is not an election, forgetting it does not close the door to the scheme. The Agenzia's page does state, however, that the omission is punished with an administrative penalty. Confirming that the conditions are met, and that no exclusion applies, happens later, in the annual income tax return.

To find out whether the conditions are met, the ActioFin calculator for the flat-rate requirements compares revenue, staff costs and employment income with the thresholds read on the Agenzia's page, and lists the exclusions to check. It is worth running it before filling in the form, not after the form has gone.

Someone who prefers the ordinary regime, for example because they expect high costs or a lot of VAT to recover on purchases, adopts it by conduct, simply by applying it. The choice must then be flagged in the following annual VAT return and binds for at least three years. The details are in the course on the flat-rate scheme.

Two regimes, two worlds of paperwork

The choice of regime shapes almost everything that follows. The flat-rate taxpayer charges no VAT to clients and recovers none on purchases; they are exempt from settling and paying the tax, from the annual VAT return and from recording invoices, receipts and purchases. The ordinary regime brings all of these duties with it.

The flat-rate taxpayer does keep some duties, though. They number and keep purchase invoices and customs documents, certify their receipts and, for transactions where they are the person liable for the tax, supplement the invoices and pay the VAT. For domestic transactions, moreover, they issue and receive electronic invoices like everyone else.

For someone opening, the table below is also a decision tool: it does not say which regime pays off, but how much administrative work each one involves. The cost of that work, in your own time or in an accountant's fees, belongs in the comparison as much as the tax you will owe at the end of the year.

VAT settlements: monthly or quarterly

Under the ordinary regime the VAT number holder settles and pays the tax at regular intervals. Settling means working out the difference between the VAT on the sales of a period and the VAT on the purchases of the same period for which recovery is claimed. If the balance is payable, it is paid with form F24, online only.

For most taxpayers the settlement is monthly: by the 16th of each month the VAT of the previous month is worked out and paid. Someone who started invoicing in March, for instance, settles March VAT by 16 April, and carries on in the same way month after month for the rest of the year.

Quarterly settlement is an option, not a duty. It is open to those whose turnover in the previous calendar year did not exceed 500,000 euros, for the self-employed and service businesses, or 800,000 euros for other businesses. In return, the VAT due is increased by 1 % by way of interest.

Quarterly filers settle and pay the VAT of the first three quarters by the 16th of the second following month: 16 May, 16 August and 16 November. The fourth quarter is settled by 16 March of the following year. The guidance adds that the 1 % surcharge does not apply to the December advance.

The ActioFin calculator for periodic settlements runs this computation for a month or a quarter, with the due date and any surcharge. The ActioFin course on computing, settling and paying VAT goes into the detail, from the registers to form F24: here it is enough to know what to write in the calendar on the day you open.

The December advance

By 27 December every year, VAT number holders pay an advance: on the amount due for December if they settle monthly, or for the fourth quarter if they settle quarterly. It can be worked out with the historical, analytical or forecast method, some categories are exempt, and it too is paid online with form F24.

The advance can be offset against any tax or contribution credits the taxpayer holds. The ActioFin calculator for the VAT advance compares the calculation methods; in the first year of activity it is worth checking carefully which method is really available, because the historical one assumes that there is a previous year to look back on.

The report of periodic settlements

Settling and paying is not enough. VAT taxable persons must also send the Agenzia a summary of their periodic settlements, using the form «Comunicazione delle liquidazioni periodiche IVA», which many call LIPE. The duty comes from article 21-bis of decree-law 78/2010, which the Agenzia's page cites.

The report goes in every quarter, online only, filed yourself or via an approved intermediary, no later than the final day of the second month following the quarter. The second quarter is the exception, due by 30 September. The fourth may be included in the annual VAT return, which must then be filed by the end of February.

• First quarter: payment by 16 May, report by 31 May
• Second quarter: payment by 16 August, report by 30 September
• Third quarter: payment by 16 November, report by 30 November
• Fourth quarter: payment by 16 March of the following year; report by the end of February, possibly within the annual VAT return

Monthly filers also report their settlements by quarter, with the same deadlines. If the deadline falls on a Saturday or a public holiday, it moves to the next working day. Someone with nothing to report sends nothing, unless they need to show a credit carried over from the previous quarter.

Those who do not have to file the annual VAT return or carry out periodic settlements are exempt, as long as the conditions for the exemption hold for the whole year. The Agenzia's flat-rate page declares that taxpayer exempt from settling and paying VAT, so they fall within this exemption.

The ActioFin page on the report of periodic VAT settlements walks through its completion step by step. What matters at opening is to enter two dates per quarter in the calendar, the payment and the report, which never fall on the same day and are easy to confuse.

Electronic invoicing from the first invoice

Since 1 January 2019, invoices for supplies of goods and services between persons resident or established in Italy may only be electronic, whether between two VAT-registered parties or to a final consumer. They travel through the Sistema di Interscambio, the SdI, for which a new VAT number holder must be ready before the very first invoice.

For customers abroad the electronic invoice is optional: whoever does not issue one sends the transaction data to the Agenzia through the so-called esterometro, subject to the exceptions listed in the Agenzia's guide. The ActioFin course on electronic invoicing and the SdI explains how an invoice is prepared, sent and stored.

The flat-rate taxpayer also issues electronic invoices for domestic transactions, without VAT and with the wording that refers to the scheme. A professional in that scheme further states that the fee is not subject to withholding at source and fills in the box of their own pension fund. The ActioFin page on invoicing through the SdI builds on this.

Withholding tax on fees

A professional on the ordinary regime billing a company, or any other client that acts as withholding agent, suffers withholding tax on the fee, which the client keeps back and pays over on their behalf. It is an advance on IRPEF, recovered later in the tax return: the ActioFin course on withholding tax explains how it works.

The flat-rate taxpayer is not subject to withholding on the revenue or fees they collect. To obtain this, they give the paying client a statement confirming that their income bears the substitute tax. It is sensible to draft that statement once and for all and send it with the first invoice to every new client.

The first-year calendar

Lining up the obligations helps you avoid being caught out by them. At opening, a professional under the ordinary regime already knows there will be a fixed VAT date every month or every quarter, a report at the end of the second month after each quarter, an advance in December and the annual VAT return.

The flat-rate taxpayer has a lighter VAT calendar, but not an empty one: electronic invoices to issue and receive, VAT to pay on transactions where they are liable, and then the substitute tax with its balance and advances, covered in the dedicated course. Social security contributions, for both, are a separate chapter.

Contributions deserve a clear sentence. The VAT number is a tax formality; the social security position, with INPS or with a professional pension fund, follows its own rules and deadlines. This course gives no amounts and no rates: the circulars that set them are documents we could not read, and a figure that has not been read is not written.

The rules described are those served by the Agenzia delle Entrate's pages as read on 24 September 2026, for the 2026 tax year. The consolidated VAT act approved by legislative decree no. 10 of 2026 will replace Presidential Decree 633/1972 on a date we have not read: the deadlines will need checking again once it applies.