Closing the VAT number and leaving the Business Register: who, how and by when

Roberto, a photographer who has held a VAT number for ten years, accepts a salaried job at a Verona agency in February 2026, with one €1,800 invoice still to issue and a work computer on his desk. His plan is simple: stop invoicing and let the Revenue Agency close the number sooner or later. It is the wrong plan. The law expects him to report the cessation within thirty days, and only once the business accounts are settled.

When a business has really ceased

Article 35 of the VAT decree, Presidential Decree 633/1972, in the wording that governs 2026, requires anyone who stops trading to report it within thirty days to a Revenue Agency office, on the forms approved by the Agency's director. The same duty applies to any change in the details given at registration.

Paragraph 4 of the same article says when those thirty days start in a cessation: on the date the operations for winding up the business are completed. For those operations the obligations to pay, invoice, record, settle and file stay in force.

Put plainly, closing the VAT number is the last step, not the first. Outstanding invoices must be issued, remaining assets sold or taken over, and the VAT for the final period settled. Only when nothing is left to invoice or settle can the business be called ceased.

Before closing: settling the accounts

Since the deadline runs from the end of the operations, it pays to get there with a checklist. First, invoices: every service rendered or item delivered must be documented while the VAT number is still open, because afterwards there will be no number to do it with.

Second, assets. Stock, equipment and vehicles must either be sold to third parties or treated as taken over for private use, with the VAT and income consequences described in module two. Neither step can be carried out once the VAT number is closed.

Third, the final VAT settlement, which gathers the tax on the last operations. Only after these three steps is the cessation date truly the day the business ended, and only then do the thirty days begin.

Which route: AA9/12, AA7/10 or the single business notice

The Agency's page on form AA9/12 reserves it for individuals carrying on a profession, or another activity that does not require entry in the Business Register or the REA economic register. That covers Roberto, a consultant or a translator: they close with the same form they opened with.

Anyone running a trading or craft business must instead, according to the same page, use the single business notice (Comunicazione Unica), the Infocamere service that closes the VAT number and updates the Business Register or REA in one filing.

Entities other than individuals use form AA7/10, under the same deadline and filing rules. This course mainly follows the individual, whether a professional or the owner of a sole-trader business.

Changing activity is not closing. The Agency's page uses the same form, under the same deadline, for any change to the details declared at the start; the PEC subject line is then «Variazione attività». Someone switching from one activity code to another does not close the VAT number: they update it.

For sole traders, the Romagna Chamber of Commerce FAQ accepts ending one activity without leaving the Business Register only if the same filing reports the new main activity. In every other case, stopping everything means being struck off.

The thirty-day deadline and filing channels

The Agency's page on changing or closing a VAT number repeats the deadline: the form must be filed within thirty days of the cessation. There are four channels, and the one you choose changes which date counts.

By PEC, Italian certified email, to any provincial directorate, with «Cessazione attività» as the subject. The form may carry a digital signature or a handwritten one; in the latter case a copy of the signer's identity document must be attached. The receipt confirming the cessation comes back to the same PEC address.

In person, yourself or via someone you authorise, at any Agency office once you have booked a slot. Or by registered post, with a copy of a valid identity document. Finally, the form can be prepared with the Agency's software and sent from the web service in your reserved area, alone or through an intermediary.

For PEC and registered post the page is explicit: the posting date is what counts, not the day the letter or message reaches the office. Posting on the last day is on time, provided you keep proof of posting.

Leaving the Business Register

The owner of a sole-trader business who stops all activities must ask for it to be struck off the Business Register within thirty days of the event. The Marche Chamber of Commerce page names form I2 as the tool, completed through a deregistration filing in the DIRE software.

Box 15 of the form carries the date on which all the business's activities ceased. Trading businesses also complete the AC/INPS box for social security purposes; craft businesses add form AA to leave the register of craft businesses.

No secretarial fees are due for a sole trader: only stamp duty is paid. If the filing arrives after the thirty days, it must include documents proving that the business really ceased on the stated date.

One detail is worth money: the chamber of commerce annual fee. According to the Romagna Chamber FAQ, to avoid owing it for the following year the cessation must fall on or before 31 December and the filing must reach the register within the next thirty days. Cease on 31 December, file by 30 January.

The same FAQ warns that the registered date cannot be changed: once the business is struck off, its data can no longer be corrected. Nor can a sole trader stay on the register as dormant after ceasing, unless the same filing declares a new main activity.

A business that is not a craft business may instead report a suspension. If it later decides not to resume, it must apply to be struck off, declaring the cessation from the date the suspension began. With local units in other provinces, one application to the head-office register is enough; it informs the others.

If the owner dies

The owner's death ends a sole-trader business. The Romagna Chamber FAQ explains that, craft businesses aside, nobody else can carry it on under the same VAT number and REA number, not even an heir.

One heir holding a digital signature applies for deregistration on grounds of death, using box 15 of form I2. No secretarial fees are due, only stamp duty. Co-heirs cannot be entered in the register as such: whoever wants to continue sets up a new entity and registers it.

Closure by the tax office is not a shortcut

Paragraph 15-quinquies of article 35 lets the Agency close VAT numbers of anyone who, on the data it holds, shows no business, artistic or professional activity for three years in a row. A notice tells the holder that the number has been closed.

A holder who receives the notice but is still trading can prove it by sending documents: using the «Consegna documenti» upload service once logged in, sending a PEC whose subject line says it answers the closure notice, or visiting an office after booking.

Waiting for closure by the office, however, means leaving open for years a position the law asks you to close within thirty days. The provision preserves the tax authorities' powers to audit and assess: the Agency closing the number does not erase what should have been done earlier.

There is also a special case. Paragraphs 15-bis onwards let the office cancel a VAT number after risk checks. Paragraph 15-bis.3 extends the consequences to people who reported a cessation in the previous twelve months: reporting the closure does not shield you from that measure.

In those cases, a new VAT number requires first an insurance or bank guarantee lasting three years and worth at least €50,000, or the amount of any violations if higher. The rule targets sham VAT numbers, not people closing in good faith, but it is worth knowing.

The practical moral is simple. If you have truly stopped working, report the cessation on your own form, on time, and keep the receipt. It is the strongest evidence, should questions arise later, that the closure was orderly and not an abandonment.

The receipt also helps with third parties. Clients, banks or bodies asking for confirmation can check it with the Agency's VAT number verification service; for sole traders, the deregistration will also show in the Business Register.