Italian VAT Number (Partita IVA): Who Needs One, How to Get It, How to Check It

What is an Italian VAT number (partita IVA)?

The 11-digit code and where it has to appear

Eleven digits, no more and no fewer. The Agenzia delle Entrate describes the partita IVA as an 11-digit code that must appear on every invoice or other commercial document issued or received in the course of the activity. Art. 35(1) D.P.R. 633/1972 extends the list to the VAT returns, the company website home page and every other document a rule requires.

Who issues it and on what legal basis

One body attributes the number, the Agenzia delle Entrate. The ordinary route sits in Art. 35 D.P.R. 633/1972, which obliges anyone starting a business, artistic or professional activity in Italy, or setting up a permanent establishment there, to declare it within 30 days. A non-resident identifying directly uses Art. 35-ter instead. The Agenzia states the same rules in English on its VAT registration in Italy page.

partita IVA and codice fiscale: two identifiers that often look identical

Two identifiers circulate in Italy, and for a company they usually look like one. In a visura camerale (chamber extract) the register prints a single field, "Codice fiscale/Partita IVA", and the Agenzia publishes one 11-digit identifier for itself in its own site footer. Read that as observed practice rather than a statutory rule: no provision says the two always coincide.

What a partita IVA is not

Three misreadings need clearing away. A partita IVA has nothing to do with the VAT refund a tourist claims on leaving Italy. A number cannot be bought or moved between businesses: the Agenzia says it cannot be transferred from one business to another, and the European Commission warns that only tax administrations issue VAT numbers. And the number survives a change of tax domicile, staying until the activity ceases.

Do you actually need an Italian VAT number?

When a foreign business does not need to register at all

Start with the branch that removes the problem. Foreign operators are not required to register for Italian VAT where their Italian customers are exclusively other VAT-taxable persons established in Italy. The mechanism is the reverse charge, or inversione contabile: under Art. 17, comma 2 D.P.R. 633/1972 the obligations on a non-resident's supplies to a taxable person established in Italy are met by the buyer. A pure B2B supplier can trade into Italy without a number.

When registration becomes unavoidable

The same rule read backwards gives the trigger. Once the activity also reaches final consumers, or persons holding no partita IVA, the obligation arises. Art. 35(1) adds the general criterion: starting a business, artistic or professional activity in Italy, or setting up a stabile organizzazione (permanent establishment) there. The Commission frames the EU-level triggers the same way, from a taxable supply to an intra-Community acquisition and to services on which the recipient owes the tax.

The four possible answers, in order

Four outcomes exist, running from the lightest to the heaviest.

1. No Italian number. All your Italian customers are Italian VAT-taxable persons, and the buyer discharges the obligations (Art. 17, comma 2).
2. Direct identification. You carry on business in another EU member state, or in a third country with legal instruments on mutual assistance in indirect taxation. Form ANR/3 under Art. 35-ter, filed before the first transaction.
3. A fiscal representative. Open to every non-resident, and the only route left when direct identification is not available. The representative is jointly and severally liable (Art. 17, comma 3).
4. A stabile organizzazione. Any non-resident may establish one, and it registers for VAT as a resident does. Choosing it switches the first two routes off (Art. 17, comma 4).

How to place your own case on the tree

Three questions settle it, in order. Are all your Italian customers Italian VAT-taxable persons? A clean yes ends the enquiry. Are you established in another EU member state, or in a third country with mutual-assistance instruments in indirect taxation? A yes points at direct identification; a no leaves the fiscal representative, unless you would rather build a permanent establishment. On the second question we give the criterion rather than a country list: Art. 35-ter(5) refers to the instruments themselves, and the Agenzia publishes no roster of qualifying states.

How does a non-resident register directly under Art. 35-ter?

Who qualifies for direct identification

Identificazione diretta (direct VAT identification) is not open to everyone. Art. 35-ter(5) D.P.R. 633/1972 restricts it to non-residents carrying on an activity in another EU member state, or in a third country with which legal instruments on mutual assistance in indirect taxation exist. The Agenzia words the same limit as EU countries plus third countries covered by reciprocity agreements. Either way the operator stays a non-resident for VAT purposes.

Form ANR/3 and the Pescara operating centre

Filing runs through a single office. The form is ANR/3, and the Agenzia's instructions on how ANR/3 is filed send it exclusively to the Centro operativo di Pescara, via Rio Sparto n. 21, 65100 Pescara.

1. Complete ANR/3 with the applicant's particulars and the activity to be carried on.
2. Attach a copy of the applicant's identity document.
3. Attach a certificate of VAT taxable status issued in the country of belonging.
4. Deliver it in person or through a proxy, or send it by registered post.

A declaration sent by post counts as filed on the day of dispatch.

Timing: before the first transaction, not within 30 days after

Timing separates this route from every other. Art. 35-ter(1) requires the application before carrying out the transactions for which direct identification is chosen. Nothing here resembles the ordinary 30-day window, which runs after an Italian business has started trading, and reversing the sequence sends the first invoice out from an operator who is not yet identified.

What the number itself looks like

Art. 35-ter(3) calls the assigned number a special one: besides identifying the taxpayer it marks the status of a non-resident identified in Italy, and it must be quoted in returns and in any other act that requires it. We publish no specimen and no breakdown of the digits, because no Italian primary source sets out the structure of the code.

Changes and cessation go on the same form

The same form carries the later events. Changes to a non-resident's data go on ANR/3 within 30 days under Art. 35-ter(4), and the cessation of the activity is reported on it too.

When do you need an Italian fiscal representative instead?

How the appointment is made

Rappresentante fiscale (fiscal representative) has no eligibility filter: every non-resident may use it, from the EU and from third countries alike. The appointment takes one of three forms, a public deed, a registered private document, or a letter entered in a special register at the Agenzia office for the representative's tax domicile. Form AA7/10 is then filed for a company, AA9/12 for an individual.

Joint and several liability, and the notice to your counterparty

Liability turns this route into a negotiation. Art. 17, comma 3 makes the representative jointly and severally liable with the person represented, and requires the counterparty to be notified of the appointment before the transaction is carried out, so your Italian buyer knows from the first invoice that a local person stands behind the tax.

Who may act as a representative

Not everyone can take the role. The representative has to satisfy the subjective requirements of Art. 8(1)(a) to (d) D.M. 31 maggio 1999 n. 164, and where a legal entity is appointed, its legal representative must meet them. The same comma provides for admission only against an adequate guarantee, graduated among other things by the number of persons represented, on criteria set by a decree of the Ministry of Economy and Finance.

Extra conditions for non-EU and non-EEA principals

Principals from outside the EU and the EEA meet an extra layer. The declaration of the start of activity goes exclusively to the Ufficio Direzione Provinciale for the representative's tax domicile, with a declaration that the requirements of D.M. 164/1999 are met and the guarantee under Art. 17, comma 3, in the manner set by Provvedimento of the Director of the Agenzia of 17 aprile 2025, prot. n. 186368. We quote no amount: the figures have to be read from the provvedimento itself.

What changes if you set up a stabile organizzazione?

A permanent establishment registers as a resident

Stabile organizzazione is the third answer and structurally the heaviest. Any non-resident may set one up in Italy, and once it exists it registers for VAT as a resident: the same forms, the same channels, the same deadlines an Italian company faces.

Reverse charge and representative rules switch off

Choosing it closes the other doors. Art. 17, comma 4 provides that the reverse charge rules and the appointment of a representative do not apply to transactions carried out through a permanent establishment in Italian territory. A group that keeps a representative in place after opening one is running two incompatible regimes.

What the application must state additionally

The application also grows. Art. 35(2)(c) requires persons registered abroad to state, on top of the ordinary particulars, the location of the permanent establishment in Italy.

How does an Italian company get its VAT number?

Which form applies: AA7/10 or AA9/12

Two forms cover the resident route. AA7/10 serves persons other than individuals, so every S.r.l. and S.p.A. uses it; AA9/12 serves individuals, meaning a ditta individuale or a liberal profession. Both ask for an activity code from the ATECO 2025 classification.

Comunicazione Unica: one filing, four registrations

Comunicazione Unica (single business filing) does the work of four registrations at once. Anyone required to be entered in the Registro delle Imprese or the REA files AA7/10 or AA9/12 inside it, and the package discharges the register, the Agenzia delle Entrate, INPS and INAIL together, returning the codice fiscale, the partita IVA and both social security positions. Art. 35(8) closes the loop: the register office notifies the taxpayer of the number the Agenzia has attributed electronically. One note on names: the procedure is Comunicazione Unica and remains in force, while the desktop tool that carried the ComUnica name has been retired in favour of DIRE and market software.

Filing without ComUnica: PEC, in person, registered letter

Businesses outside the register file on their own. A liberal professional sends AA9/12 within 30 days of the date the activity starts, through one of three channels: certified email (PEC) with "Dichiarazione di inizio attività" in the subject line, in person or by proxy on appointment, or registered post. The declaration counts as filed on the day of dispatch, and the number comes back to the same PEC address.

The certificato di attribuzione: Italy's VAT registration certificate

The certificato di attribuzione della partita IVA (certificate of attribution of the VAT number) is Italy's VAT registration certificate. Under Art. 35(7) D.P.R. 633/1972 the office issues or sends the taxpayer a certificate attesting the attribution of the number, or a notified change or cessation of activity.

Art. 35(1) adds a formal point: the declaration must be made on the models approved by provvedimento of the Director of the Agenzia, on pain of nullity.

Where the VAT number sits in the incorporation timeline

The notary files the incorporation deed with the register within 10 days (Art. 2330 c.c.), legal personality arises from the entry (Art. 2331 c.c.), and the general deadline for applying for entry is 30 days (Art. 2196 c.c.). The Comunicazione Unica package carries the VAT application inside that chain. No primary source gives a service level for the attribution itself, so we quote none. If you would rather have the sequence run for you, our incorporation service covers it end to end.

How do you check an Italian VAT number?

Verifica partita Iva: national validity and the holder's name

Italy runs a free public check because the statute demands one. Art. 35-quater D.P.R. 633/1972 obliges the Agenzia, to counter VAT fraud, to let any person check free of charge the validity of a number attributed under Art. 35 or Art. 35-ter, its activity status and the name of the entity, or the surname and first name of an individual. The data comes from the anagrafe tributaria (tax registry), and the tool sits on the Agenzia's Verifica partita Iva page.

Controllo partite Iva comunitarie (VIES): the intra-EU right

A second service answers a different question. Controllo partite Iva comunitarie, known as VIES, checks whether the holder may carry out intra-Community transactions. Ownership explains the result: VIES belongs to the European Commission and works as a search engine over the national databases rather than as a database of its own, returning a binary answer from the member state queried at that moment.

An "invalid" result in VIES does not mean the Italian VAT number does not exist.

Why VIES can say "invalid" for a number that exists

An "invalid" answer carries three possible meanings, and only one of them is the alarming one.

• The number does not exist.
• The number exists but has not been activated for intra-Community transactions.
• The registration is not yet complete, because some EU countries require a separate registration for intra-Community trade.

An "invalid" result in VIES therefore does not prove that an Italian VAT number is fictitious. Before treating a counterparty as fake, run the same number through the national Verifica partita Iva service, which answers on national validity alone, and read the two results together. Your Europe sets out the three cases in the same terms.

A third cross-check: the Business Register

A third cross-check exists for companies. The Registro delle Imprese prints the identifier in a single "Codice fiscale/Partita IVA" field in the visura camerale, next to the certified email address, the registered office, the legal form and the capital. Searching by company name rather than by number is what the register is for, and company search in Italy explains how.

Only tax administrations issue VAT numbers

In the Commission's own words: only tax administrations may issue a VAT number. The European Commission publishes it because businesses receive offers to obtain a number against an advance payment, on forms designed to resemble official EU documents.

How Italian numbers fit the EU picture

Italian numbers sit inside an EU-wide pattern. A VAT number begins with the code of the country concerned, followed by a block of digits or characters, and each EU country uses its own format. One number is not valid across the whole Union, so supplying in several member states may require a number in each. For intra-EU purposes the Italian number carries the IT country prefix, and we give no specimen.

How do you get into VIES, and how do you lose it?

Inclusion is an option, not an automatic consequence

Holding a partita IVA does not put you in VIES. Inclusion in the archivio VIES is an option, expressed in the dichiarazione di inizio attività (declaration of commencement of activity) or later by telematic means, alone or through an authorised intermediary. In practice it is a box in the "Operazioni Intracomunitarie" field of quadro I on form AA7 or AA9. Non-residents filing ANR/3 and persons identified through a representative may request it too, and withdrawal works only through the telematic services.

Inclusion takes effect immediately

Timing is the good news. Art. 35(2)(e-bis) and Art. 35(7-bis) give immediate inclusion in the database of taxpayers carrying out intra-Community transactions under Art. 17 Regolamento (CE) n. 904/2010, and the Agenzia confirms that the number enters VIES at the moment the option is received.

Four quarters without Intrastat and you are out

Losing the status is quieter than gaining it. Where no elenchi riepilogativi (recapitulative statements, the Intrastat filings) have been submitted for four consecutive quarters after inclusion, Art. 35(7-bis) presumes the intention to trade intra-Community has lapsed. Exclusion follows a notice and takes effect from the 60th day after its date. VIES status is held by filing, not by having registered once.

The guarantee condition for non-EU principals

Non-EU principals meet the guarantee again. Where a person established outside the EU or the EEA operates through a fiscal representative, inclusion in VIES happens only once an adequate guarantee has been provided, on the arrangements set by Provvedimento of the Director of the Agenzia of 14 aprile 2025, prot. n. 178713. Art. 35(7-quater) also makes the representative check that the client's documentary pack is complete. Amounts stay unquoted.

Why VIES matters commercially

Commercially, VIES is not paperwork. Art. 41(2-ter) D.L. 331/1993 makes an intra-Community supply exempt only where the buyer has communicated the number assigned to him by another member state and the supplier has completed the recapitulative statement, or duly justified its absence. A missing tick in quadro I can turn a zero-rated supply into a taxable one.

What are Italian VAT rates and what do you file after registration?

Standard 22 % and the reduced 10, 5 and 4 % rates

Art. 16 D.P.R. 633/1972 sets the standard rate at 22 %, with reduced rates of 4 %, 5 % and 10 % for the goods and services in parts II, II-bis and III of table A annexed to the decree. The Agenzia's examples: 4 % on foodstuffs and agricultural produce, 5 % on certain foodstuffs, 10 % on domestic electricity and gas, medicines and housing renovation works. Rates as at 9 September 2026: Normattiva shows the current text of Art. 16 with a validity window running to 31 December 2026. EU rules bar a standard rate below 15 % or a reduced rate below 5 %.

Monthly by the 16th, or quarterly with 1 % added

Most taxpayers settle monthly. The Agenzia's Paying VAT page puts the calculation and the payment on form F24 online, due by the 16th of each month. Quarterly settlement is open where the previous year's turnover (volume d'affari) was no more than EUR 400 000 for services or EUR 700 000 for other activities: payment then falls on the 16th of the second month after each of the first three quarters, on 16 March of the following year for the fourth, and 1 % interest is added. Where the tax due does not exceed EUR 100, Art. 7(1)(a) D.P.R. 542/1999 carries it into the next quarter, and no later than 16 November.

The December advance and the quarterly LIPE

Two more dates sit outside the monthly rhythm. The acconto IVA (advance VAT payment) falls due by 27 December, calculated on the historical, the analytical or the forecast method, and quarterly filers pay it without the 1 % surcharge. The LIPE, the communication of the periodic VAT settlements under Art. 21-bis D.L. 78/2010, goes in quarterly and online, by the last day of the second month after each quarter.

The annual VAT return: 1 February to 30 April

The annual VAT return is filed electronically between 1 February and 30 April (Art. 8(1) D.P.R. 322/1998). Holders with no taxable transactions in the year still file it, and so do non-residents who registered directly or through a representative, along with permanent establishments of non-residents.

Registers and ten-year retention

Two registers underpin all of it: the registro delle fatture emesse for invoices issued and the registro degli acquisti for purchases. Invoices below EUR 300 in a calendar month may be recorded cumulatively through a single summary document. Records and invoices are kept for ten years from the date of the last entry (Art. 2220 c.c.). Keeping that machinery running month after month is what ongoing compliance support means in practice.

Italian VAT deadlines, thresholds and penalties at a glance

Does a partita IVA drag you into electronic invoicing?

Who must issue e-invoices through the SDI

Every person resident or established in Italy who holds a partita IVA issues electronic invoices through the Sistema di Interscambio for transactions with other persons resident or established in Italy. Art. 1(3) D.Lgs. 127/2015 leaves no paper alternative between them, and the obligation has run since 1 January 2019. Formats, SDI codes and intermediaries form a subject of their own, covered in electronic invoicing in Italy.

The identified but not established non-resident

A person merely identified for VAT in Italy, without being established there, falls outside the phrase "resident or established in Italy" as framed by the Agenzia's wording of the obligation. Take that as the Agenzia's framing rather than an express exemption: no provision states an exemption in terms.

Cross-border reporting and the EUR 5 000 carve-out

Cross-border transactions still report. Data on transactions with persons not established in Italy travels through the SDI: outgoing ones within the invoicing deadlines, incoming ones by the 15th of the month following receipt of the document or the transaction. Carve-outs apply, among them purchases of no more than EUR 5 000 per transaction that are not taxable in Italy on territorial grounds. One prohibition runs the other way: healthcare services to final consumers may not be invoiced through the SDI at all.

When can a small or foreign business stay outside Italian VAT?

The EUR 10 000 distance-selling threshold

Distance sellers have a floor before Italian VAT bites. Under Art. 41(1)(b) D.L. 331/1993 intra-Community distance sales stay taxed in the country of dispatch where the supplier is established in one member state only and the combined total of B2C services to other EU countries and of distance sales neither exceeded EUR 10 000 last calendar year nor does so this year. Opting into taxation in the country of destination binds you for at least two years.

OSS and IOSS: one filing instead of many registrations

OSS and IOSS remove registrations rather than obligations. Both are optional, both settle the VAT owed across several EU countries electronically from one of them, and both apply exclusively to sales and services to final consumers in the EU. IOSS covers distance sales of imported goods worth no more than EUR 150.

The cross-border SME exemption and the "EX" number

A newer regime helps small foreign sellers. Since 1 January 2025, under Direttiva UE 2020/285, a regime transfrontaliero di franchigia (cross-border SME exemption) lets a small business established in another member state operate without the VAT obligations of the other states. The Italian conditions in Art. 70-quaterdecies, framed for an individual taxpayer, are EU turnover of no more than EUR 100 000 in the previous year and turnover in Italy of no more than EUR 85 000, with no sectoral thresholds, plus identification through an "EX" number issued exclusively in the state of establishment.

Italy's domestic regime forfetario

Italy's domestic equivalent is narrower. The regime forfetario (flat-rate scheme) is open only to individuals with receipts of no more than EUR 85 000, so an S.r.l. cannot use it, and the EUR 85 000 figure should not be carried across to a company.

What can go wrong: penalties, forced closure and getting a number back

Late or inaccurate filing: EUR 500 to EUR 2 000

Filing late, or filing wrong, has a statutory price. Art. 5(6) D.Lgs. 471/1997 puts the penalty for failing to file, or for filing incomplete or inaccurate declarations of commencement or change of activity under Art. 35 and 35-ter, at EUR 500 to EUR 2 000. Correcting the breach within 30 days of the office's invitation cuts it to one fifth of the minimum.

Automated risk checks follow attribution

Attribution is not the end of the scrutiny. Art. 35(15-bis) provides that the attribution of a number automatically triggers automated risk checks and possible visits to the place of business. A negative outcome produces an order terminating the number and removes it from the database of intra-Community operators.

Three years of inactivity and the number closes itself

Dormancy closes a number on its own. Under Art. 35(15-quinquies) the Agenzia closes the numbers of persons who, on the data available to it, carried on no business, artistic or professional activity in the preceding three years. A foreign structure kept alive "just in case" is the profile that gets caught by it.

Getting a new number after a forced closure

Getting a number back after a compulsory closure costs security. Art. 35(15-bis.2) allows a new number to the same person only against a bank guarantee or an insurance surety running three years and covering at least EUR 50 000, or the assessed sums where those are higher.

Changes of data and the 60-day rule

Ordinary changes have their own clock. Art. 35(3) requires a fresh declaration within 30 days of any change to the elements declared, and on the cessation of the activity; where the change moves the tax domicile, it takes effect from the 60th day. The number itself, meanwhile, cannot pass to another business.

From our practice: what non-residents get wrong first

The registration that was not needed

Applications reach us for numbers nobody was obliged to obtain. A foreign supplier selling only to Italian VAT-registered businesses is covered by the reverse charge, so the first question on any file is who the Italian customers actually are.

The Pescara filing that went to the wrong office

ANR/3 filings still land on the wrong desk. The instinct is to send the form to the provincial directorate that handles everything else, and it comes back: only the Centro operativo di Pescara accepts it.

The VIES tick nobody remembered to put

The VIES box is the omission we see most often. Holding a partita IVA says nothing about intra-Community trading rights, and the tick in quadro I is a separate decision taken at registration. The gap surfaces on the first intra-Community supply, when the buyer runs the number through VIES and reads back "invalid".

Accuracy note: the IVA rates above are given as they stand in Art. 16 D.P.R. 633/1972 on the update date of this page, and Normattiva records a validity window for that text running to 31 December 2026. Individual situations turn on facts, so check yours before acting on a general rule.

Frequently asked questions about the Italian VAT number