For ordinary domestic services in Italy, payment generally triggers the invoice event. An immediate e-invoice must normally be sent through SdI within 12 calendar days. For platform income, do not use the bank withdrawal automatically: first identify the customer, underlying service, wallet-credit date, gross amount and any separate platform commission.
Scope and date. This guide describes rules in force on 17 August 2026. Articles 6 and 21 of Presidential Decree 633/1972 remain the principal references through 31 December 2026. Legislative Decree 10/2026 reorganises the VAT rules into a new VAT Consolidated Act applicable from 1 January 2027, so this page is scheduled for review before that date.
Quick summary
- For ordinary services, payment generally triggers the Italian VAT invoicing event under Article 6(3) of Presidential Decree 633/1972.
- An immediate electronic invoice is normally transmitted within 12 calendar days of the transaction date.
- An advance or partial payment generally triggers invoicing for the amount paid; issuing an invoice early can also bring forward the VAT event.
- A deferred invoice by the 15th day of the following month is possible only when the statutory conditions are met, including suitable documentation and the same customer.
- Money arriving in a platform wallet and money later withdrawn to a bank, Wise, PayPal or another account are different events. The withdrawal is not a reliable shortcut for determining sales.
- Before invoicing platform income, identify whether the platform is an intermediary, the customer, a reseller or a self-billing party.
- If the platform is an intermediary, the gross customer sale and the platform commission are normally separate transactions; the net payout is not automatically the invoice amount.
Contents
The short answer: do not invoice the withdrawal automatically
A withdrawal from a platform wallet can combine many underlying transactions: services supplied to different customers, credits released on different dates, refunds, unused balances, commissions and currency conversions. It may also take place days or weeks after the money became available.
For that reason, neither the withdrawal date nor the amount reaching the bank should be treated automatically as the invoice date or invoice value. Start with the underlying service and payment records, not the bank statement alone.
The correct sequence is:
- identify the service and the contractual customer;
- identify the event that made the consideration legally available;
- determine the gross price of that service;
- record the platform fee separately where the platform acts as an intermediary;
- determine the customer's VAT status and country;
- apply the relevant invoice deadline and electronic-reporting procedure.
This distinction is particularly important for tutors, consultants, designers and other freelancers using online marketplaces.
Italy's general rule for services
Article 6(3) of Presidential Decree 633/1972 provides the general VAT timing rule for services: an ordinary service is treated as carried out when the consideration is paid.
This rule is sometimes misunderstood as "invoice whenever you decide to transfer money to your bank." That is not what it says. The question is when payment of the consideration legally occurs under the contractual collection arrangement. Unconditional availability in a wallet may be relevant evidence, but it is not a statutory test applicable identically to every platform.
Advance and partial payments
Article 6(4) also matters. If an invoice is issued, or the consideration is paid in whole or in part, before the normal VAT event, the transaction is treated as carried out on that earlier date for the amount invoiced or paid.
This produces two practical consequences:
- an advance payment or partial payment of the agreed price normally requires an invoice for that amount; a security deposit or contractual deposit must first be classified according to its legal function, as illustrated by the distinction discussed in FiscoOggi's review of Supreme Court judgment 7868/2026;
- issuing a tax invoice before collecting the money can itself bring forward the VAT event.
A pro forma invoice is different. It is a payment request and not the tax invoice itself, provided it is clearly identified and does not purport to be the final fiscal document. Freelancers commonly issue a pro forma before payment and the electronic invoice after the relevant payment event.
The cross-border qualification must come first
The payment rule is the general rule, but it is not the only timing rule in the VAT system. For certain generic cross-border B2B services, Article 6(6) links the event to completion of the service or, for periodic or continuous services, accrual of the consideration. An earlier payment remains relevant for the amount paid.
This is why a reliable workflow identifies the customer and the place-of-supply rule before choosing a date mechanically. Revenue Agency Circular 16/E/2013 explains the completion/accrual rule for the cross-border services covered by Article 6(6). Ruling 389/2019 applies the distinction when determining why the domestic invoice in that case was immediate rather than deferred.
The 12-day electronic-invoice deadline
Under Article 21(4) of Presidential Decree 633/1972, an immediate invoice must be issued within 12 days from the transaction date determined under Article 6.
For an Italian electronic invoice, the date in the invoice's Data field is the transaction date. SdI records the actual transmission time. The file may be sent on the same day or during the following 12-day window.
The 12 days are calendar days. The Italian Revenue Agency has also clarified that transmitting after the twelfth day is late even when the deadline falls on a public holiday; the ordinary rule extending certain tax-administration deadlines does not apply to delivery of the invoice to the customer. See the Revenue Agency publication "Invio tardivo fatture immediate: festa o non festa è sanzionato".
Example: ordinary service paid on 6 August
Assume an ordinary domestic consulting service is paid on 6 August 2026 and no earlier invoice was issued. The invoice date is 6 August, and the electronic invoice must be transmitted through SdI no later than 18 August.
This example does not apply automatically to every foreign B2B service or platform flow. It demonstrates the ordinary rule only.
When a deferred monthly invoice is allowed
Article 21(4)(a) permits a single deferred invoice by the 15th day of the following month for services:
- carried out during the same calendar month;
- supplied to the same customer;
- identifiable through suitable documentation; and
- detailed in the invoice.
The Revenue Agency explains that the supporting evidence does not have to take one prescribed form. Depending on the business, it may include documents proving receipt of payment, contracts, work-delivery or completion records, engagement letters, or other business-specific commercial documents that identify the service, date and parties. Ruling 389/2019 is the key administrative source.
Two limits are frequently missed.
First, a dashboard total covering several customers does not turn them into one customer. Separate customer relationships cannot be collapsed into one invoice merely because a platform paid them in one withdrawal.
Second, an invoice prepared before the relevant payment event is not automatically a deferred invoice. As Ruling 389/2019 explains, early issuance can itself create the VAT event, making the document an immediate invoice that must be transmitted within 12 days of the invoice date.
Payment, wallet credit and bank withdrawal
Online platforms add several dates that can look similar but have different functions.
| Event | What it normally proves | What it does not prove by itself |
|---|
| Customer prepays the platform | The platform received funds | That the freelancer has earned or can withdraw them |
| Service is completed or confirmed | A contractual milestone occurred | The VAT treatment and invoice recipient |
| Platform credits an internal wallet | An amount was allocated to the freelancer | That every platform uses the same legal payment model |
| Freelancer withdraws to a payment account | Funds moved out of the platform | The identity, date and gross value of each underlying sale |
| Bank receives the payout | A bank-account credit occurred | That this was the first moment the freelancer controlled the funds |
There is no sound general rule stating that a freelancer may postpone invoicing until a convenient withdrawal date. No general Revenue Agency ruling establishes that every internal-wallet credit constitutes payment for Article 6 purposes. The conclusion requires a case-by-case review of the platform's role, collection authority, balance restrictions and actual ledger. A credit's unconditional availability can be relevant evidence, but not a universal legal test.
For a defensible file, retain:
- service or lesson confirmations;
- wallet statements showing each credit and adjustment;
- the platform's earnings report;
- commission invoices;
- payout and bank records;
- refund and dispute records;
- the currency and exchange-rate evidence used in the accounts.
The platform logo on the payment does not identify the customer. Read the contractual flow.
| Platform model | Who receives the freelancer's service? | Typical accounting consequence |
|---|
| Payment intermediary or agent | The end customer | Customer sale and platform fee are separate |
| Marketplace acting as disclosed intermediary | The end customer | Gross sale is distinguished from the commission |
| Reseller or merchant of record | The platform | The freelancer may supply the platform, which resells to the end user |
| Corporate programme | Depends on the programme terms | The platform or corporate customer may be the contractual recipient |
| Self-billing arrangement | Customer identified by the contract | Customer issues the invoice on the supplier's behalf, subject to legal requirements |
Ask five questions before creating the customer record:
- Who promises the service to the end user?
- In whose name does the platform collect the money?
- Who sets or legally owes the service price?
- Does the platform issue only a commission invoice, or does it buy the service?
- Is there a valid self-billing agreement?
The answers determine whether an invoice belongs to the student, the platform or another business customer.
Gross sales, commission and net payout
If a platform collects money on behalf of the freelancer, three figures must not be confused:
- gross service price charged to the customer;
- platform commission or service fee;
- net earnings or payout after the fee.
Under an intermediary model, the gross service price and the platform fee normally represent two separate transactions. The net payout is only the arithmetic result of offsetting them. It is therefore not automatically the amount of the sales invoice.
This matters even in the regime forfettario. The forfettario calculates taxable income through a statutory profitability coefficient rather than deducting actual costs line by line, but that does not transform a net payout into gross turnover or eliminate VAT obligations connected with services purchased from a foreign platform.
If the platform is the customer rather than an intermediary, the analysis changes. In that model, the amount contractually owed by the platform may be the freelancer's sale. Do not transfer the gross-versus-net conclusion from one platform model to another.
Preply Marketplace and Preply Business
Preply is a useful example because its public guidance describes two different flows.
Preply Marketplace
Preply's tax guidance for tutors describes Preply as an intermediary connecting tutors and students. Its EU VAT guidance states that Marketplace tutors provide live tutoring services directly to students and that Preply is not treated as the deemed supplier of those lessons.
The distinction is consistent with Article 7(3)(j) of EU Implementing Regulation 282/2011, which expressly provides that "electronically supplied services" do not include teaching services where the course content is delivered by a teacher over the internet or an electronic network via a remote link.
Preply also states that its Earnings Report shows:
Lesson Price, described as sales;Earnings, the tutor's net payout;- student type, Marketplace or Business; and
- student country.
According to Preply's payment guidance, payment for an ordinary lesson is transferred to the tutor's internal wallet when the lesson is confirmed. Moving money later from the wallet to Wise, PayPal, Payoneer or another withdrawal account is a separate step.
The operational conclusion is strong: a withdrawal is not a reliable substitute for the lesson-level data. The Italian tax conclusion still requires a review of when the wallet amount became unconditionally available, the student's status and country, and any refund or dispute rights.
The public guidance reviewed for this article does not specify a complete Italian customer billing-details and invoicing workflow for every Marketplace case. A tutor who lacks the student's required invoicing details should not invent them or invoice Preply by default; the missing data and procedure should be documented and raised with Preply Support.
Preply Business
The Business flow is different. In section 5 of its EU VAT guidance, Preply treats itself as the recipient of the tutor's service for tax and invoicing purposes, while the lesson is delivered to a corporate learner. Preply invoices the business customer and pays the tutor after its commission.
Preply also says that, if the tutor has provided a VAT number, it will generate an invoice for the tutor's services on the tutor's behalf. This is platform generation of the supplier's invoice; whether it constitutes a compliant self-billing arrangement for Italian purposes must be verified. Under Article 224 of the EU VAT Directive, the parties need a prior agreement and an agreed acceptance procedure. The Italian supplier remains responsible for the invoice and for the applicable Italian reporting and recording obligations.
That statement does not prove that every generated document, without further action, satisfies Italian rules on numbering, recording, SdI transmission and cross-border reporting. The tutor should reconcile the self-billed document with the Italian invoice register and verify the procedure used for the specific account.
Preply's commission invoice
Preply treats its service fee as a separate service. For an EU VAT-registered tutor who has added the EU VAT number to the account, Preply says it will issue a service-fee invoice without charging EU VAT and will apply the reverse-charge mechanism. An Italian taxpayer must then determine the applicable Italian integration, self-invoicing and SdI-reporting obligations. The commission document should not be netted away and forgotten.
Trial lessons, unused package lessons and amounts labelled claimed require additional care. Preply's public VAT and payment pages do not explain every timing scenario consistently enough to create a universal Italian rule. These items should remain separately identifiable in the reconciliation.
Foreign customers, VAT place of supply and SdI
Invoice timing and VAT territoriality are separate questions. Before choosing a VAT code, determine whether the customer is a taxable business or a consumer and where that customer is established.
Generic B2B services
For generic B2B services, Article 7-ter generally locates the supply where the business customer is established. When an Italian freelancer supplies a qualifying generic service to an EU or non-EU taxable person, the service can fall outside Italian VAT, and the cross-border timing rules in Articles 6(6) and 21(4)(c)-(d) must be reviewed.
For those transactions, the invoice deadline can be the 15th day of the month following the VAT event, rather than the ordinary 12-day deadline. This is one reason not to use a single slogan for every service invoice.
Live online education supplied to consumers
Live tutoring is not automatically an electronically supplied service, but VAT place-of-supply rules for educational activities made virtually available changed from 1 January 2025. Implemented in Italy by Article 3 of Legislative Decree 180/2024, the amended Article 7-quinquies links B2C educational activities streamed or otherwise made virtually available to the consumer's domicile or residence.
Classification remains essential. A one-to-one live lesson, an automated recorded course, admission to a virtual event and a recognised VAT-exempt educational service are not interchangeable categories. The Italian Revenue Agency's Ruling 409/2022 illustrates why online-course classification requires a factual review.
Electronic reporting for a foreign customer
For transactions with non-established customers, Italian resident or established VAT operators transmit cross-border transaction data through SdI in the FatturaPA XML format. The conventional recipient code is XXXXXXX. Because that code does not deliver the invoice to the foreign customer, provide the customer with a readable copy through the agreed channel.
The Revenue Agency's cross-border reporting guidance confirms that active transaction data is sent within the invoice-issuance deadline. The current technical format is published on the Revenue Agency's electronic invoicing and cross-border data page.
Forfettario and ordinary regimes
The tax regime changes the VAT and income-tax calculation, but it does not make the underlying customer, service or payment event disappear.
| Issue | Regime forfettario | Ordinary VAT regime |
|---|
| Italian VAT on outgoing invoices | Generally not charged under the special regime | Applied unless an exemption, non-taxability or cross-border rule applies |
| Electronic invoicing | Mandatory for all forfettario taxpayers since 1 January 2024, subject to specific statutory exclusions | Mandatory for resident or established operators, subject to specific exclusions |
| Platform commission cost | Not deducted analytically when applying the profitability coefficient | Normally recorded as a cost under the applicable accounting and tax rules |
| Foreign platform service fee | Can still create reverse-charge and VAT-payment obligations | Reverse charge is normally recorded, with input VAT recovery subject to the ordinary rules |
| Timing analysis | Still requires identification of customer, payment and transaction | Same factual analysis, plus ordinary VAT accounting |
The Revenue Agency's 2024 e-invoicing materials confirm the extension of electronic invoicing to all forfettario taxpayers from 2024.
If you are still deciding which structure applies, see our guides to Partita IVA for foreigners and the regime forfettario for foreigners.
For the XML file, transmission process and foreign-customer workflow, see our Italian e-invoice and SdI guide.
Assume a tutor's dashboard shows the following simplified data:
| Record | Amount | Meaning |
|---|
| Lesson Price | USD 25 | Gross price attributed to the lesson |
| Platform service fee | USD 7 | Illustrative 28% Preply commission for a non-trial lesson |
| Earnings | USD 18 | Net amount credited to the tutor |
| Later bank withdrawal | USD 180 | Ten or more wallet items transferred together |
The USD 180 withdrawal is not one USD 180 tutoring sale. It is a payout that must be traced back to its underlying wallet credits.
If the platform was an intermediary for this lesson, the starting point is the USD 25 customer sale and the USD 7 platform service. If the platform was the customer, the contractual amount owed by the platform must be identified instead. The invoice date then follows the Italian rule applicable to that specific supply and payment event.
The example is deliberately simplified. Currency conversion, refunds, disputed lessons, VAT place of supply and self-billing can change the entries. Use one consistent, documented exchange-rate method in the accounting records rather than treating the payout provider's conversion result as the sale price.
Practical invoicing checklist
Before issuing or recording an invoice for platform income, complete this checklist:
- Download the detailed report, not only the payout statement.
- Separate each contractual flow, such as Marketplace and Business.
- Identify the legal customer for every category.
- Classify the customer as B2B or B2C and record the country.
- Identify the service date, payment release and wallet availability date.
- Separate gross sales, platform fees, refunds and net earnings.
- Check whether self-billing applies and whether the resulting document satisfies Italian requirements.
- Determine the VAT territoriality and treatment before choosing an XML nature code.
- Apply the correct deadline: 12 days, the 15th of the following month, or another rule supported by the classification.
- Transmit or report through SdI using the correct customer and recipient data.
- Deliver a readable copy to a foreign customer when SdI cannot deliver it.
- Archive the evidence linking each invoice to the platform ledger and payment records.
Frequently asked questions
No. An annual platform report is not the document that creates or replaces an Italian invoice. It can help reconcile the year's figures, but invoice timing follows the underlying VAT and payment rules.
Do I issue an invoice every time I withdraw money?
Not automatically. A withdrawal may group many services, customers and dates. Reconcile it to the underlying wallet credits and determine the invoice event for each contractual flow.
Do I invoice gross earnings or the amount after commission?
If the platform acts only as an intermediary, the gross customer sale and the platform's commission are normally separate transactions. If the platform is the customer or reseller, use the amount and recipient established by that contract. The net payout alone does not answer the question.
Does a wallet credit count as payment?
It can be relevant, particularly when the funds are unconditionally available for withdrawal, but the label wallet credit is not conclusive. Check whether the amount is conditional, reversible, disputed or restricted and read the platform terms.
Can I issue one monthly invoice instead of one per lesson?
Only when the legal conditions for a deferred invoice are satisfied, including suitable documentation, services in the same month and the same customer. A monthly platform total involving several students cannot automatically be invoiced as one sale to the platform.
Who should receive a Preply invoice: Preply or the student?
For Marketplace lessons, Preply's official guidance says the tutor supplies the student directly. For Preply Business, it says the tutor supplies Preply and, if a VAT number has been provided, Preply will generate an invoice for the tutor's services on the tutor's behalf. The Italian treatment of that platform-generated document must be verified. Do not use one recipient for both flows.
Does the regime forfettario change the 12-day rule?
The forfettario changes VAT and income-tax treatment, not the general need to identify the correct transaction date and issue the document on time. Electronic invoicing has applied to all forfettario taxpayers since 1 January 2024, subject to specific exclusions.
What recipient code is used for a foreign customer?
For Italian cross-border transaction reporting through SdI, the conventional recipient code is XXXXXXX. It does not deliver the invoice abroad, so the customer should also receive a readable copy.
Is live online tutoring an electronically supplied digital service?
Not merely because the internet is used. Article 7(3)(j) of EU Implementing Regulation 282/2011 provides that "electronically supplied services" do not include teaching services delivered by a teacher over the internet or an electronic network via a remote link. Separate 2025 place-of-supply rules for virtual educational activities and any educational exemption must still be considered.
Official and primary sources
Final note
Italian invoice timing is simple only after the transaction has been classified correctly. For a direct domestic service, payment and the 12-day deadline are usually the central rules. For platform income, the work begins one step earlier: identify the customer, the gross sale, the commission, the wallet event and any cross-border rule.
Do not automate invoices from bank withdrawals until that mapping has been documented. If your platform report does not contain enough customer or transaction data, resolve that gap before choosing an invoice recipient or VAT code.
Reviewed on 17 August 2026. This article provides general information and does not replace advice based on your contracts, tax regime and customer data.
Rosario Emmi|August 17, 2026
