Since 2021, commercial documents have permanently replaced sales receipts and tax receipts in Italy. Commercial documents are now the only valid tool for certifying sales and transmitting payments to the Italian Revenue Agency. Their introduction represents a step toward digitization. This affects every business that completes transactions with individuals—both in-store and online.

It is important for businesses to understand how commercial documents work to comply with tax obligations, avoid penalties, and simplify the management of daily operations. For online businesses, commercial documents are intertwined with ecommerce regulations and require appropriate tools to generate and transmit data correctly.

This article explains commercial documents, including how they work, who is required to issue them, and how to do so. We also describe how regulations of commercial documents have developed and how they relate to digital sales, including one of the most important requirements for businesses in Italy.

What’s in this article?

• What are commercial documents in Italy?
  
• How commercial documents work
  
• Who must issue commercial documents, and what issuance methods are available?
  
• Commercial documents for online sales
  
• Current legislation for commercial documents
  
• How Stripe Payments can help
  

What are commercial documents in Italy?

A commercial document is a fiscal instrument that has—as of January 1, 2021—permanently replaced traditional receipts and tax receipts in Italy. Commercial documents were introduced gradually. Initially, only certain businesses with specific turnover volumes were required to use them. Then, this requirement extended to all businesses.

Commercial documents can help businesses in two ways:

• Help fight tax evasion
  
• Simplify business by digitizing payments
  

Today, when a business makes a sale in either a brick-and-mortar or ecommerce store, it no longer has to issue a paper receipt or tax receipt. Instead, it issues a commercial document that is valid for tax purposes.

One of the main changes concerns electronic transmission. Commercial document data is sent directly to the Italian Revenue Agency via the electronic cash register, which retailers can install or use through special certified software. This has made the traditional concepts of a “sales receipt” and “tax receipt” obsolete and replaced them with a single, standardized document.

Many business operators still refer to online tax receipts when discussing online commercial documents, especially in distance selling. However, from a technical perspective, online tax receipts no longer exist today. Instead, there is a single commercial document that can also be issued in electronic format.

Paper or electronic commercial documents

Commercial documents can be issued either on paper or in electronic format. This must be agreed upon with the customer. In both cases, the documents retain the same fiscal validity. For instance, in a physical store, it is more common to deliver a paper printout. With ecommerce, it is now standard practice to send a commercial document online in digital format (e.g., portable document format [PDF] or email).

Mandatory content for commercial documents

Every commercial document—whether paper or electronic—must contain this mandatory information:

• Identification details of the business owner (e.g., name, value-added tax [VAT] number, address)
  
• Sequential number and date of issuance
  
• Time of issuance
  
• Description of goods or services sold
  
• Quantity and price of goods or services
  
• VAT rate applied and corresponding amount
  
• Total amount payable
  
• Applicable discounts or promotions
  
• Method of payment (e.g., cash, card, online)
  
• Receipt lottery code, if provided by the customer
  

What is the difference between a commercial document and a tax receipt?

Tax receipts were paper-based only and were not transmitted electronically to the Italian Revenue Agency. However, commercial documents have replaced them since 2021. These documents can be issued in paper or electronic format, and their data is automatically sent to the Italian Revenue Agency, ensuring greater transparency and fiscal validity.

How commercial documents work

To understand how commercial documents work, it is important to distinguish between the time of issuance and the time of tax data transmission.

Issuance to customers

When selling a product or service in Italy, you are required to provide the customer with a commercial document certifying the purchase. This document can be printed or transmitted electronically (e.g., via email or PDF). It must include information such as the date, time, details of the goods or services, VAT rate applied, and total amount. This process is often referred to as “creating an online receipt.”

Transmission to the Italian Revenue Agency

Upon issuance, the commercial document data must be transmitted electronically to the Italian Revenue Agency. This operation can take place in several ways:

• Electronic cash register
  This is the approved device that automatically stores and sends daily receipts. In the event of a malfunction, manual transmission can be carried out within 12 days of the transaction, as required by current legislation.
  
• Italian Revenue Agency’s online procedure
  This is accessible from the reserved area of the Invoices and Payments portal and is useful for those who issue documents on an occasional basis.
  
• Certified management software
  This software integrates tax data submission with sales and payment management—a solution widely used for ecommerce. These programs allow you to automate the entire process—from sales to issuing online commercial documents to transmitting receipts to the Italian Revenue Agency. In practice, every transaction recorded in the management system automatically generates the commercial document and sends the data in real time, reducing manual errors and ensuring full tax compliance.
  

Transmission ensures that every online or paper commercial document is recorded in the Italian Revenue Agency’s systems. This ensures traceability and correct accounting of payments.

Fiscal validity

Commercial documents are fully valid for tax purposes and can replace invoices, unless the customer explicitly requests one. In that case, you can issue an electronic invoice linked to the original commercial document.

Online commercial documents have the same function as documents issued in brick-and-mortar stores. The difference involves delivery to the customer. In ecommerce, for instance, online commercial documents are sent with the order or made available on the company’s website.

Who must issue commercial documents, and what issuance methods are available?

Commercial documents must be issued by all businesses or professionals that sell goods or provide services to individuals via any sales channel. Therefore, the following must comply with this obligation:

• Brick-and-mortar stores, bars, restaurants, hotels, and handicraft businesses
  
• Professionals who operate without the obligation to issue an invoice for each transaction
  
• Ecommerce businesses and marketplaces that sell online to private customers
  

To comply with regulations, these businesses and professionals must have systems that can electronically generate and transmit transaction information. These can include the following:

• An electronic cash register connected to the Italian Revenue Agency (mandatory for most brick-and-mortar businesses)
  
• The free online procedure available on the Invoices and Payments portal
  
• Management software or an integrated ecommerce platform that allows for automatic creation and issuance of commercial documents online
  

These solutions allow business owners to issue commercial documents in the format best suited to their businesses, including paper-based or digital. They can also help businesses fulfill transmission obligations without performing manual operations. This can allow businesses to easily manage both in-store and online sales, while remaining fully compliant with Italian tax regulations.

When is a tax receipt not mandatory?

Tax receipts—now replaced by commercial documents—are not mandatory when the transaction is certified by an electronic invoice. They are also not mandatory for certain categories of exempt individuals. For instance, they are not mandatory for those operating under preferential tax regimes—such as the flat-rate scheme, in some cases—or those carrying out marginal, noncontinuous activities. In all other cases, the issuance of commercial documents is mandatory.

Commercial documents for online sales

Online sales involve both ecommerce regulations and the obligation to issue commercial documents.

When making online sales with electronic receipts, businesses are required to generate online commercial documents for each transaction. This is similar to transactions in brick-and-mortar stores. However, online sales do not involve paper receipts. Instead, businesses provide digital documents that are often attached to order confirmation emails.

Businesses must issue receipts (i.e., commercial documents) for online sales to individuals, except in cases where an electronic invoice is issued directly:

• If the customer does not request an invoice, the business must issue an online commercial document.
  
• If the customer requests an invoice, the business must issue an electronic invoice, and there is no need to issue an electronic receipt for the online sale.
  

Here are some practical examples:

• An online clothing retailer must issue an online commercial document for each order.
  
• A restaurant that receives orders via home delivery platforms must generate an electronic receipt online for each delivery.
  
• A gym that sells memberships on its website must provide the option of issuing commercial documents online.
  

Current legislation for commercial documents

The current regulatory framework is based on a number of key references:

• Italian Legislative Decree 127/2015
  Article 2 of this decree introduced the obligation to electronically transmit payments to the Italian Revenue Agency. This marks the beginning of the process of digitizing tax compliance. The obligation was introduced gradually: starting July 1, 2019 for entities with turnovers exceeding €400,000 and starting January 1, 2020 for all others.
  
• Italian Revenue Agency provision from October 28, 2016
  This provision defined the technical characteristics of electronic cash registers, namely the devices that store and transmit daily receipts in a secure and encrypted manner.
  
• Decree of the Minister of Economy and Finance from December 7, 2016
  Article 2 and Article 3 outline the mandatory information to be included on commercial documents and their functions. This includes certifying purchases and determining grounds for exercising warranty rights.
  
• Since January 1, 2021
  Single commercial documents have permanently replaced sales receipts and tax receipts in all commercial activities.
  

Under this legislation, commercial documents are now the only valid means of certifying unpaid amounts. Each document must be stored electronically and transmitted to the Italian Revenue Agency, including online commercial documents issued during distance sales.

These rules apply to traditional businesses and to those selling online with mandatory electronic receipts, provided that transactions are with individuals residing in Italy. Only those businesses or professionals that always issue electronic invoices or fall under specific preferential regimes (e.g., the flat-rate scheme, in some cases) are excluded.

In addition to making the collection of fiscal data more efficient, the legislation has promoted integration with new digital payment management solutions. This is helping to enable the automation of online commercial document issuance and ensure real-time compliance.

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