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Omitted VAT return: the Agenzia computes the tax without an assessment

From 31 August 2026 the Agenzia delle entrate (the Italian revenue authority) may compute the VAT of an undeclared year, without an assessment, from the electronic invoices, the electronic daily takings and the periodic VAT statements already in its possession; the implementing rules are dated 28 August 2026. The taxpayer receives a communication: sixty days to reply or to pay, then entry on the ruolo (the collection register) as a final liability.

Art. 54-bis.1 of d.P.R. 633/1972 comes from art. 1, paragraph 111, letter a), of law no. 199 of 30 December 2025, and is implemented by the order of the Director of the Agenzia, prot. no. 239129/2026 of 28 August 2026. The computation operates «without prejudice to the power of assessment», within the time limit of art. 57, paragraph 2 (31 December of the seventh year following the one in which the return should have been filed): in 2026 the years still open to the computation run from 2018 — which closes on 31 December — to 2025. A return filed «without the return sections needed to compute the tax due» is treated as omitted as well (paragraph 1); the order identifies it as the return «entirely lacking the data on the output transactions carried out» (point 2.3), and the adverb «entirely» narrows the case.

The liability is built on electronic invoices issued and received, electronic daily takings, periodic VAT statements and payments made, without the credit carried over from the previous year. Interest is that of art. 20 of d.P.R. 602/1973, at the 4 per cent set by art. 2 of the d.m. of 21 May 2009; on payment within sixty days it falls to the 3.5 per cent of art. 6, paragraph 1, of the same decree, computed to the last day of the month preceding the processing of the communication (point 7.2).

The penalty calls for a distinction the statute does not draw. Paragraph 3 refers to art. 5, paragraph 1, of d.lgs. 471/1997, but the flat 120 per cent comes from d.lgs. 87/2024 — the 250 euro floor was already in the earlier text — whose art. 5 confines it to infringements committed from 1 September 2024. The omission is complete once ninety days have run from the deadline: for VAT year 2023, on 29 July 2024.

For the years 2018 to 2023, therefore, the statutory band from 120 to 240 per cent still applies, to be graduated under art. 7 of d.lgs. 472/1997 — a criterion that an automated procedure does not express — and the reduction to one third operates on that amount. For those years paragraph 1-bis of art. 5 was not yet in force: the reduction sat in the fifth sentence of paragraph 1, from 60 to 120 per cent with a floor of 200 euro, and applied only where the return was filed by the deadline for the return for the following period. For every year that can be computed today that window has closed: there is no ultra-late return — one filed more than ninety days after the deadline — left to weigh up, and the bar in paragraph 4 has nothing to operate on.

An example, year 2024 (omission complete in 2025, hence 120 per cent): tax due 180,000 euro, credit 110,000, payments 25,000; tax computed 45,000, penalty 54,000, reduced to 18,000 on payment within the deadline.

The communication is sent by PEC (certified email) to the INI-PEC address or to the special digital domicile, failing which by recorded delivery with advice of receipt, with the itemised schedule in «L’Agenzia scrive» (the Agenzia’s online message area). Point 6.1 names no channel for the taxpayer’s report: what remains is the PEC address of the competent Direzione, identified by point 6.2 as the Direzione provinciale (provincial office) for the tax domicile as it stood when the return fell due. Set-off is not allowed (art. 17 of d.lgs. 241/1997 and art. 31 of d.l. 78/2010); the exclusion of instalments under art. 3-bis of d.lgs. 462/1997 appears only in the explanatory grounds, consistently with the fact that the communication is not an avviso bonario, the notice inviting settlement under arts. 2 and 3 of that decree.

The SdI (Sistema di Interscambio, the platform through which electronic invoices pass) does not say whether the tax is deductible: the computation gives full effect to the invoices received, with no pro rata and without the exclusions from deduction in art. 19-bis1. A taxpayer who accepts the outcome remains exposed to assessment, where the penalty falls only on the difference.

VAT paid at customs on imports falls outside the data, since art. 1, paragraph 3-bis, of d.lgs. 127/2015 excludes it from transmission to the SdI: it is the first deduction to produce within the sixty days, with the customs declarations. The central argument is Cass., SS.UU. (the Corte di cassazione sitting in joint divisions), 8 September 2016, no. 17757: the deductible surplus must be recognised even without an annual return where the substantive requirements are met, the burden of proof lying on the taxpayer. Above 50,000 euro of evaded tax art. 5 of d.lgs. 74/2000 becomes relevant: paying after the communication does not make out the ground for non-punishability in art. 13, paragraph 2, which requires a ravvedimento (voluntary correction) or a late return before the taxpayer has formal knowledge of the check.

In practice

The firm and the legal representative reconstruct the years not filed, or entirely lacking the data on output transactions, still open under art. 57, paragraph 2, establishing the penalty regime for each. After the communication the deadline is sixty days («within the following sixty days», paragraph 2), and it runs again from the recomputed outcome. At the date of publication payment cannot yet be made: the tax codes under point 8.2 await the risoluzione (the Agenzia’s implementing act). Keep the VAT ledgers, the customs declarations, the pro rata workings and the extracts from the Fatture e Corrispettivi portal.

Frequently asked questions

Which years does the procedure reach, and with what penalty?
In 2026, those from 2018 to 2025 (art. 57, paragraph 2). For omissions complete by 31 August 2024 — so up to year 2023 — the statutory band from 120 to 240 per cent still applies, with a floor of 250 euro; the flat 120 per cent governs only later omissions.

Can the communication be challenged before the Corte di giustizia tributaria (the tax court)?
Neither art. 54-bis.1 nor the order describes it as a challengeable act: point 7.1 goes no further than entry on the ruolo as a final liability under art. 14 of d.P.R. 602/1973, and the act that is typically challenged remains the cartella, the demand for payment. The case law on irregularity communications is not settled, however, and a failure to challenge does not constitute acquiescence.

Is an ultra-late return still worth filing?
For omissions from 1 September 2024 the comparison is between the 75 per cent of art. 5, paragraph 1-bis (art. 13, paragraph 1, trebled) and the 40 per cent of the 120 reduced to one third; the choice must be made before the communication, which bars paragraph 1-bis. For earlier years the window for the old reduction has already closed: there is no choice left to make.

What changes from 1 January 2027?
Paragraphs 1, 2 and 5 of art. 54-bis.1 will be repealed by d.lgs. no. 141 of 5 August 2026 and will pass into art. 277 of the consolidated statute on compliance and assessment, which will refer to art. 30, paragraph 1-bis, of d.lgs. 173/2024 and to arts. 3, 6 and 93 of d.lgs. 33/2025. Paragraphs 3 and 4 will stay in the VAT decree, still tied to d.lgs. 471/1997 and to paragraph 1 of art. 30: the coordination remains to be resolved.