Italy SDI System: Record 1.2 Billion Invoices Processed in 2025
Italy's Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) processed over 1.2 billion electronic invoices in 2025, six years after the world's first national B2B e-invoicing mandate launched in January 2019.
Italy's Sistema di Interscambio (SDI) has achieved a new milestone: the government-run clearing house processed more than 1.2 billion FatturaPA invoices in 2025 alone.
Italy's E-Invoicing Leadership
Italy introduced mandatory B2B e-invoicing in January 2019 — years ahead of any other EU country. Since then:
- Over 1.2 billion invoices are processed annually through SDI
- €14 billion estimated annual VAT compliance savings for the Italian economy
- VAT gap (difference between expected and collected VAT) has shrunk by over €4 billion since 2019
How SDI Works
The SDI is a centralised government hub that:
1. Receives FatturaPA XML invoices from senders (via certified intermediaries or PEC)
2. Validates the XML schema and business rules
3. Forwards compliant invoices to recipients
4. Returns acceptance/rejection codes to senders
This is fundamentally different from the German approach (decentralised, no government hub) or the Peppol model (peer-to-peer network). The Italian system gives the government near-real-time visibility into all B2B transactions.
The Conservazione Sostitutiva Requirement
All FatturaPA invoices must be stored for 10 years under conservazione sostitutiva — a legally compliant digital preservation standard. Most Italian invoicing tools (Aruba, Fattura24, TeamSystem) include this automatically.
Lessons for Other EU Countries
Italy's SDI is now studied as a model by other EU governments considering centralised clearing house approaches under ViDA.
