Keeping and conservation of accounting records: operational methods and orientation of the Financial Administration

The Revenue Agency has recently provided clarifications regarding the regulatory provisions regarding the keeping of accounting records with electronic systems, specifying that:

• for regularity purposes, up to the third (sixth for 2019) month following the deadline for submitting the tax return, there is no obligation to print, unless specifically requested in the event of access, inspection or checks;
•   within the aforementioned deadline it is necessary to provide for the relevant substitute conservation/printing in paper format.

Furthermore, in relation to the aforementioned registers, according to the Agency itself, regardless of their subsequent substitutive conservation, the stamp duty must be paid using the form. F24 (tax code “2501”), by 30.04 of each tax period.

With reference to the 2020 accounting records, in case of keeping them with electronic systems, by 28.2.2022 it must be carried out alternatively:

• printing in paper format;
• substitute conservation by affixing the time stamp and digital signature.

N.B. It should be highlighted that, limited to 2019, as a result of the provisions of the art. 5, DL n. 41/2021, so-called "Support Decree", has been extended from 3 to 6 months following the deadline for submitting the declaration (the latter expired on 10.12.2020 for entities with operations coinciding with the calendar year), the deadline to which the obligation of substitute conservation is connected. Consequently, the deadline for conservation and, as clarified by the Agency, for printing the 2019 registers has been deferred from 10.3 to 10.6.2021.

STAMP DUTY COMPLETION

Regarding the journal / inventory book, stamp duty is required pursuant to art. 16, letter. a), Tari a parte I, Presidential Decree n. 642/72.

In particular, as provided by art. 6, paragraph 1, Ministerial Decree 17.6.2014,: "the stamp duty on fiscally relevant IT documents is paid by payment in the ways referred to in art. 17 of the legislative decree of 9 July 1997, n. 241, with exclusively electronic methods".

Please remember that the tax due via mod. F24, equal to €16 for joint-stock companies or €32 for sole proprietorships / partnerships / cooperatives:

• must be paid, in relation to the registers "used during the year", understood, as specified by the Revenue Agency in Resolution 28.4.2015, n. 43/E which calendar year, within 120 days from the end of the financial year(30.4 or 29.4 in the case of a leap year);
• it is due every 2,500 registrations or fractions thereof. For registration, as clarified by the Revenue Agency in Resolution 9.7.2007, n. 161/E, means "every single accounting event, regardless of the detail lines"
• it must be paid in a single payment using the tax code "2501" and reporting, as the reference year, the year for which the payment is made (for example, "2020" for the registers referring to that year).