Acknowledged the validity of the electronic procedure developed by a company to enable the creation, control, accounting, and fully digitalized preservation of expense reports produced by the transferor employees.
The procedure for generating the expense statement shall ensure the requirements of non-modifiability, integrity, and authenticity of dematerialized documents even if the expense report is generated directly by the transferor or produced by a delegate. It was clarified by the Italian Revenue Agency with the answer to tax ruling No. 740 published on 20th October 2021.
Further to the answer of the tax ruling No 740 of 20th October 2021, the Italian Revenue Agency acknowledged the validity of the electronic procedure developed by a company to enable the creation, the control, the accounting, and the fully digitalized preservation of expense reports produced by the transferor employees. Moreover, it is specified that the procedures adopted must always ensure the requirements of non-modifiability, integrity, and authenticity of dematerialized documents which are provided by Article 2 of DM 17/06/2014, Legislative Decree 82/2005 and the related implementing decrees.
These characteristics have to be respected if:
- The expense statement is generated directly by the data controller by accessing to the company network with a username and password or through the SSO system (Single Sign-On or Unique Authentication);
- The expense note is generated by a delegate acting on behalf of the employee pursuant to art. 1387 and ss. c.c. of which traces remain in the computer system.
The legislation requires to put the digital signature or other type of electronic signature on the expenses statement in order to recognize the effectiveness and validity of evidentiary effects of private agreement provided by article 2702 c.c. (article 20 paragraph 1-bis of the CAD)
For further info on the category of “transferred employees”, you might be interested in reply no. 294 of the Revenue Agency, which clarified that the reimbursement by the employer of expenses incurred by employees for the purchase of laptops/tablets does not constitute employment income.