Goodbye paper receipts: what changes for consumers and shops

Parliament aims at a gradual farewell to the printing of receipts. The resolution presented by Fratelli d'Italia (first signatory Saverio Congedo) and approved by the Finance Committee of the Chamber of Deputies shows the executive a path to overcome the paper version of tax receipts.

A path without 'tears' but with a staggered timetable, also in order not to burden smaller businesses with excessive burdens. First stage: from 1 January 2027 for large-scale distribution companies. Second stage: from 1 January 2028 for all other entities with a turnover above a certain threshold. Stage three: from 1 January 2029 for all other traders. All this, however, with the possibility for purchasers to still request a print-out of the commercial document. Essentially a green move, because the obligation of merchants and traders to store and transmit their receipts electronically to the tax authorities is not touched in the slightest. A flow that feeds the financial administration's databases with information that is increasingly used to prevent (with compliance letters) and combat (with controls) evasion.

The request for a commitment to the government is to adopt regulatory initiatives to provide for a - precisely - 'gradual' introduction of the 'obligation to equip the technological tools for the electronic storage and telematic transmission of receipts to the Revenue Agency with a system designed to generate and transmit the commercial document to the purchaser also in digital format'. The initiative, as explained by FdI deputies Massimo Milani and Saverio Congedo in a note, is aimed at 'eliminating millions of receipts printed on non-recyclable thermal paper, which end up in the waste every day'.

As recalled in the introduction to the resolution, a regulatory input has already arrived with the last manoeuvre (Law 207/2024), which provided for the mandatory connection between the electronic payment instrument (POS) and the telematic cash register as of 1 January 2026 in order to 'record, store in a timely manner, and transmit in aggregate form to the Revenue Agency the data of daily electronic payment receipts'. The next step is to arrive at systems already adopted in other countries that have made the printing of receipts also using telematic transmission optional. The step-by-step choice to start with the large-scale retail trade is not accidental because, reports the resolution, 'several commercial chains of the large-scale retail trade, even in Italy, have already taken steps to dematerialise the commercial document. In this way, the 'proof' of purchase, which remains necessary, for example, for returns or for the guarantee given to the consumer, would be managed in a dematerialised manner.