Selling consulting, design, or development services to clients outside Italy follows different rules depending on whether your client is inside or outside the EU, and business or consumer — and depending on your regime.
Last updated: June 2026
You don’t charge IVA regardless of where your client is based — domestic or international, business or consumer — since regime forfettario simply doesn’t involve charging IVA at all. The place-of-supply analysis below is specifically relevant once you’re under regime ordinario.
For most "general rule" services (consulting, IT, design, marketing), the place of supply is normally where your customer is based for B2B sales, and where you (the supplier) are based for B2C sales.
Sales to VAT-registered EU businesses are typically outside Italian VAT scope under the reverse charge. Sales to consumers in another EU country usually remain subject to Italian IVA, since the place of supply stays with you as the supplier — a meaningful distinction many freelancers overlook when assuming "selling to the EU" always means no Italian VAT.
Sales of general-rule services to clients (business or consumer) genuinely outside the EU are often outside Italian VAT scope entirely under regime ordinario.
Under regime ordinario, you need to establish they’re a genuine VAT-registered business, typically evidenced by a VAT number verified via VIES.
Yes significantly — under regime forfettario you don’t charge IVA regardless of client location, so the detailed place-of-supply rules mainly matter once you’re under regime ordinario.
Under regime ordinario, you can generally still treat genuine non-EU business customers as outside Italian VAT scope using other evidence of business status.
Yes, reverse-charge and outside-scope sales still count as part of your revenue for threshold purposes, even though no Italian IVA is charged.
Some service types (property-related, admission to events, and others) have their own specific place-of-supply rules — worth a one-off consultation with a commercialista if you provide a mix of services.
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