New VIES Rules and Thousands of China–EU Export Transactions: How We Helped a New Company Become a Fiscal Representative and Scale Fast
Context: Why the Fiscal Representative Matters — and What Changed with VIES
Many Chinese manufacturers and trading companies sell into Italy (often via Amazon/FBA) without having a fixed establishment in the EU. In those cases, Italian VAT compliance is typically handled through an Italian fiscal representative, appointed so the non-EU operator can obtain and manage an Italian VAT position and handle filings, communications, and day-to-day compliance locally. This is a solution contemplated by the Italian VAT framework as an alternative to direct identification of a non-resident operator, and in practice it is what keeps the commercial chain “on.”
The critical point in daily operations is VIES (VAT Information Exchange System): the EU system that allows counterparties and tax administrations to verify whether a VAT number is enabled for intra-EU transactions. For many B2B flows and for platform/counterparty compliance checks, VIES visibility/enabling is a real “go/no-go” checkpoint: when a VAT number is not VIES-enabled (or is removed), transactions can stall immediately, with cascading effects on shipments, collections, supply chain, and commercial reliability.
This model came under severe stress when Italy introduced a stricter framework for non-EU operators acting through a fiscal representative, linking VIES inclusion/maintenance to new safeguards and tighter requirements. The key reform was set out in the MEF Decree of 4 December 2024, published in the Official Gazette, which established criteria and modalities for a mandatory financial guarantee supporting inclusion in the VIES database for relevant non-EU cases. The operational rules were then clarified by the Italian Revenue Agency through an implementing measure dated 14 April 2025, which specified in practical terms how the guarantee must be provided.
The market impact was immediate: many exporters found themselves in the middle of active supply chains facing a sudden “compliance freeze” risk. If the guarantee was not provided correctly and on time, the operational consequence could be removal from VIES and the resulting transaction block. For businesses already included in VIES, the practical deadline that circulated in the market to remain fully operational was 13 June 2025, with exclusion procedures triggered in the absence of the filed guarantee. In parallel, Italy also tightened the perimeter of who can act as a fiscal representative and under which conditions, introducing additional requirements and, for many operators, a representative-level guarantee calibrated to the number of foreign entities represented, with implementing measures issued in April 2025.
Our Work: From Incorporation to Scalability — Building a New Company to Operate as a Fiscal Representative and Absorb Volume
In this context, our firm assisted a new company in turning a regulatory shock into a positioning opportunity. The objective was not to simply “pick up” distressed clients, but to build a platform able to withstand the new regime: stable, controllable, regulator-readable, and scalable to high volumes.
We started from the foundation: incorporating the company with a structure coherent with a highly regulated function. We coordinated the notarial and tax set-up together with a notary and accountant, shaping the corporate structure, governance, and articles of association so that the corporate purpose, internal rules, and decision-making powers were suitable for a compliance-heavy activity such as fiscal representation. In parallel, we set up a document organization and an “audit-ready” operating model from the outset, because a fiscal representative’s credibility depends on the ability to demonstrate processes, controls, and traceability.
We then carried out a requirements review to operate as a fiscal representative under the strengthened perimeter introduced by the reforms: a forward-looking assessment of legal and organizational prerequisites, and the build-out of internal procedures consistent with the obligations and the enhanced responsibility profile that now rests on the representative. The goal was to avoid the most common market mistake: launching commercially and only later discovering that requirements or guarantees are missing and the position cannot withstand the first check—or the first VIES-critical step.
On the contractual and operational side, we built the onboarding and client-management architecture: engagement terms, disclosures, document flows, and acceptance standards designed for speed without sacrificing robustness. In particular, we aligned documentation with “VIES-sensitive” steps (guarantee, enabling, maintenance), avoiding inconsistencies between foreign corporate records, beneficial ownership information, and operational set-ups. This was decisive because, in practice, the issues that freeze exports are almost never “legal theory” problems; they arise from incomplete files, non-verifiable information, or inconsistent documentation chains.
A crucial element was cross-border coordination with China. We also supported the company in building collaboration agreements with Chinese accountants and advisors, creating stable workflows to produce and validate documents in a format compatible with Italian expectations: corporate certificates and registrations, information on directors and beneficial owners, group structure, powers of attorney, traceability, and periodic updates. This drastically reduced onboarding friction and timing, and—above all—reduced the risk that a critical step would fail due to upstream documentation gaps.
In parallel, we provided ongoing advice on risk management, communications with counterparties and platforms, and the design of internal procedures that clearly separate operations, responsibilities, and controls—so execution could remain fast without losing reliability.
The result was immediate positioning: the new company was able to present itself as a credible, compliant alternative precisely when many operators were urgently forced to replace representatives that had not adapted in time. This allowed it to absorb volumes quickly, scale in an orderly way, and build a leadership position in a regulatory environment that had become significantly more selective.
Confidentiality note: identifying details have been omitted/modified. Outcomes depend on individual circumstances and authority assessment.
