Managing the habitual exporter VAT plafond in SamBooks
11 min read
How SamBooks computes your export VAT plafond, where you read what is left of it, and how you record the letters of intent you receive from clients and issue to suppliers.
What it is for
A company that sells abroad in significant volumes qualifies as a habitual exporter: it may buy VAT-free from Italian suppliers up to an annual ceiling, the plafond. On the other side of the counter, clients who are habitual exporters themselves ask you to invoice without VAT and hand you a letter of intent (in Italian, dichiarazione d'intento).
In SamBooks all of this lives under a single menu entry, Exporter quota & intent, with three tabs: Quota (this year's ceiling, how much you have used, how much is left — the plafond, which the English interface labels quota), Issued intent (the declarations you send to suppliers in order to buy VAT-free) and Received intent (the ones clients send you, authorising your VAT-free invoices with VAT nature N3.5).
Before you start
Switch the section on. The entry appears on its own if your company is already flagged as a habitual exporter; otherwise it stays hidden. To reveal it, open Settings, then Tax profile: in the Operational flags card tick I'm a frequent exporter and save. Company settings are edited by the Manager.
You need last year's history. The calculation only reads invoices recorded in SamBooks: finish any migration from your previous accounting package first.
Who can do what. Computing the plafond, issuing and revoking declarations and recording received ones are write operations, reserved to the Manager and Administrative roles: a Viewer can read the figures but any save returns a permissions error. Under the Italian flat-rate regime (RF19) there is no plafond and the section is unavailable.
Step by step
1. Open the page and check whether this year's plafond exists
From the left menu open Exporter quota & intent. If nothing has ever been computed you see "No quota computed"; otherwise you get one row per year. You do not have to run it by hand: SamBooks runs the calculation itself on the night of 1 February, for the year that has just begun.
2. Run the calculation with «Prepare»
Top right, press Prepare: the confirmation "Prepare Exporter quota?" opens with a single field, Tax year. Mind the suggested value: the field proposes the previous year, so if you need the current year's plafond, type the current year. The year you type is the year of the plafond, while the figures come from the year before it: asking for 2026 measures your 2025 exports.
Confirm with Prepare and read "Exporter quota {year} prepared.", or "Exporter quota {year} was already prepared: result updated." — in that second case SamBooks hands back the stored result and does not recompute it, and there is no way to force a recalculation. So run it once the previous year is complete: the first calculation is the one that sticks.
3. Read the result
If at least one year qualifies as habitual exporter, a counter appears above the table: "VAT quota {year}" with the percentage used, a coloured bar and three figures — Ceiling (prev. year exports), Used, Available. Below it, each year has its own row, with the Habitual or Non-habitual badge in the Exporter column and Remaining.
How SamBooks computes the plafond (the 10% test)
The calculation compares two figures from the previous year: turnover, the sum of the taxable amounts of that year's sales invoices, and exports, the sum of the taxable amounts carrying VAT nature N3.1, N3.2, N3.3 or N3.4 in the VAT summary of the same invoices. If exports divided by turnover is above 10%, the year is flagged Habitual and the plafond ceiling equals the previous year's total exports; if it is not, the row stays Non-habitual, the calculation is saved anyway but there is no plafond to spend and issuing letters of intent to suppliers is refused.
Invoices in "Draft" and "Ready" status stay out — only issued documents count — and so do the self-invoices generated from purchase invoices, which are purchases rather than sales. Nature N3.5 is out too: the invoices you issue to a habitual exporter consume the client's plafond, they do not feed your own.
Available is always "previous year exports minus used", and Used grows when you post a purchase invoice containing N3.5 lines: a purchase actually made VAT-free under one of your letters of intent.
One method only. SamBooks works on the whole previous calendar year. The monthly method (what some call the "rolling plafond") does not exist, there is no screen where you would choose it and there is no initial configuration: the only input you give is the tax year in the Prepare dialog.
Monitoring, bands and alerts
The counter changes colour and label with usage: below 80% Within range, from 80% to 90% Approaching the threshold, from 90% up Close to exceeding the quota. From 90% the remaining figure turns red, with a warning icon.
Those same two thresholds drive the alerts. Every night SamBooks checks active plafonds and, when usage crosses 80% or 90%, sends Manager and Administrative users a bell notification — "Plafond IVA {year} all'80%" or "Plafond IVA {year} al 90%" — with a link to the page. Those are the only two thresholds, and the alert fires once per threshold crossed, not every day.
Going past 100% means you bought VAT-free beyond what the plafond allowed. Mind where the blocks actually are: SamBooks refuses an N3.5 sale with no cover and a declaration to a supplier that exceeds what is available, but it does not block the posting of a purchase beyond the ceiling — the usage is recorded anyway and the counter goes past 100%.
Letters of intent received from clients (invoicing in N3.5)
Received intent tab, with the N3.5 gate active badge next to the title.
Recording one. Press Record declaration. Required: Issuing client (free text, not a picker from your address book), Declaration date, Valid from, Valid to and Quota granted (€), the maximum amount the client authorises you to invoice without VAT; optional: VAT number, Tax office protocol and Notes. Those two optional fields matter: the VAT number is what SamBooks uses to match the declaration to your invoices, and it must be typed exactly as stored on the client record; the Tax office protocol ends up inside the invoice XML and doubles as the duplicate key.
The check that fires on the invoice. When you save a sales invoice with at least one line in nature N3.5, SamBooks looks for an Active declaration from that client, valid on the document date and with enough remaining quota to cover the taxable amount of the N3.5 lines (among several valid ones, the largest remaining quota wins). If none meets all of those conditions, the invoice is not created: "Fattura N3.5 bloccata: {reason}. Plafond residuo: {amount} EUR. Registrare una dichiarazione di intento ricevuta valida." The check runs on save, not while you type, and it is skipped if the client has neither a VAT number nor a tax code.
When the invoice passes, the remaining quota drops by the invoiced amount and at zero the status becomes Exhausted; the declaration's protocol and date go into the invoice XML (without a protocol that block is missing and SDI may reject the invoice); a credit note reversing that invoice gives the quota back to the declaration it came from — which is why credit notes are never blocked.
Revoking, and what to do if a value is wrong. The table shows client, protocol, Validity, quota granted, remaining and status, with Year and Status filters; Active rows carry a Revoke action, and once revoked that declaration covers no invoice. A recorded declaration cannot be edited: there is no edit command, on the page or in chat. If the wrong value is the protocol, revoke and record it again with the correct one; if it is another field, do not reuse the same protocol — the duplicate key ignores the status and would hand you back the revoked declaration, useless on an invoice. In that case ask the client for a new declaration and record that one.
You watch the dates yourself. The only statuses displayed are Active, Exhausted and Revoked: a declaration whose validity period has ended keeps showing as Active, and no expiry warning ever reaches you. Your invoices stay protected — a document dated outside the period is blocked — but the list will not tell you: check the Validity column, and ask clients for the new year's declarations in January.
Letters of intent issued to suppliers
Issued intent tab. Above the table sits the notice worth reading once: the generated file is compliant, but the electronic submission to the Italian Revenue Agency (Entratel, tax drawer) is done by your accountant or by you — SamBooks does not connect to the authorities, whose channels are reserved to authorised intermediaries.
Issuing one. Press Issue intent: "Issue intent declaration {year}" opens, where you pick the Supplier (searchable by name or VAT number) and the Maximum amount; the Issue date is optional — left empty it means today — but it must fall within the year. You need the year's plafond already computed and the habitual exporter status; and the maximum amount cannot exceed what is available net of the amounts already reserved by other non-revoked declarations.
Downloading the file and recording the protocol. Every row has an XML link that downloads the declaration file: you hand it to your accountant, or upload it yourself, for the electronic submission. SamBooks never transmits anything to the Revenue Agency, neither automatically nor on demand. When the protocol comes back press Record protocol, type the code ("e.g. 26012345678-000001") and press Save protocol: the status moves to Accepted and the cell displays the protocol, clickable so you can correct it. The real path is therefore Issued → Accepted, or Revoked: the Status column also lists "Sent" and "Rejected", but those are not transitions the product performs by itself.
Revoking, and consuming the plafond. Revoke asks for confirmation, warns that the reserved quota will be released and that the operation cannot be undone, and disappears from rows already revoked. The plafond is actually consumed on purchase invoices: posting a supplier invoice with N3.5 lines records the usage automatically. To do it by hand — if the plafond was computed after the posting, for instance — open the purchase invoice, Accounting tab, Plafond usage (N3.5) card, Record plafond usage button; if it was already done you read "Plafond usage already recorded for this invoice."
Ask Sam
The same operations can be requested in chat:
- "compute the 2026 plafond"
- "issue a letter of intent for 50,000 euros to supplier Rossi Srl"
- "record the letter of intent received from Bianchi Srl, protocol 08012345678, valid from 1 January to 31 December, quota 80,000 euros"
- "how much plafond is left for 2026?"
What Sam cannot do, because the product does not do it: transmit or verify a declaration with the Revenue Agency, and edit one that has already been recorded.
If something goes wrong
"Fattura N3.5 bloccata: nessuna_dichiarazione_valida". No usable declaration exists for that client on that date. Check, in order: that it is recorded; that the VAT number matches the client record exactly; that the invoice date falls between Valid from and Valid to; that the status is not Revoked or Exhausted.
"Fattura N3.5 bloccata: plafond_insufficiente". The message includes the remaining quota: reduce the taxable amount, or have the client send a supplementary declaration and record it before retrying.
"Importo intento … supera plafond disponibile per nuove dichiarazioni intento". You are reserving more than what is left: lower the maximum amount, or revoke an issued declaration you will not use — revoking releases the reservation immediately.
"Nessun plafond calcolato per … Eseguire prima compute_plafond_annuale". Go back to the Quota tab, press Prepare for that year, then try again.
The counter is missing. It only appears if at least one year is Habitual. If the whole menu entry is missing, switch it on in Settings → Tax profile by ticking I'm a frequent exporter.
The figures look too low. The calculation only sums issued invoices: drafts and untransmitted "Ready" invoices stay out.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know whether I am a habitual exporter? The Exporter column says so: Habitual means last year's exports exceeded 10% of turnover.
Where do I see how much plafond is left? In the counter at the top of the page, under Available, and in the Remaining column.
Does SamBooks verify the letter of intent with the Revenue Agency? No: no screen queries the Agency. The automatic check covers the remaining quota and validity period of the declarations you recorded yourself.
Does SamBooks submit the letter of intent to the Revenue Agency? Never, neither automatically nor on demand: it generates the XML file, the submission is done by your accountant or by you, then you come back here to store the protocol.
Can I choose the monthly plafond instead of the annual one? No: there is one method only, based on the previous calendar year.
The letter of intent has expired but still shows as "Active": is that a problem? The status does not change at expiry and no alert is sent, so you only see it in the Validity column. Your invoices stay protected, because a document dated outside the period is blocked anyway.
What does N3.5 mean and where do I set it? It is the VAT nature on an invoice line when the rate is 0% because the client is a habitual exporter with a letter of intent: the line's VAT nature field.