Booking withholding tax suffered in SamBooks

How a withholding tax deducted by one of your clients moves from "pending" to "recorded" — and why the button that records it isn't where you'd expect.

What it's for

When you issue a fee note (invoice type TD06) with withholding tax set — see Applying withholding tax, social security fund and stamp duty on an invoice — your client, acting as withholding agent, pays you the net amount and withholds the tax on your behalf: they're the one deducting it, you're the one suffering it. This guide covers the path from the issued fee note to the accounting entry: the read-only page /dichiarativi/ritenute-subite and the actual button, which lives elsewhere.

This is the third side of the same triangle: if you're looking for where to certify to a professional the tax you withhold from them, see Preparing the Certificazione Unica (CU); if you're looking for where to record the CU your client sends you certifying this very withholding, see Recording CU received.

Before you start

• You need a write-enabled role — Gestore (Manager) or Amministrativo — to record the transfer entry; Visualizzatore (Viewer) and Logistica can only view.
• The invoice must be a TD06 with withholding tax already set (not a draft), and its payment must arrive as a bank transaction to reconcile.

How to do it, step by step

1. Open Tax returns → Withholding tax suffered

From the sidebar open Tax returns, then the "Withholding tax received" card (subtitle "Withholding taxes you received.", with the note "From the TD06 invoices you issue"). Despite the card wording, these are the withholdings your clients deduct from you — the page itself is titled "Withholding tax suffered". It opens at /dichiarativi/ritenute-subite.

2. Read the two cards and the filters

Two summary cards: "Recorded" (total amount + count of withholdings already posted to the journal) and "Pending" (same format, for fee notes that have not produced the entry yet: either the payment has not arrived, or it has arrived and is already reconciled but the transfer entry has not been recorded — exactly the case you settle in step 4). Year and Status filters ("Recorded" / "Pending"); a table with columns Status, Invoice (TD06 number/year), Client, Withholding, Date.

3. The confusing part: this page is view-only

There's no button on this page that records anything: it's here purely to see the status of your withholding tax suffered. Clicking a recorded row opens the journal entry that generated it; clicking a pending row opens the source invoice, where you can check the amount and payment terms — but there's no action to take there.

4. Where the real button is: Banking

The command that moves a withholding from "pending" to "recorded" lives in the Banking section, not in Tax returns. Path: open Banking from the sidebar, open the transaction where your client paid the invoice, tab "Reconciliation". Reconcile the transaction with the matching sales invoice (if it hasn't already been matched automatically): once the transaction is matched you get the green "Transaction matched to an invoice" panel, and below it, next to the "Unmatch" button, the "Record withholding suffered" button. If the panel reads "Transaction posted to the journal" instead, the transaction has been posted to an account but is not linked to any invoice: the button is absent there, and the way forward is to complete the match first. The button is visible only on matches to sales invoices, never on purchase-invoice matches.

5. Press "Record withholding suffered"

One click writes the accounting transfer entry. Three possible outcomes, all shown as a toast: "Withholding suffered recorded in the journal." if the entry is created; "No withholding suffered to record for this payment." if that transaction isn't linked to a withholding-bearing TD06 (not an error: the button appears on every sales-invoice match, not only ones with withholding, and it simply does nothing when there's nothing to do); an error message only for a genuine problem, worth retrying.

6. What happens in accounting

The entry books Debit 1.50.10.001 Ritenute d'acconto subite (lavoro autonomo) — withholding tax suffered, an asset account awaiting the future credit — and Credit 1.25.05.001 Crediti vs clienti Italia entro esercizio (trade receivables), reducing the receivable from that client. Account names come from your Italian chart of accounts and are not translated in the interface. The journal reason code is RITSUB.

7. Partial payments: the share is proportional

If the client only pays a partial amount on the fee note, the recorded withholding isn't the invoice's full withholding but its share proportional to what was paid: total_withholding × amount_paid / invoice_total, always capped at the withholding stated on the invoice. Further payments on the same document book the remaining shares as they come in.

8. Idempotency: no duplicates

Each bank transaction can be linked to at most one withholding-suffered transfer entry: pressing "Record withholding suffered" twice on the same transaction doesn't create a second entry, the second attempt just confirms it's already been done.

9. If you forget: the nightly job

Every night at 03:35 UTC, an automatic process scans every bank transaction reconciled to a withholding-bearing TD06 invoice that doesn't yet have a transfer entry, and writes it for you. It doesn't replace the manual button — press that when you want the entry straight away — but it is the safety net for when you forget: the entry shows up anyway by the night after the reconciliation.

If something's not right

• I can't find any button on this page: that's correct, the page is view-only; the command is in the bank transaction's detail, Reconciliation tab.
• I pressed "Record withholding suffered" but nothing happened: that payment likely isn't linked to a withholding-bearing TD06 invoice — no error, no entry to make.
• I pressed the button twice: no risk, the second press doesn't duplicate the entry.
• The client only paid a partial amount: the withholding is booked proportionally to what came in, not all at once.
• I don't see the button on the transaction: it only appears on matches to sales invoices already posted to the journal; on a purchase-invoice match it's absent, because there's no withholding suffered to record there.

Ask Sam

You can ask Sam to record the withholding suffered on a reconciled payment ("record the withholding suffered on today's bank transaction, client Rossi") or to list your pending or already-recorded withholding tax suffered for a year: Sam applies exactly the same calculations — proportional share, idempotency, the gate on withholding-bearing TD06 invoices — described above.

Frequently asked questions

Where do I see the withholding tax my clients deducted from me? In Tax returns → Withholding tax suffered: two lists, recorded and pending, filterable by year and status.

I issued a fee note with withholding tax, where does it go? It shows as "pending" on the Withholding tax suffered page and stays there until the entry is written: reconciling the payment is not enough, it takes the "Record withholding suffered" button in Banking (or the nightly job that does it for you).

The withholding stayed pending, how do I record it? Not from this page: open the bank transaction in Banking, Reconciliation tab, and press "Record withholding suffered".

How do I book the withholding tax suffered? Reconcile the invoice's payment in Banking, then press "Record withholding suffered" on the transaction: it creates the Debit Withholding tax suffered / Credit Trade receivables entry.

The client paid me the net amount, what do I do? Reconcile the transaction in Banking and press "Record withholding suffered": it's normal for the credited amount to be less than the invoice total, the difference is the withholding.

Which entry does SamBooks create for withholding suffered? Debit 1.50.10.001 Ritenute d'acconto subite (lavoro autonomo), Credit 1.25.05.001 Crediti vs clienti Italia entro esercizio, reason code RITSUB.

The client only paid a partial amount, how is the withholding calculated? Proportionally to the amount actually paid versus the invoice total, never more than the withholding stated on the invoice.

I pressed "Record" twice, did I create a duplicate? No: the same bank transaction can generate at most one transfer entry, the second attempt doesn't duplicate anything.

Why isn't there any button on the withholding tax suffered page? It's a view-only page by design: the command that records the withholding lives in the bank transaction's detail, in Banking.

Can the withholding tax I suffered be credited against my taxes? Yes: the withholdings recorded here are the same source that feeds the credit against the taxes due on the income tax return — the same total you see as "Booked" on the CU received page.

What's the difference between withholding suffered and withholding operated? Withholding suffered is what your clients deduct from you on your TD06 invoices (this guide); withholding operated is what you deduct from the professionals you pay — see the issued Certificazione Unica.

Can I ask Sam to record the withholding suffered? Yes, with the same result as the manual button in Banking.

Related features

• Recording CU received and checking the gap against your entries — the documentary proof of this same withholding.
• Preparing the Certificazione Unica (CU) — the opposite side, when you're the one withholding.
• Applying withholding tax, social security fund and stamp duty on an invoice — where you set the withholding on the fee note you issue.