10 Critical Mistakes to Avoid When Applying for the VIES Guarantee

Since April 2025, companies based outside the European Union and the European Economic Area that operate in Italy through a fiscal representative must provide a financial guarantee to register, or remain registered, in VIES. The requirement was introduced by Legislative Decree 13/2024, which added paragraph 7-quater to Article 35 of Presidential Decree 633/1972; the operating criteria were set by the Ministry of Economy and Finance Decree of 4 December 2024 and by Agenzia delle Entrate Provision no. 178713 of 14 April 2025, and the obligation was confirmed by TAR Lazio ruling no. 4986/2026.

On paper it is a single document. In practice, the most common reasons a guarantee is rejected and a registration is delayed are small, avoidable formal errors. Below are the ten mistakes we see most often when a North American, or any other non-EU, company prepares its VIES guarantee — and how to keep each one from costing you time.

1. Starting too late and underestimating anti-money-laundering checks

A foreign company is a new party for the issuer, so it goes through identity and anti-money-laundering verification: the company, its ownership structure and beneficial owners, and the people who will sign. For an entity incorporated outside the EU, collecting and validating these documents takes longer than most applicants expect. Leaving it to the final week before an Agenzia delle Entrate deadline is the single most frequent cause of avoidable delay. Begin the documentation phase early and prepare ownership and identity papers before you actually need them.

Not sure the requirement applies to you? See who must provide a VIES guarantee to register for VIES in Italy.

2. Getting the order of operations wrong

The guarantee and the VIES request are not interchangeable steps. Once stipulated, the guarantee must be prepared, submitted and verified together with the VIES application filed to the competent Directorate of the Agenzia delle Entrate. Companies that ask for VIES first, or that treat the fiscal representative appointment and the guarantee as two unrelated tasks, usually end up resubmitting. Plan the fiscal representative and the guarantee as one coordinated sequence.

For the practical sequencing, see how to set up the fiscal representative and VIES guarantee in parallel.

3. Naming the wrong beneficiary

The guarantee must be made out to the pro tempore Director of the competent Provincial Directorate of the Agenzia delle Entrate — not generically to “Agenzia delle Entrate”, and not to the fiscal representative. A generic or incorrect beneficiary is one of the formal defects that gets a guarantee rejected on sight, even when everything else is in order.

4. Using a generic template instead of the official one

The guarantee must follow the official wording set out in Provision no. 178713/2025. A surety drafted on a free-form or “standard” template, however financially solid, will not be accepted if it departs from the required text. Check the document clause by clause against the official template before it is signed.

5. An amount or duration below the required minimum

The rules set a minimum guaranteed amount of 50,000 euro and a minimum duration of 36 months (Provision no. 178713/2025). A guarantee for a lower amount, or for a shorter term, is non-compliant and will be rejected. Verify both figures against the current provision before submitting, and confirm the duration covers the full required period.

6. Inconsistent or improperly legalised company documents

Foreign corporate documents usually need a translation and, depending on the country of origin, an apostille or consular legalisation. Mismatches between the company name, registration number or address on the home-country documents and those reported on the guarantee are a frequent cause of queries from the office. Make sure names, numbers and addresses match exactly across every document in the file.

7. Power of attorney and signing authority not properly documented

Whoever signs the guarantee on behalf of the foreign company must have demonstrable authority to do so. A missing, expired or improperly drafted power of attorney is a recurring defect that stops the verification. Confirm the chain of authority and that the signing powers are documented in a form the office will accept.

See what a valid VIES bond power of attorney must contain.

8. Trying to sign from abroad without a valid legal method

A representative abroad who does not hold an Italian tax code can still sign the guarantee, but only through specific legal routes. Improvising the signature, or assuming that a signature affixed abroad is automatically valid, creates problems at verification. Choose one of the recognised methods before the document is executed.

There are recognised ways to sign the guarantee abroad without a tax code.

9. Choosing the wrong instrument and overlooking the insurance alternative

The rules allow more than one form of guarantee. Many companies assume they must tie up 50,000 euro in a cash deposit, when an insurance surety bond — a polizza fideiussoria assicurativa issued by an insurance company supervised by IVASS — can satisfy the same requirement without immobilising the capital. A guarantee issued by a bank (supervised by Banca d’Italia) and an insurance surety bond (issued by an insurer supervised by IVASS) are both accepted forms, but they work differently: weigh them before you commit.

Compare the options: a no-deposit VAT insurance guarantee avoids tying up cash, and our overview of the VIES financial guarantee for non-EU companies explains how each form works.

10. Not checking the authenticity of the guarantee

IVASS has repeatedly warned that fake surety policies circulate on the market. Before relying on any guarantee, confirm that the issuer is a supervised company and that the policy is genuine and verifiable. A guarantee that turns out to be invalid does not just get rejected — it can leave the company exposed exactly when it believed it was covered. Rely only on industry professionals, such as the consultants at italiafideiussioni.it.

Before you rely on any policy, learn how to verify if a VIES guarantee is valid.

The common thread

None of these ten mistakes is about money. They are all about form: the right document, drafted in the right way, made out to the right beneficiary, submitted in the right order. Get the formal side right the first time and the VIES guarantee becomes a single, predictable step rather than a series of submissions.

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