What do the E-Invoice symbols mean and what goes into each category? Learn how to sort pending invoices so you don’t miss any deductions.
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Taxpayers must manually validate their invoices if they are in the “pending” status or register them when they have not been communicated by traders/economic agents. In any of these cases, it is necessary to classify the expense that gave rise to the invoice, that is, indicate in which category it falls.
It is therefore important that taxpayers know what the E-Invoice symbols and what kind of expenses they correspond to, so that they can take advantage of all possible IRS deductions.
These symbols appear as soon as you access your personal E-Fatura page, where you will also find a summary of the provisional IRS deductions, that is, the amounts you have already accumulated in each of the categories.
Find out, then, what the E-Invoice symbols mean.
What do the E-Invoice symbols mean?
Health Expenses
This is the E-Invoice symbol for health expenses, most expenses should already be entered in the correct category. If you have a “pending” health bill, just choose this symbol.
If there are expenses subject to the normal VAT rate, they are also likely to remain “pending”. In this case, the taxpayer must indicate whether or not he has a medical prescription and the amount of the expense. This is because products/services with VAT at 23% are only deductible by the IRS if they have a medical prescription.
Education Expenses
If you have invoices for pending education or professional training expenses, such as school books or tutoring, this is the symbol you should use to classify them in the E-invoice.
On the other hand, tuition fees for public universities, although they are deductible education expenses with the IRS, only appear later on in the Finance Portal (and not in the E-Fatura). Don’t be surprised by the fact that you can’t find them there.
Housing Expenses
This is the symbol on the E-invoice for housing expenses, more specifically with house rents or mortgage interest (which can only be deducted from the IRS in the case of credits entered into until December 31, 2011).
However, none of these expenses will appear on the E-Fatura portal. They can only be consulted later on the collection deductions page, on the Finance Portal.
Expenses with Homes
To classify charges for nursing homes, home care and institutions that support the elderly, you must choose this symbol.
Note, however, that if the institutions providing this service are public, they are not obliged to issue an invoice. Therefore, these expenses do not appear in the E-Fatura. You can consult them later on the collection deductions page on the Finance Portal.
General Family Expenses
Classifying general family expenses (clothing, fuel, supermarket expenses, telecommunications, water, gas, among others) is usually what raises the most questions for taxpayers, as the corresponding symbol that appears at the beginning of the Portal is not available when it is to validate invoices. In this case, you must choose the “Other” option.
Car Repair Expenses
This symbol is used to classify expenses incurred with car repair and maintenance services. It includes parts, accessories and even tires, provided they are purchased together with the respective assembly service.
Expenses with Motorcycle Repair
Identical to the previous point, but referring to commercial activities, repair and maintenance of motorcycle vehicles.
Expenses with Catering and Accommodation
It includes hotel establishments with and without a restaurant (hotels, guesthouses, villages, etc.), holiday homes and other short-term accommodation, rural tourism, camping sites, among others, as well as restaurants, mobile catering activities, canteens , cafes, bars, pastry shops, cateringbeverage establishments, automatic food and beverage dispensing machines, etc.
Expenses with Hairdressers
Hairdressers and beauty institutes, including beauticians, manicures and pedicures.
Expenses with Veterinary Activities
Veterinary activities with and without hospitalization for farmed and companion animals, such as veterinary medical care provided in hospitals, clinics and kennels. It also includes medical-veterinary treatment (surgical, dental, etc.), diagnostic activities (clinical, laboratory, pathological and other) and transport of sick animals, as well as the acquisition of veterinary drugs.
Expenses with Monthly Passes
Deduction of expenses with the acquisition of monthly passes for the use of collective public transport.
Gym expenses
Don’t forget that you can also deduct expenses from service providers whose sector of activity is Sports and recreational teaching, Sports club activities and gym activities (fitness). These expenses fall under the same type of deduction as repairs to cars, motorcycles, accommodation and catering, hairdressing salons and beauty or veterinary institutes. That is, you can deduct an amount equivalent to 15% of the VAT you paid. Find out all the details in this article:
Article originally published in July 2019. Last updated in January 2023.
