Superbonus, Bankitalia: 'Immediate stop if the new decree fails'

Immediate stop to the superbonus. Before its natural expiry date of the end of 2025. The extreme measure is evoked by Bankitalia in a memorandum filed with the Senate Finance Committee, where the examination of the law converting the Dl n. 39/2024, which at the end of March almost completely blocked credit assignment and invoice discounting, is underway.

The latest decree, for the Bank of Italy, 'represents a necessary step to reduce uncertainty about the costs of the superbonus; the experience of last year's decree-law no. 11 would seem to advise against any relaxation of the original text for the sake of its effectiveness'. Therefore, no derogations, as was done a year ago with the previous decree. If, then, 'not even the new restrictions should curb the accumulation of credits, the only way left to go,' warns the memoir, 'would be the elimination of the superbonus before its natural expiry at the end of next year.

For the future, a change of line is needed. Tax credits of a 'potentially significant size and with innovative features should be accompanied by ceilings on expenditure, both overall (like those established by DL 39 for earthquake zones) and for each beneficiary'. The rates, then, 'should never approach 100 per cent. Moreover, an exhaustive information base and an effective real-time cost monitoring mechanism should be put in place already at the design stage of the measures. Finally, the results of the monitoring should be made public in a clear and timely manner'.

If the cost of the Superbonus turned out to be much higher than estimated, in fact, 'this is also due to significant limitations in the design of the intervention. The ex-ante assessment of the costs was particularly complex, both because of the automatic nature of the benefit and because of the difficulty in estimating how the transferability would interact with the very generous relief rate. Moreover, the exceptional level of the latter (over 100 per cent) cancelled out the taxpayer's incentive to contain investment costs'.

Once the superbonus is over, the need will remain for our country to equip itself with a system of incentives for improving the energy efficiency of homes. "An effective policy," Via Nazionale concludes, "will have to be based on a broad and solid data base. At the moment, for example, 'there is a lack of an accurate picture of the current energy efficiency conditions of Italian buildings and their exposure to hydrogeological risk'.