Company cars, Viano (Aniasa): it is the order date and not the delivery date that decides the tax burden

Some saved, but not all. An amendment by the rapporteurs, Gianluca Caramanna (FdI) and Andrea Barabotti (Lega), has been fished out of the bill decree, which excludes from the fiscal squeeze introduced with the last budget law on fringe benefits for company cars, vehicles ordered by employers by 31 December 2024 and granted in mixed use to employees from 1 January 2025 to 30 June 2025. The higher tax burden introduced by the budget law for 2025 has so far caused serious damage to the car rental sector, and to the company fleet sector in particular, as regulatory uncertainty, increased taxation and, at the same time, increased price lists have in fact slowed down if not stopped orders altogether. We talk about this in a video interview published on the Sole 24 Ore website with Alberto Viano, president of Aniasa, the national association of the car rental, sharing mobility and digital automotive industry.

The perfect storm that has hit the medium- and long-term car rental market has caused a flurry of non-orders. Viano is certain of this, explaining that 'Taking last year as a reference, we should have had at least the same number of orders and registrations, while the independent car rental companies are reporting minus 20 per cent. That means for the first quarter minus 20 thousand cars, for the whole year minus 80 thousand'.

The hope of hirers, companies and employees now rests in the safeguard clause for the management of the transitional period between the old tax regime and the new one in force from 1 January 2025. A clause that now reappears, after the failure of the Milleproroghe decree, in a new amendment to the bill decree under discussion in the House. 'The amendment certainly has a strong point,' says Viano, 'which is that of trying to settle the whole transitional part between the fringe benefit regulation, valid until 31 December last year, and the subsequent one. So the spirit is positive from the point of view of the text itself, our hope is that it makes everything as clear as possible'.

But the clause as it is now written could generate further discrimination and unequal treatment. The amendment to the Bills Decree sets 30 June 2025 as the limit for vehicle deliveries that will be able to discount the more favourable tax regime in force until 31 December 2024. Viano is in no doubt about this: 'The element that drives taxation must be the placing of the order by the employee, which is the moment when the employee was aware of the taxation in force'. The appeal of Aniasa's president is for 'common sense to prevail, also because delivery times can sometimes be extended by contingent factors that are in no way opposable to the person who placed that order: a wrong batch or a defect in the car. And it is totally unfair that that vehicle should then receive a different taxation than expected. That is why I think the prevailing rule should refer more to the placing of the order than to the actual delivery. Having said that, in the first six months if we have to cut the problem, we consider the vast majority of cars to be fully granted. And in that sense the sooner the regulation comes the better'. On the one hand for the worker easier taxation, on the other hand, recalls the chairman of Aniasa, 'let's not forget that the increase in income in kind also leads to higher costs for companies in terms of contributions and provision for severance pay. So companies and employees are on the same side in trying to minimise this cost'.

In the name of the green transition, however, the regulation of the budget law has brought about a step change in company car taxation. "A step change that certainly goes in the direction of favouring electric (10%) and plug-in (20%). The problem,' Viano emphasises, 'is that, however, as we are seeing the problems and not wanting to accelerate a transition that seems very difficult to sustain industrially, this new taxation criterion is a little too projected into the future, running the risk of causing a further slowdown for the automotive sector, right down to hybrid cars let's not forget, and an increase in costs for employees. To incorporate a shift towards electric and plug-in, which today even the government seems to have judged a little reckless, it is both employees and the entire automotive market that pay the price.