Green and digital transition, over 6 billion for new tax credits
Less than a year and a half for companies to complete investments. The complexity of the projects risks penalising SMEs and the Mezzogiorno. Expenditure on training can be subsidised
3' min read
3' min read
Immersed for seven years now in the rules of the Industry 4.0 plan, companies must now quickly enter a new investment philosophy.
The tax credits of the new plan of the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy (Mimit), renamed Transition 5.0, reward innovation projects in which the renewal of machinery in the spirit of digitisation must be linked to certified energy savings. A substantial change in the dynamics of capital goods-related expenditure.
The crossover between the two transitions - digital and green - has produced a 6.23 billion incentive scheme financed with Pnrr funds that only became operational with some delay on 7 August. So today, in front of companies willing to book themselves in for the tax credit, there is a window for investment that is decidedly narrow. The slowness of the implementation process has meant that less than a year and a half remains to complete investments.
From 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2025
The decree issued by Mimit, in agreement with the Economy and after hearing the Environment, puts in black and white the period from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2025 as the timeframe to be exploited, a meagre margin given the complexity of the documentary burdens to be produced and the grounding of projects. The possibility of giving companies at least a little more breathing space - with a waiver, for the first year, until 30 April 2025 at the source of a 50 per cent down payment - was in fact skipped in the transition from the initial drafts to the final text.
The main challenge, of which the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy and the Ministry of the Economy are well aware, is therefore to fully absorb the ceiling of over 6 billion without overruns that would undermine the commitments made to the European Commission under the NRP.
The tax credit grid, which goes up to 45% with a ceiling on eligible costs of 50 million per year, potentially has enormous attraction and this inspires optimism among government technicians. If anything, further reflection can be made on the transmissive level of the innovative drive for the benefit of the entire productive fabric. The response on the part of companies may, moreover, be uneven.
Already in the first days of activation of the portal for booking tax credits - on the www.gse.it website - there was more caution on the part of small companies than larger ones. The mix of certifications and other attestations to be uploaded, among other things in a complicated period such as August, as well as the very complexity of the projects to be put in place, with related commitments on energy efficiency and the use of renewable sources, could prove to be a divisive element.
