New Transition 5.0: resource constraints pose a hurdle to extending the cloud bonus
Little prospect of change in the short term. The Mimit is lukewarm on the idea of vouchers
Key points
The final version of the implementing measure for new Transition 5.0 held no further surprises: software operating in cloud computing mode is excluded from the incentive scheme. The interministerial decree issued by the Ministry of Enterprise and Made in Italy (MIMIT) and the Ministry of the Economy (MEF) was published on Thursday 11 June, and on Friday 12 June the GSE platform went live, on which businesses can upload preliminary project notifications, but software provided in as a service (SaaS) mode, i.e. via subscription fees, and as such not subject to traditional depreciation, is not eligible for hyper-depreciation.
Excluding SaaS
The exclusion stems from technical objections raised by the State Accounting Office regarding the first version of the implementing decree, which instead contained a broad interpretation, along the lines of what occurredthe context of the hyper-amortisation provided for in the 2019 Budget Law, which included cloud-based software amongst the intangible assets eligible for incentives, limited to the portion of the subscription fee attributable to the individual tax period during which the incentive applies. In any case, according to what has been pieced together, there is currently little scope for envisaging a rethink in the short term through any primary legislation.
At the most recent Confindustria general meeting, the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni – “It is right and sensible to consider including investments in software and the cloud within the incentives; I believe we must come to terms with the world we are moving towards,” was one passage from her speech. For his part, the Minister for Enterprise and Made in Italy, Adolfo Urso, speaking on the sidelines of the meeting, was keen to point out that the Mimit proposal also covered the cloud: “We are now,” he added, “working with the Ministry of the Economy to ensure it is included.”
Match deadlocked
However, the technical discussions have not yet broken the deadlock. The Ministry of the Economy is said to have put forward the idea of identifying a different type of new incentive for cloud-based software, perhaps in the form of vouchers/grants (in addition to existing measures), in order to circumvent the problem that arises from the fact that a product paid for via subscription fees falls outside the scope of the traditional depreciation rules on which the large tax deduction under the new Transition 5.0 plan is based.
A solution that does not seem to have convinced, at least for the time being, the technical experts at Mimit, given that separating the cloud from Digitalisation 5.0, from a procedural and documentation perspective, could represent a complication for the companies themselves. In addition to the issue of resources, of course, as the vouchers could be funded from the Mimit budget rather than the Mef’s.
