La manovra 2025

Facilitated investments

Ires premium, purchase of capital goods to be made by 31 October 2026

The tax remains pegged to the Transition 4.0 and 5.0 plans. Income benefit also for those excluded from tax credits due to exhaustion of funds

by Gian Paolo Ranocchi and Lorenzo Pegorin

30 December 2024

Ires ridotta, bonus elettrodomestici, autostrade: le novita' della manovra

2' min read

Key points

Premium IRES for investments made until 31 October 2026

2' min read

Ires bonus only for the 2025 tax year for companies that invest in technologically advanced capital goods. In the deduction of the conditions provided for the reduction of IRES from 24 to 20 per cent, the 2025 manoeuvre (paragraphs 436-444) also imposes the constraint of investing a share of income in capital goods indicated in Annexes A and B of Law 232/2016, as well as Article 38 of Decree-Law 19/2024.

In particular, Paragraph 436 provides that at least 80 per cent of the profits realised in the tax period ending 31 December 2024 must be set aside as available reserves and that these profits must remain in equity (i.e. not distributed) for at least three years (2024-2025-2026).

The second rule - which is actually a twofold condition - requires that no less than 30% of the 80% of retained earnings in 2024, and in any event no less than 24% of the earnings for the year ending 31 December 2023, be allocated to:

Ires premium for investments made until 31 October 2026

The rule speaks of investments made in 2025, and more precisely up to 31 October 2026, for which the rules of realisation under Article 109 of the Income Tax Code are deemed to apply (principle of law 4/2023 of the Revenue Agency).

The benefit ceases to apply if such investments are disposed of, transferred to third parties, used for purposes unrelated to the business activity, or permanently allocated to production facilities located abroad, even if belonging to the same entity, within the fifth tax period following the one in which the investment was made.

It is also specified that - although waiting for the decree of the MEF provided for in paragraph 444, which will be adopted to implement the rules, also in order to introduce provisions for coordination with other rules of the tax system - there does not appear to be any incompatibility between the reduced IRES rate and the '4.0' and '5.0' tax relief schemes. In other words, the relief does not exclude the possibility of also being able to benefit from these tax credits. Conversely, in order to benefit from the 20 per cent IRES, there is no need to also benefit from the tax credits.

Let us explain. In light of the squeeze introduced by paragraphs 445-448 of the manoeuvre for tangible assets purchased after 1 January 2025 and not 'booked' by the date of publication of the Budget Law, the 4.0 tax credits will be granted up to a limit of 2.2 billion in total resources, with allocation by Mimit on the basis of the chronological order of investment notifications.

If the taxpayer, despite the investment made, were to be excluded from the ranking for access to this benefit, he could still access the mini-Ires. Similarly, those who were excluded from the 5.0 due to 'exhaustion of funds' could still avail themselves of the IRES benefit.

The rule, in fact, merely speaks of new capital goods belonging to the above-mentioned categories, but does not establish a cause/effect relationship between the facilitation disciplines.