'Subcontracting is part of the business'

"We are concerned". This is how Vanessa Pesenti, Ance vice-president in charge of taxation, began when she spoke of the contestations arriving in recent months. "At the beginning they were just a few reports, but as the days go by they are becoming more numerous and significant". In this context, then, 'we need to arrive at a definitive clarification, we have already had a meeting with the top management of the Inland Revenue, and tried to explain the methods of handling orders by companies. The meeting was certainly fruitful, and we know that there is attention on the subject'. The aim is to 'avoid contentiousness and burdens on companies that have correctly followed the rules'.

Turning to the substance of the matter, at the centre of his category's concerns is above all the issue of subcontracts. "These are checks that have no regulatory basis and are not even in line with what the Revenue Agency itself has established," says the vice-president, "because the activity of builders can be legitimately carried out either directly or through subcontracting. This is the central point of the position held by the association. "We are astonished," she continues, "by the change in approach, which somehow excludes subcontracting from the superbonus by now asking the client to pay these amounts separately.

Subcontracting, according to the builders, is one of the ordinary ways of managing a work, it was not forbidden under the superbonus and, for this reason, "we do not understand this ex post change of approach". The procedure followed by the companies, in other words, was perfectly in line with the rules: "The rule," Pesenti continues, "did not set prohibitions, the possibility of subcontracting was foreseen. Within the contract fees, the subcontractors paid the subcontractors and the company profit, as is only right; it is a different thing from the coordination activity. I would add that all the verifications were carried out on qualified companies that use the Ccnl costruzione and that have Soa, so they are totally in compliance with the regulations related to the superbonus. And there is also the fact that, with all the difficulties that there have been with the superbonus, our builders have been general contractors mainly to allow the work to actually be carried out. Finally, the objections related to the expenses for professional activities are also to be rejected: 'There was a rule that imposed not to put any marginality on this type of activity,' says the vice-president, 'and so it was done, there were no hidden margins'.