Proposed Law 107 goes to extend a series of tax benefits to both direct and indirect investments, exercisable automatically when filing a tax return
Cerruti: “Another aspect we like about the proposal is that borrowing somewhat from a mechanism in place in the UK known as the Seed enterprise investment scheme, it tends to bind the investor to attend the sector in which he is invested.”
Work continues on Proposed Law 107 on promoting and developing startups and innovative SMEs through tax breaks and investment incentives. A measure that comes more than ten years after the last organic intervention dedicated to the made-in-Italy innovation ecosystem. And which follows a record year, investment front. We Wealth interviewed Francesco Cerruti, managing director of Italian Tech Alliance, who spoke last week at a hearing at the House Finance Committee as part of the examination of the bill to analyze its new features and timing.
“In our opinion, Bill 107 goes in the right direction, even considering that the Consolidated Act on startups dates back to 2012 and needs to be updated,” Cerruti noted. “Over the years, there have certainly been several provisions that have spoken to this world, but they have always been included in macro decrees. This proposal, on the other hand, denotes precise attention of the institutions that, among other things, we feel daily, both when we interface with the relevant ministries and with various parliamentarians.”
Pdl 107: what’s new for investors and startups
An interesting aspect, Cerruti continues, concerns the fact that the Centemero pdl goes on to extend a series of tax benefits to both direct and indirect investments (through collective investment undertakings and other companies that invest mainly in startups and innovative SMEs), which can be exercised automatically when filing a tax return. In particular, Article 2 intervenes in the regulation of the de minimis Irpef deduction “to allow its use even in case of incapacity of the taxpayer, that is, if the deduction exceeds the gross tax owed by the taxpayer,” Cerruti explains, citing the text of the documentation for the examination of the bill.
“Another aspect we like about the proposal is that borrowing somewhat from a mechanism in force in the United Kingdom known as Seis (Seed enterprise investment scheme), it tends to bind the investor to attend the sector in which he is invested,” Cerruti continues. “There is the possibility of obtaining an enhanced incentive when the investment is maintained for a minimum of three years, and part of the tax gain is reinvested in the same area.” In addition, Proposed Law 107 aims to raise the net worth limit for simple investment companies from 25 million to 50 million. “Considering that companies that decide to regulate themselves as simple investment companies are on the rise-although we are still on very low numbers compared to other countries, the hope is that doubling the threshold will also trigger an increase in the values of what individual entities have in their bellies and consequently in the values invested.”
Cerruti: “Streamline existing tax incentives”
“The provision is quite thin, as it is a scaled-down version of a bill that had already been proposed in the past legislature and had gone through the scrutiny of the State General Accounting Office, which had suggested that several proposals that were burdensome for the country be shelved,” Cerruti recalls. “We are confident there will be a green light from Parliament and the government. In parallel, our goal is to be a law text that somehow summarizes and makes all the legislation related to startups and innovative SMEs more organic. I am referring in particular to the rationalization of the current tax incentives, possibly with the overcoming of the de minimis regime; the need to accelerate the green light we are still waiting for from the European institutions on the de-taxation of capital gains; the need to launch a system of incentives to attract investments from both institutional and corporate investors; the strengthening of the mechanism of vertical funds of funds that insist in areas of interest for the Country System; and the reform of the mechanism of tax credit in research and development,” Cerruti hopes. “Finally, we believe it is appropriate to insist on the Startup Visa and Digital Nomads, which should make our ecosystem more attractive to foreign talent as well, in addition to facilitating hiring for young professionals.”
What will be the following developments?
“An optimization phase will open shortly, possibly including additional measures. The idea of the rule’s rapporteur Giulio Centemero is to bring it to the courtroom by the end of April. We believe it will slip between May and June, then there will be the House vote, and it will go to the Senate, which can propose and vote on amendments,” Cerruti explains. Based on this timetable, according to the expert, the final text of the rule could hopefully be fired between October and December.
