With the Budget Law 2018 (Law 205/2017), the Italian legislator, continuing on the incentive path initiated with the introduction of significant tax and social contributions relief for entrepreneurs who activate corporate welfare plans through the stipulation and subsequent execution of union agreements of the 2nd level, has intervened in the field of Industry 4.0, again using the approach of tax incentives, allowing a bonus for the current year for the training of employees of high-tech companies.
In more detail, the Budget Law, in article 1 of the civil code 46 et seq., grants a tax credit, to the sum of 40% and within a maximum limit of € 300,000, to those companies that in 2018 incur costs (correction, investments) in training their employees on Industry 4.0 technologies.
In order to promote the technological alignment of Italy with the so-called "gig economies", the legislator has extended the aforementioned tax credit to "all companies, regardless of their legal form, the economic sector in which they operate and the accounting regime adopted".
The large audience of potential beneficiaries of the aforementioned bonus includes sole proprietorships, partnerships or capital companies and family businesses (but not professionals and, in general those who are self-employed), provided that the workers to be trained on the new technologies access the training through agreed "corporate or territorial collective agreements" (in this regard, even if law 205/2017 does not specify it, it seems plausible to believe that the legislator had the intention of referring to the collective agreements referred to in Article 51 of Legislative Decree 81/2015).
It is therefore desirable that the trade unions collaborate effectively with the employer, taking a proactive attitude towards new forms of bargaining which are able to incorporate the changing socio-economic context of reference, with a view to promoting the professional growth of employees and, in this way, increasing the competitiveness and productivity of national companies (the leitmotiv, which had already animated, a few months ago, the legislator when he was preparing to apply the law in the field of agile work - so-called "smart working" - referred to law 81/2017).
Continuing with the examination of the recent incentive provisions, it should be noted that the basis for calculating the tax credit is represented by the cost of the employees to the company for the period in which they are occupied in the training activities in question (and, therefore, not the cost of training courses themselves).
Pending the issuance of the implementing decree scheduled for the end of March, established in article 1, comma 48, Law cited, stated that only those initiatives aimed at the acquisition or consolidation of "knowledge of the technologies provided by the National Industry 4.0 Plan" (now, Enterprise 4.0) and, therefore, relevant to the sectors big data and data analysis, cloud and fog computing, cyber security, cyber-physical systems, rapid prototyping, visualization systems and augmented reality, advanced and collaborative robotics, human-machine interface, additive manufacturing, internet of things and machines and digital integration of business processes, applied in the areas listed in Annex A" (sales and marketing, information technology, production techniques and technologies) are eligible for these tax credits, with the (understandable) exclusion of ordinary or periodic training activities in the field of health and safety in the workplace and, more generally, of the company's compliance with respect to "any other mandatory legislation on training" (paragraph 49, Article 1).
Finally, the Budget Law indicates the procedures for certifying the costs incurred for training activities for personnel (paragraph 50, Article 1), stating that these costs must be certified by the person appointed for the legal audit or by a registered professional in the register of statutory auditors, as well as those for the use of this bonus, establishing that the related tax credit will be usable only in compensation and starting from the tax period following the one in which the eligible costs were incurred.
In conclusion, with the regulatory intervention in question, which is worth 250 million euros for 2019 (paragraph 56, Article 1), it was intended to offer significant financial support to those companies (including foreign ones), regardless from their size and shape, that are willing to invest in the training of their staff and which are able to grasp and exploit the opportunities offered by the fourth industrial revolution.
The legislative novel is to be welcomed with great pleasure, in the hope that such initiatives, of reward for those who decide to "invest in the future", become a constant point in the agenda of our legislator's agenda, at the order to give continuity and stability to the policies of professional and industrial growth requested by many parties. (ET - MB)
