Giuseppe Bernoni on the importance of people in SMEs

Corriere della Sera - 6 June

Giuseppe Bernoni was interviewed by Corriere della Sera (one of the major Italian newspapers), together with Renato Mason, Chairman of the Association of small-medium enterprises of Metstre on the topic of SMEs’ investment in human resources.

“The cost of labour needs to be reduced” – declared Bernoni – “but, as always, the main problem is how to find the money needed to implement changes. The State budget is not at all thriving and therefore an increase in tax revenues is needed. To this end, there is a draft anti-avoidance law (Irpef-IresPlus substitute tax) which could lead to positive results.

“The draft law” - explains Bernoni – “provides for the application to those who state in their tax returns a 10% increase over the previous FY (even in case a small income or even no income was reported in the previous FY) of a 15% tax rate, with reliefs also in case of tax assessments and social security contributions. Such a measure could be a valid solution, considering that according to the statistics, tax evasion is at its highest point”.

Tax incentives

In the scenario above, which are the incentives available to SMEs?

“Some major changes are already underway, for both SMEs and professionals. For example, the 2019 budget law introduced the extension of the 15% flat rate (increased from 30 to 65 million Euro). From what we could see as chartered accountants, the involved taxpayers’ response to this measure was extremely positive

The tax rate will be increased to 20% in 2020. Another positive sign is that the 5% rate for newly incorporated companies in the first three years of activity is still in force. A benefit which is still having positive outcomes: VAT-registered increased by 14% in Q1 2019”.