STANDARD & LEGISLATION - UCIF Informs
Italy’s 2017 budget law: hyper-amortisation plans have come to life Marcello Zinno UCIF-Italian Surface Treatment Equipment Manufacturers’ Association, Milan, Italy
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used to give or change any surface characteristic of products and/or give any function to surfaces”). As regards these goods, however, the companies are not “simply” required to make expenditures in the form of investments and integration into their own production processes, but also to create an interconnection with other systems
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e would like to talk again about Industry 4.0 and hyper-amortisation plans. In our last article, we have written that, in the new stability law issued by the Italian Government, the old “showers” of general subsidies have been replaced with aids aimed at economically supporting specific corporate investments. This is in line with the Industry 4.0 concept. The goal is to help modernise the Italian industrial fabric, but also give it a higher level of competitiveness than those of other countries and continents. Intensive work coordinated by the Ministry of Economic Development has been carried out to choose the target sectors of these subsidies and the categories of goods (including their related functions and enabling factors) that will be the subject of horizontal fiscal incentives. The ANIMA Federation collaborated in the proposal of the sectors that are most in need for such incentives, in order to move with the times and enjoy the benefits that the Industry 4.0 will bring. Among various tax policies for growth, the Attachment A of the stability law, called “Goods for the technological and/ or digital transformation of enterprises into Industry 4.0 companies”, includes a list of material goods that can be the subject of such incentives. There is also a clear reference to the surface treatment industry (“tools and systems
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and/or devices in order to exploit the benefits in terms of modernisation ensured by the Industry 4.0 framework. The Attachment B of the law, on the other hand, refers to investments in intangible goods (software, systems and system integration, platforms and applications) and opens the way to a whole series of incentives for products that are not material goods but that can equally (if not more so) enhance the competitive value of a company, in the digital information era. Examples are referred to software, systems, platforms and applications for the design and
N. 43 - JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2017 - international PAINT&COATING magazine
re-design of the following: production systems able to take account of the material and information flows, virtual reality for the development of components and operations, artificial intelligence and machine learning systems, means of communication and data sharing (Industrial Internet of Things), industrial analytics for the treatment and processing of big data received from IoT sensors, and other advanced solutions. All these subsidies became a reality on January, 1st 2017, although the stability law was published on December, 21st in the Official Gazette. The presence of a hyper-amortisation tool, with an up to 250% amortisation rate of corporate investments, has been confirmed. Given the importance of this new tool, the Ministry of Economic Development plans to issue an explanatory guide for its application. The guide will provide companies, certification bodies and experts involved with the correct instructions for the application of the incentive. In order to speed up the process and write an effective and comprehensive guide, a working group has been created in which also the ANIMA Federation will be involved.