FINANCIAL & TAX INCENTIVES IN ITALY

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Program to relaunch areas affected by industrial crisis (Law 181/89)
The program is aimed at relaunching industrial activities, safeguarding employment levels, supporting inve- stment programs and entrepreneurial development in areas affected by industrial and sector crises.

Companies set up as joint-stock companies, cooperative societies and consortium companies are eligible for benefits.
Initiatives that are eligible for facilitations are:
• The once that provide for the implementation of production investment programs and / or investment programs for environmental protection, possibly supplemented by projects for the innovation of the organization, with eligible expenses not lower than 1.5 million euro;
• The once that involve an increase in the number of employees of the production unit involved in the investment program.
Incentives are granted in the form of:
• contribution for the purchase of fixed assets,
• direct contribution to the expenditure;
• soft loan.
The soft loan is equal to 50% of eligible investments. The contribution for the purchase of fixed assets and the direct contribution to the expenditure is not less than 3% of the eligible expenditure.
Agreements for Innovation
Companies of any size and with at least two approved financial statements, which carry out industrial, agro-in- dustrial, craft activity or industry services, as well as research activities, can have access to this procedure.
This incentive projects concerning industrial research and experimental development activities aimed at the creation of new products, processes or services or the significant improvement of existing products, processes or services, through the development of one or more of the technologies identified by the European Union Fra- mework Program for research and innovation 2014 – 2020, "Horizon 2020".
For the purposes of access to the incentive provided for by the Ministerial Decree of 24 May 2017 it is necessary that an Agreement for Innovation is defined between the Ministry of Economic Development and the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces involved and / or the proposing subject.
For the activation of the negotiation procedure aimed at defining the Agreement for Innovation, the proposing subject shall submit to the Ministry of Economic Development a project proposal containing at least:
• the name and the size of each proposing subject, as well as a description of the company’s profile, with particular reference to the technical-organizational structure and to the presence at national and international level;
• an updated strategic business plan;
• the description of each project, indicating the objects, the start and ending dates, the production units involved and the expected costs;
• the type and the amount of the incentive required for the implementation of each project.
The above-mentioned documentation shall be sent electronically through certified mail at the address dgiai.se- This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Once received the project proposal, the Ministry of Economic Development will start the interlocutory phase with the Regions and the Autonomous Provinces and to evaluate the strategic validity of the proposed initiative by analyzing the following elements:
• relevance of the initiative in terms of technological developments and degree of innovation of the ex- pected outcomes;
• industrial interest in the realization of the initiative in terms of ability to encourage innovation of spe- cific sectors or economic segments;
• direct and indirect effects on the employment level of the productive sector and / or of the reference territory;
• national value of the interventions from the point of view of the multiregional impacts of the initia- tive;
• possible ability to attracts foreign investments, also through the consolidation and expansion of fo- reign companies already present on the national territory;
• ability to strengthen the presence of Italian products in market segments characterized by strong in- ternational competition.
In the event that the evaluations are concluded with a positive outcome, the Agreement for Innovation is defined. The right to the benefit does not automatically follow the Agreement, but it is rather subordinated to the pre- sentation of the executive projects and the subsequent evaluation by the Managing Entity.
More specifically, an application shall be submitted based on a specific form provided by the Ministry of Eco- nomic Development, together with a technical sheet, a development plan, a declaration in substitution of an affidavit concerning the accounting data and a declaration in substitution of an affidavit regarding the require- ments to access the benefit. The application can be submitted only electronically, through the procedure avai- lable at http://fondocrescitasostenibile.mcc.it.
Once the Managing Entity has concluded his evaluation activity, the results are sent to the Ministry that – in case of positive outcome – notifies the proposing subject.
The incentive can consist of:
• a direct contribution to expenditure for a minimum percentage of 20% of eligible costs and expenses (to which a defined variable part may be added in relation to available regional financial resources);
• a soft loan, if provided for by the Agreement, up to a limit of 20% of the eligible costs and expenses (to which a defined variable quota can be added in relation to the available regional financial resour- ces).
INVITALIA Development Contract
The so-called “Development Contract” (Contratto di Sviluppo ) is focused on supporting greenfield or expansion projects of more than EUR 20 million (or EUR 7,5 million for food processing). It can consist of one or more connected and functional projects (investment and R&D&I), also presented in joint form, in the following sec- tors:
• Manufacturing;
• Food processing;
• Tourism (no R&D&I projects)
• Environmental protection.
Eligible investments are:
a) creation of a new production plant;
b) expansion of an existing production plant;
c) reconversion of an existing production plant (manufacturing new products);
d) restructuring of an existing production plant, with:
• a fundamental change in the existing production processes, introducing innovations, or
• significant improvement in the existing production processes, in order to increase efficiency and/or flexibility (cost reduction, increase in product quality and/or processes, environmental impact reduction and work safety conditions improvement);
e) acquisition of an existing production plant, located in a priority area and owned by a company not subjected to bankruptcy proceedings in order to safeguard jobs.
The available time to complete the investment is 36 months.
The size of the company size and the precise location of the plant affect aid intensity:
• in the Southern regions (Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Apulia, Sardinia and Sicily): companies of any size (small, medium and large) can benefit from the incentive;
• outside the Southern Regions, large companies can benefit of the incentive only for the investments defined at letters a), c) and e) above.
http://www.invitalia.it/site/eng/home/what-we-do/supporting-large-investments/development-contract.html
The Development Contract may also be jointly carried out by multiple parties with the network contract (Law 33 of 9 April 2009). In this case, the specially appointed joint body acts as the representative of the Contract participants and shall take on all obligations towards Invitalia.
The incentives consist of grants and soft loans towards capital investment and towards research & experimen- tal development expenses, and investors must contribute financially at least 25% of the eligible costs.
The incentives will be the result of a negotiation established between proposing companies and the managing authority (Invitalia).
Projects presented by foreign companies, providing a minimum EUR 50 million investment, gain access to the “Fast Track” procedure (time shortening, “ad hoc” resource…).