To ease the increasingly widespread social tension in many categories of self-employment, the Government must abandon the micro-aid policy implemented up to now, replacing it with extraordinary measures capable of mitigating the negative effects that the pandemic crisis is producing. Given the urgency, according to the CGIA Studies Office, it is necessary, for example, to "apply" for the current year the lockdown on the state taxes and provide heavier reimbursements than those distributed up to now. The artisans from Mestre estimate the resources that the Government should put in place by the end of July to save the economic activities hit by the pandemic crisis at another 80 billion euros. Barring the advent of new variants, thanks to the climatic conditions and the vaccination campaign, most likely in the height of summer we should be almost definitively back to "normality", or the pre-Covid situation.
• The tax lockdown would cost 28 billion
To avoid that the subsidies that will be disbursed to businesses in the coming months are used by the latter to pay taxes and contributions, it is necessary to "impose" the lockdown on state taxes, allowing VAT numbers and small businesses to save around this year 28 billion euros. An amount of significant size which, obviously, could be reduced by allowing the zeroing of the tax burden only to activities with revenues below a certain threshold or on the basis of the loss of turnover. This loss of revenue of 28 billion was estimated by assuming to allow all economic activities with a turnover in 2019 of less than one million euros not to pay personal income tax, IRES and IMU on the warehouses for the current year. . These companies, which amount to about 4,9 million units (equal to about 89 per cent of the national total), should still pay local taxes, so as not to cause liquidity problems to the Mayors and Presidents of the region. Lightened by the burden of an often unjust tax, for a year they would live with less anxiety, less stress and more serenity. Not only that, but with 28 billion saved we will lay the foundations to restart the country's economy.
• 50 billion for reimbursements and the coverage of fixed costs
Premier Draghi said this in recent weeks: "This is a year in which money is not asked, but is given". A shareable affirmation that the CGIA Study Office invites to be implemented in a reasonably short time. In addition to the zeroing of taxes, he hopes that the executive will put on the table at least another 50 billion euros by July that will allow to reimburse the losses suffered by companies to a greater extent and also allow to compensate a good part of the fixed costs incurred. Modalities, the latter, which France and Germany have applied for some months, having transposed the new provisions introduced by the EU on state aid to companies. Fixed costs (such as rents, insurance, utilities, etc.) which, despite the obligation to close and the consequent zeroing of revenues, unfortunately economic activities continue to sustain.
• Another 80 billion which are added to the 65 already allocated
In this year of Covid, the Conte and Draghi governments have made € 64,7 billion of direct aid available to Italian companies. Money that in large part has yet to be disbursed. The CGIA Studies Office estimates that up to now Italian entrepreneurs have benefited from 27 billion euros, while the resources attributable to the 2021 Budget Law and those attributable to the "Sostegni decree" will carry out their effects mainly during this year. . The additional 80 billion proposed in this note would bring the amount of direct subsidies to businesses to a figure that would reach 145 billion euros. An amount that would affect less than 8 per cent of public expenditure incurred by Italy in the two-year period 2020-2021.
• 60 percent of small businesses are at risk
From the Istat survey held towards the end of 2020, 62 percent of the companies interviewed stated that they expected a decrease in revenues also in the first 6 months of 2021. The crisis, however, mainly affected small businesses. Almost 60 per cent of businesses with fewer than 50 employees reported being at high risk: the effects of this situation would be attributable to liquidity problems (58,1 per cent) and the fall in domestic demand (34,1 per cent). percent). The difficulties of small businesses are present in all productive sectors, but are relatively more widespread in construction, trade, catering, entertainment and personal services. Their distribution on the territory sees them concentrated in particular in 11 regions: seven are located in the South, one in the North (autonomous province of Bolzano) and three in Central Italy (Lazio, Umbria and Tuscany).
• More public debt to save the economy
The data mentioned above leave no doubt: if we do not help small entrepreneurs, they risk closing down permanently and with them a good part of private employees risk finding themselves on the street. We recall that in companies with fewer than 50 employees, almost 65 percent of Italians work, net of public employees and financial services. If we want to help businesses economically, we have no alternative: we are forced to "flood" them with resources that will consequently increase our public debt to impressive levels (in 2020 it was 155 percent of GDP). Thanks above all to the action of the ECB, the current situation is however very different from that experienced during the crisis of 2011-2012, where many international operators and institutions questioned the solvency of our country. As we pointed out above, currently around 65 per cent of our debt is held by Italian banks / insurance companies, households and businesses. Furthermore, families can count on almost 10 trillion euros of resources between financial savings and real estate assets. A figure that is approximately 4 times the absolute value of our public debt. These numbers comfort us and tell us that if we want to keep small businesses alive we have to widen the purse strings. Difficult choice to make but obligatory. In fact, in the coming decades we will bring the public debt back to acceptable levels only by returning to growth, only if we are able to produce GDP. Conditions that will occur if we still have small businesses alive and capable of producing wealth and employment.
