In 2020 the economic burden of bureaucracy is expected to increase. Among the fulfilments imposed by the new "Crisis and Insolvency Code", the new provisions on contrasting the failure to pay the personal income tax withholdings of the companies working in subcontracting and the obligation extended to all companies to send the fees electronically , according to the CGIA Studies Office, SMEs will suffer an increase in overall bureaucratic costs of at least € 3,2 billion. Let's see the effects of the individual measures.
- New "Code of corporate crisis and insolvency"
To avoid the failure of SMEs, the legislator has introduced this anti-crisis code which also requires small-sized companies to appoint a control body made up of a board of statutory auditors or a single auditor or an auditor. Transaction which obliges, among other things, the modification of the corporate statute. The objective of this measure? Detect early the first signs of crisis of a company through the timely adoption of suitable measures to overcome it, when possible, or to regulate it, before the declared insolvency.
Are we so sure that thanks to this new alert system, many small businesses will avoid going bankrupt? Report the coordinator of the CGIA Studies Office, Paolo Zabeo:
"Although they could count on a high level management, on the contribution of external advisors, on the intervention of the boards of statutory auditors and on the supervision and control of the technicians of the Bank of Italy and Consob, companies such as Banca Etruria, Veneto Banca, Banca Popolare di Vicenza, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, Carige and Banca Popolare di Bari have gone bankrupt or are in a particularly delicate situation. These are or were credit institutions with economic, social and ethical responsibilities much higher than those of a hypothetical SME and despite the high number of accounting experts available, they closed or were saved in extremis, thanks to the intervention of external subjects ".
In other words, they ask the CGIA, are we sure that this measure, while acknowledging that it has noble intentions in the DNA, will not ultimately contribute to activating "only" some additional advice to many freelancers?
The costs of fulfilling the obligations imposed by the "Corporate Crisis and Insolvency Code" are very important: according to an analysis conducted by Cerved, on micro and SMEs they would amount to a total of 2,9 billion euros, even if over the years they could save the country's economic system about 6 billion. However, if the initial costs are certain, otherwise it will be very difficult to "quantify" the future benefits associated with the hypothetical failure of the company.
“Unfortunately, the times and costs of bureaucracy - says CGIA secretary Renato Mason - have become a drama that negatively characterizes a large part of the economy of our country. In particular, our companies, being mainly small in size, do not have internal administrative structures capable of dealing with these problems, therefore they are forced to resort to often very expensive consultancy. Also, SMEs need an efficient and economically advantageous public service, in which decisions are made without delay and the recipient is able to assess the duration of the procedures with certainty. Which, unfortunately, happens less and less ”.
- Tightening on contracts: obligation to send copy of payments withholding tax
With the fiscal decree connected to the 2020 Budget maneuver which was definitively approved in recent days, the obligation is now established, for those entrusting the completion of a work or service for an annual amount exceeding 200 thousand euros, to request the '' contractor or entrusted company and subcontracting companies, copy of the certificates of payment of the withholdings made on the salaries paid to the personnel employed in the execution of the works or services entrusted.
Fulfillment, recalls the CGIA, which has the aim of combating the non-payment of employee withholding tax; irregularities, the latter, very widespread in the construction sector.
In case of no reply, or if omissions or insufficient payments are found, the client must suspend the payment of the fees accrued by the company. Therefore, these provisions will oblige these activities to send the proxies and the information necessary to verify the payment of withholding taxes, obviously with additional costs that the CGIA Studies Office estimates at least 300 million euros per year. Among other things, a very complex operation, given that the high flexibility in the construction sector, for example, leads many small businesses to work for more than one client, even on the same day.
A load of new bureaucracy that could be avoided by introducing, also for Irpef withholding taxes, the same procedure that INPS uses to verify the correct payment of social security contributions, or the DURC (Single Document of Contributory Regularity). For the withholdings, obviously, the public contact person could only be the Revenue Agency.
- Electronic submission and storage of fees
Law Decree No. 119 of 2018 introduced the obligation to store and transmit telematic daily fees to the Inland Revenue; the operation must also be performed by retailers, artisans and assimilated subjects.
The obligation, which came into force on July 1, 2019 for companies with a turnover of over € 400.000, is extended to all other operators starting from January 1, 2020.
For small and micro companies, the electronic storage and transmission of the fees must be carried out through an electronic recorder. Among those who will have to buy it because by law until now they were not obliged to have it, who will have to replace it or will only have to update the one currently in possession, the CGIA Studies Office estimates the production units involved in the operation to be 1.600.000. Net of the tax benefits attributable to the amortization of the cost, the burden for each company is estimated at around 300 euros. To fulfill this obligation, therefore, small and micro companies will have to bear a total one-off cost of approximately 500 thousand euros. “Although it is a very small amount - declares the researcher of the Research Department Andrea Vavolo - this fiscal novelty has put many operators in serious difficulty, especially those of a certain age, who are not familiar with IT means. It cannot be excluded, therefore, that many of these, also due to this new requirement, will decide at the end of the year to permanently close the business ".
Until 30 June 2020, however, there will be a transitional period of suspension of the sanctions, although the obligation to send them is in force. Sanctions which, however, will apply in the event of the electronic transmission of data on the fees beyond the month following the month of carrying out the operation.
