Rome, 22 March (beraking latest news Salute) – Although the Covid-19 emergency has led to the awareness of the absolute need for a serious policy of investment in scientific research and technology, economic data indicate how the coronavirus emergency has had a restrictive impact on the expected spending by companies in Research & Development, for which a drop of almost 5% is expected in 2020 (-4.7% compared to 2019, -2.9% compared to 2018), while there is a 3% growth in that of public institutions, while that of private non-profits remained stable. This is what is stated in the Report on ‘fiscal expenditure’ with particular reference to the Research and Development tax credit, approved today by the central control section on the management of the State Administrations of the Court of Auditors.
The survey concerns “the analysis of regulatory developments and the assessment of management profiles (coverage and effectiveness of the measure, relationships between direct expenditure and tax expenditures in R&D, controls) of the tax credit for investments in research and development”. From the examination of the regulatory evolution and of the management data it emerges that the elimination of the legal limit of the disbursable expenditure, originally envisaged by Legislative Decree 145 of 2013, but in reality never implemented and then modified starting from 2015, led difficulties in governing the evolution of fiscal expenditure and the lack of suitable tools for controlling the evolution of expenditure, the effects of which have been accentuated by the progressive subjective and objective extension of the intervention.
In fact, between January 2015 and December 2018, the size limits of the turnover of the economic subjects admitted to the tax credit were removed, requiring, in this regard, only an annual expenditure for research activities equal to at least € 30,000 (requirement unchanged in the time) and gradually increased the percentage parameters of eligible expenses (from 25% to 50%) and the maximum annual amounts for each beneficiary (passed from 2.5 million to 5 million and then to 20 million until 31.12.2018) . The administration was then deprived of one of the parameters for verifying the effectiveness of the measure, excluding those for patents from the eligible costs.
Some of these critical issues, probably – we still read in the Report of the Court of Auditors – were clearly present to the legislator, who in fact brought forward to 2019 the termination of the operational period of the tax credit for investments in R&D introducing, with the Budget Law 2020, changes that aim to limit the use of credit to investments in research and development that are more efficient in terms of contribution to innovation and to allow more stringent controls on the legitimacy of the use of credit.
In conclusion, the Report states, the Court of Auditors judged the attention of the legislator to be “positive” for the support and promotion of research, as demonstrated by the measures introduced by the Budget Law for 2020 which, “in closing the experience of the previous institute has renewed its discipline by providing tax credit for investments in research and development, in ecological transition, in technological innovation 4.0 and other innovative activities “.