The race for offsetting between tax credits and debts continues. In the first six months of 2022, the recourse to the zeroing of taxes or contributions due using any tax credits recorded an increase, compared to the same period of 2021, of almost 3 billion (2.97 billion to be exact) . An increase in percentage terms of 19.7% between direct and indirect tax compensations and which in absolute value slightly exceed 18 billion in total.
The push of the aid package
The substantial aid package in the form of tax credits that the government has put in place to support above all companies and VAT numbers affected, first by the coronavirus health crisis and annexed forced closures, and subsequently by expensive energy and raw materials and by inflation which returned to fly above all with the war between Russia and Ukraine. Just think of the first bill decree and the tax credits granted to gas-intensive companies, so-called gasivores, to mitigate the price of bills in the first quarter of 2022.
VAT compensation and indirect taxes
In the first six months of the year, always according to the data released by d
ipartment
The maximum limit at 2 million
There is, however, another aspect that should not be forgotten. The maximum limit for compensation after being raised from 700 thousand euros to one million in 2020 has risen to 2 million in 2021 and has stabilized at this level this year. This made it possible to free up “fiscal space” especially for taxpayers who systematically accrue credits, as in the case of withholding agents, or companies and VAT operators more directly affected by split payment and reverse charge: two anti-fraud mechanisms that, despite the obligation of electronic invoicing (and recently with its extension), they have been maintained and involve a systematic credit position.
The anti-inflation aid
But, as anticipated, the strong push for incentives weighs heavily on the compensation system, both with the measures launched in the Covid era, with the building bonuses and now with the measures intended to counterbalance (even if only in part) the heavy energy price increases that have hit businesses (see the services on pages 2 and 3). It is enough to look at the very recent past to realize this. In 2021 (as emerges from the data reported in the report of the Court of Auditors on the general account of the State), the weight of the tax concessions item (about 11.6 billion) on the total compensation (equal to over 68.6 billion with an increase of 14 , 4% on 2020) was 17%. In fact, a “fiscal currency” effect was felt with the possibility of taking advantage of various tax credits when going to the cash desk to pay the payment proxies with F24.