To help companies that deal with culture in various capacities, support can also come from taxation. For example, by introducing a deduction on families’ cultural expenses, with particular attention to the purchase of books, including school textbooks, and tickets for live shows, to “make culture an accessible good and an integral part of family welfare”. The proposal, with an eye to the budget law, comes from Impresa Cultura Italia of Confcommercio.
«Culture cannot remain a luxury for the few. Data from our Observatory tell us that over 75% of Italians recognize its value, but more than one citizen in four renounces cultural activities for economic reasons. The price barrier especially affects young people, families with children and those who live in peripheral areas” says the president of the association Carlo Fontana on the occasion of a meeting held in Confcommercio and to which Federico Mollicone, president of the Chamber’s Culture Commission, was also invited. Which responds to companies’ proposals with a warning and a promise. «Our objective is very clear and declared. Arrive within this legislature at the approval of a concrete measure that makes culture no longer a superfluous good, but an absolutely common good, accessible, recognized and fiscally supported” announces the FdI deputy.
In the immediate future, however, the measure must deal with who holds the spending reins in their hands. The “chasm” created by the Superbonus “has created great distrust on the part of the Mef and the State Accounting Office towards any form of deduction”, Mollicone tries to explain to the representation of entertainment companies, including Agis. In short, if «from a political point of view everyone agrees, majority and opposition, from a technical point of view we need to find a way to achieve it, at least in a segmented way. And for this reason – says Mollicone – a careful verification and quantification of the coverage necessary to make the proposal sustainable and concrete is underway at the Ministry of Economy and Finance”.
As for the proposal of Impresa Cultura Italia, «the tax lever can make the difference: recognizing a deduction even for a book or a ticket to the theater means affirming that culture is a primary good, an integral part of family well-being and of a modern vision of welfare» explains Fontana. In particular, Impresa Cultura Italia puts forward two operational proposals to encourage access to culture by both families and workers: the first consists in the introduction of a tax deduction mechanism for some cultural expenses incurred by families, the other aims to encourage the inclusion of some cultural expenses among the company benefits recognized to workers by employers, as part of the welfare measures subject to a favorable tax regime.
For Agis, explains the general secretary, Domenico Barbuto, the moment to intervene is precisely that of the maneuver (“if not now, when?”). Also because it would be a support for cultural consumption which, in addition to helping businesses, acts as a lever on the level of “training” of the public, especially young people, who are encouraged to “freely choose” their cultural path. From this point of view, tax support on consumption, Barbuto underlines, is fundamental: «It must not be an operation to support the lowest incomes, it must concern everyone».