Perhaps it is not manna from heaven, but a parachute yes, and apparently, awaiting further details from Rome, even a rather large one, for a softer landing than families and businesses feared. This should be the effect (still yet to be seen) of the decree approved yesterday in the Council of Ministers on the construction Superbonus, which in Sicily is keeping half the population and thousands of companies in suspense in Sicily with stranded loans for months, amounting to approximately 500 million euros. Not an extension of the measure, but a sort of “amnesty”, in the air for days after the chorus of appeals raised by consumers and employers’ associations to make the transition of the tax deduction from 110% to 70%, expected on New Year’s Eve, as painless as possible .
Well, after the welter of hypotheses circulated at Christmas, here is the government’s ad hoc law, drawn up in a hurry: the tax credit will be recognized for all the works carried out and certified by 31 December 2023, and while for the works still to be carried out the 70% bonus is confirmed, taxpayers with an ISEE of less than 15 thousand euros are guaranteed 110%, also for the portion of works not activated on 31 December. In essence, anyone who does not complete the construction works by next Sunday will not find themselves in the position of having to repay all the credits accrued up to that point.
Furthermore, for renovations not completed by 31 December, the State will compensate for the gap from 110 to 70%, using the Poverty Fund, the access methods for which will be established by the Mef. In this way, the less well-off will not have to bear the difference, while entrepreneurs, in addition to not having to return the sums already obtained, will be able to benefit from 110% for the works already activated and not yet finished. However, the proposal for an extraordinary SAL (work progress status) as of 31 December 2023, which would have allowed 110% to be obtained even on works carried out by the end of the year but not included in the previous SALs, did not pass: a measure which, according to the opinion of the technicians, it would not have been compatible with the state budget.
However, Santo Cutrone, president of ANCE Sicilia, the builders’ association, says he is satisfied, «while waiting to read the text of the decree», «because in this way the weakest groups are protected, which on the island represent the majority of the beneficiaries of the Superbonus, while for those who have not yet completed the construction sites there will be no revocations on the Sal previously issued. Of course, an extension of the 110% measure for at least another month would have been preferable, but those 500 million euros stranded in the tax drawers of the Sicilian companies involved” – around 14 thousand, including related industries – “should be safeguarded, while waiting for the taps of banks and financial institutions reopen again.”
Meanwhile, according to data from the Enea agency, 18% of the building renovations started or planned on the island remain to be completed, for a total of one billion euros still to be put to use compared to the 5.7 already eligible for deduction. More in detail, by share of works to be completed in percentage terms, the highest part of the mountain to climb is on the side of the 5,161 condominiums finished in the bonus match, incomplete at 24%, followed by multi-family houses, with 18,670 structures involved on 10th % of which are stalled, and independent real estate units, with 7% of units to be finished compared to the 4,209 registered. Obviously, behind these numbers there are the “exodus” of the bonus: thousands of families forced to move elsewhere waiting to see the construction sites completed.