The latest decree on the Superbonus, with the cancellation of the discount on the invoice and the transfer of construction credits, is now operational. And there is a race against time for those who, despite having complied with all the other criteria in the past, have made a mistake or have not communicated to the Revenue Agency that they have opted for the discount on the invoice and the transfer of credit for the works of 2023.
If you don't do it by April 4th, therefore in a few days, you will have to pay the invoice and then deduct it from the taxes on your tax return over several years. The rule, which is not easy to read due to its legislative references, is in the final text published in the Official Journal which will soon arrive in Parliament, for a political debate that will certainly be heated.
This trap is added to the fact that the block on the transfer will also apply to those who have sent the Notice of Commencement of Work (Cila) by 16 February 2023, therefore in good time, but have not yet made payments.
The rush to regularize the failure or incorrect communication is imposed by article 3 of the decree. The deadline for the so-called 'remission in bonis' has been extended to April 4th, which allowed any communications of credit transfer to be made or corrected by paying a 250 euro fine until October 15th.
Now not doing so will make it impossible to transfer the credit and return to the deduction regime on the tax return. However, the discount on the declaration, for the value of the amounts of the work, risks not being able to be used by those with low incomes and therefore are “incompetent” and have no taxes to pay.
In any case, the timescales will be very tight: to allow the remission into performing status there had already been postponements in the past, but now the arrival of the decree close to the Easter holidays will only allow for a few more days to get things in order.
The final text instead confirms that the stop to the invoice discount and credit transfer will not apply to properties damaged by the earthquakes in Abruzzo, Lazio, Marche and Umbria which occurred on 6 April 2009 and starting from 24 August 2016.
But with a “brick”: the exemption – it is written in the text – “is applied within the limit of 400 million euros for the year 2024, of which 70 million for the seismic events that occurred on 6 April 2009”. However, it is not excluded that other news arrives: “I am already working to replace the 110% with an increase in the parametric contribution”, wrote the commissioner for post-earthquake reconstruction, Guido Castelli, in the letter sent to the mayors of the seismic crater to explain however that “the sum of 330 million that I personally indicated to the Mef, as the necessary provision for the period April-December 2024, is absolutely sufficient for our needs”.
The heart of the decree is certainly the blocking of the transfer of tax benefits of bonuses for a whole series of situations that have been safeguarded so far: Third sector, Iacp, undivided ownership housing cooperatives. But it risks having a retroactive effect also on those who, respecting the decrees of the past, had presented the communication of the start of works, the so-called Cila, by 16 February 2023.
The government, in fact, stops invoice discounts and transfers to “dormant” CILAs, i.e. if “no expense has been incurred”, documented by an invoice, for work already carried out” on the date of 30 March, i.e. the date of entry into force of the decree. It is an obligatory choice to safeguard public finances, because the activation of these bonuses while still asleep risked having negative impacts on this year's deficit which the government could not calculate at the moment.
But it is also obvious that this will create difficulties for those who have started the works but have not yet made any payments: this is a more widespread practice than one might believe given that in many cases the works were financed with the “money tax” guaranteed by the superbonus discounts.
Someone has revived the word 'exodati' for those who find themselves in this situation and it is already clear that the decree, which has arrived in Parliament, will be at the center of a confrontation between the government and the majority and opposition political forces, in search of resources to meet who will be trapped by the new rules.