Even new businesses in the trade and tourism sectors can benefit from the contributions for youth and female entrepreneurship, provided for by Legislative Decree 145/13, the so-called "Destination Italy". The extension was inserted by the Finance and Productive Activities commissions and was kept by the assembly, in the text that should be approved today and sent to the Senate.
At Palazzo Madama there will only be time until February 21 for the conversion into law. To ensure the ratification of the provision, the Government could resort to a vote of confidence.
The contributions are the new version of the measures for self-employment, contained in legislative decree 185 of 2000. They are aimed at micro-enterprises and small enterprises, set up in any area of the country (not only in disadvantaged areas) for no more than a year, mainly by young people and women, in the form of a subsidized zero-interest loan to be repaid over a maximum of eight years. They cannot also be disbursed without a grant, as was the case in the 2000 version.
The investment admitted to the contribution must not exceed one and a half million euros and the financing can reach a maximum of 75 percent of the sum. New businesses must be set up as a company with at least half of the members and shareholdings represented by young people between 18 and 35 or by women.
While in the original version of the provision the new businesses had to have as their object the production of goods in the industry and handicraft sectors or the transformation of agricultural products or the provision of services to businesses, the Chamber introduced the extension to provision of services in any sector, "including initiatives in commerce and tourism".
Except for the corrections made by Legislative Decree 145, the rules and methods for selecting and disbursing public contributions remain those of Legislative Decree 185 of 2000.
