Contrast to precariousness through the squeeze on fixed-term contracts; anti-relocation provisions for businesses, with the obligation to safeguard employment levels for those benefiting from state aid; early farewell to the spend meter (already destined to be filed in 2019 and to the income meter; postponement of the entry into force of the e-bill for petrol stations; and fight against gambling addiction, with the total stop to gambling commercials. These the main points of the draft of the Dignity Decree which the Minister of Welfare and Economic Development Luigi Di Maio is working on and which should arrive on the table of the Council of Ministers already within this week.
With the dignity decree, Di Maio underlined a few days ago, "everything that puts a spanner in the works of citizens and businesses must be simplified or eliminated altogether in the coming months". The challenge for the Minister of Labor and Economic Development is therefore that "to review those rules that are making citizens' lives hell". It starts from the overcoming of the Jobs Act, launched by the Renzi government, starting with the modification of the discipline of fixed-term contracts up to the tax package and the tightening on companies that relocate or that do not maintain employment levels after receiving state aid.
TERM CONTRACTS
Fixed-term contracts will once again be more expensive for companies, the ceiling will be four extensions (today there are five), with the maximum time limit remaining at 36 months but each renewal starting from the second will have a contribution cost increasing by 0,5% and the deadline for contesting it is also increased to 270 days. Reasons also come back. The types of justifications for a forward contract will be: temporary and objective needs, connected to temporary, significant and non-programmable increases, or related to seasonal activity peaks. The causal is mandatory at the first renewal (therefore not for the first contract) and for those beyond 12 months.
BUSINESSES
For some time now, the political leader of the 5 Star Movement has made it clear that he wants to punish companies that relocate. The text provides that companies that have received state aid that relocate their activities before ten years have passed, penalties of 2 to 4 times the benefit received will arrive. It is also envisaged that the same benefit will be returned with interest increased by up to 5 percentage points. Hyper-depreciation will also have to be recovered, with a 'recapture' mechanism, in the event of relocation or sale of investments. If the granting of state aid provides for an assessment of the impact on employment, the benefits are revoked in whole or in part to those who reduce "the employment levels of workers in the production unit or in the activity affected by the aid in the following ten years on the date of conclusion of the initiative”.
TREASURY
In the tax package, to the satisfaction of the fuel distributors who had sounded the alarm on the timing, the postponement to 1 January 2019 of the electronic invoice obligation for the purchase of fuel by VAT numbers, who will also be able to keep the fuel card until the end of the year. The measure should only apply to retail sales and not to the entire supply chain (with an estimated cost of between 30 and 50 million euros). Among the correctives to the split payment, the possible stop for professionals (about 35 million) and an acceleration of the timing of VAT refunds. Also foreseen is the abolition of the income meter, given the "really limited" use of the instrument, and a postponement of the cumulative sending of the data of the expense meter to 31 December (the next deadline would be September), which will then also be set aside, in advance compared to the previous legislation.
LUDOPATHY
Total stop to gambling commercials, which from 2019 will also be used for sponsorships and "all forms of communication", including "visual and acoustic citations and the superimposition of the name, brand, symbols". To those who won't respect the ban a fine of 5% of the value of the sponsorship or advertisement will come, with a “minimum amount of 50.000 euros”. Proceeds will go to the anti-gambling fund. Penalties ranging from 100 thousand to 500 thousand euros remain for those who violate the ban during shows dedicated to minors.
THE TIMES OF THE MEASURE
A date has not yet been set for the Council of Ministers which will deal with the dignity decree. It is probable that in the end the dignity decree will be passed in two stages: the postponement of the e-invoice immediately (which otherwise would start in July) and the work package later.
