No more salary paid in cash. Indeed, the 2018 Budget Law prescribes that from 1 July employers or clients they will no longer be able to pay their salary in cash directly to employees. Parliament therefore wanted to send out a clear signal: that of curbing the fairly widespread practice of paying employees a salary lower than the limits set by collective bargaining, and in doing so protect the worker who receives amounts that do not correspond to what is written in the payslip .
The new law provides for the following forms of payment for subordinate employment contracts, cococo and cooperatives:
- transfer;
- electronic payment instruments; delivered bank check or circular;
- also in cash but only at a bank or post office counter where the employer has opened a treasury current account with payment mandate.
Compulsory traceability of the payment is excluded in some particular cases, but extended to others. For example, the law does not apply to contracts stipulated with the Public Administration and the payment of caregivers and domestic helpers who work at least four hours a day for the same employer (ie those who fall within the scope of application of national collective agreements for family and domestic service workers).
SHOPS, TOURISTS AND GAMES
For the retail and similar businesses or travel agents the cash limit, on the other hand, is raised to 10 thousand euros. It should be noted, however, that the limit only applies to transfers concerning the purchase of goods and provision of services related to tourism and carried out by non-EU subjects who have residence outside the Italian territory. Finally, in the gaming sector it is possible to use cash for bets of up to 3 euros, as well as for the related winnings.
I BUY GOLD AND MONEY TRANSFER
From 5 July, for "buy gold", cash can only be used for transactions up to €499,99. For transactions equal to or greater than 500 euros, however, the ban on contacts is triggered (halved compared to the 1000 euros previously envisaged). Not only that but the "buy gold" is required to use a current account dedicated exclusively to these operations.
The law continues in the direction of the fight against cash payments, which had already begun with the anti-money laundering Legislative Decree of 2017 which provides that the transfer of cash, made in any capacity between different subjects, be they natural or legal persons, it is prohibited when the value being transferred is equal to or greater than 3 thousand euros (reduced to one thousand euros in the case of money transfer).
The foreseen fine ranges from 3 to 50 euros. Indeed, according to the latest data provided by the ECB, cash is resilient in the euro area: it is still worth 78,8% of the number of transactions, for 53,8% of the value.
