The superbonus affair was complicated before and now with the credits that have remained stranded it is becoming even more so. Nineteen billion euros of credits that construction companies have created with the discount on customer invoices, i.e. families and condominiums, are now a very heavy burden to dispose of.
The director of the Revenue Agency Ernesto Maria Ruffini had made it easy last Thursday when, in a hearing in the Chamber, he said that credit institutions and companies have tax spaces, that is, they can offset the credits with their debts to the State, for an amount of 2023 billion in 17,4: 7,2 billion due to credit institutions and 10,2 billion to insurance companies.
The accounts of the Revenue Agency do not go back to banks and insurance companies
But banks and insurance companies have different accounts in hand which do not allow the Ruffini-solution. According to a reconstruction of the Abi, reported by Repubblica, the Agency in its calculations does not consider the assignment "commitments"., not yet brought to light in the tax drawer. Nor does it take into account the 77 billion credits already purchased between 2020 and 2022, running out of space, as revealed by the parliamentary commission of inquiry into banks last June.
Le insurance instead they call themselves out because they consider the operation foreign to your business. Only 15 out of 120 companies have bought building bonuses, Ruffini says. Certainly not those of "significant dimensions". In any case, none has exhausted its ability to do so. Indeed, their fiscal space is 10 billion against the 7 billion of the banks. Only 15 out of 120 companies have bought building bonuses, Ruffini says. Certainly not those of "significant dimensions". In any case, none has exhausted its ability to do so. Indeed, their fiscal space is 10 billion against the 7 billion of the banks.
The amount of credits could even be higher than 19 billion
Even on the total amount the accounts are not at all clear. The substandard could be more than the 19 billion certified by Ruffini. The milleproroghe in fact it allows you to communicate to the Agency the credits transferred, relating to the expenses of 2022, up to 31 March. However, by exploiting the institution of "remission in bonis", the taxpayer can push himself up to November 30, by paying a small fine of 250 euros.
Intesa, Unicredit and Bpm do not currently have spaces
The three largest Italian banks currently seem to lack space, according to the reconstruction of the Republic. Intesa Sanpaolo it lets you know it's saturated its capacity months ago, after having detected over 15 billion credits in 2020, against approximately 200 files processed for over 70 customers associated with over 160 redeveloped properties in the country. On the contrary, since September, taking advantage of the opportunity offered by the Aid Decree, it has started receiving a third of the credits, with ad hoc contracts for over 5 billion.
Unicredit, which last November was stuck at 5 billion in building credits taken over, has not exceeded its fiscal capacity, but has stopped all new purchases after the new tightening by decree. While Bpm bank it has so far purchased 2,5 billion of loans and taken on commitments of up to 4 billion, which it considers its maximum ceiling. Barring cancellations by counterparties already engaged, he therefore believes that he does not currently have additional space.
The insurance giants Generali, Unipol, Allianz and Zurich are absent from the dossier
The situation is different for the insurance which do not have counters or daily relationships with their customers, mostly natural persons and not businesses. As emerges from Ruffini's report, the big names are missing: Generali e Unipol, the two protagonists of the Italian market, are practically absent from the dossier. The two groups explain it in a similar way with the choice to focus on personal services and to have networks of unstructured agencies to manage credit purchase and clearing activities. For these reasons, they seem unwilling to reconsider, despite the government's moral suason. As for foreign companies – how Allianz and Zurich – the Revenue Agency itself points out that “they may have a low propensity to buy building bonuses”. Also because those credits would represent a "State risk": and between rate increases and new rules on insurance capital in Europe, this is not the time to register another billions of Italian public debt.
The other side of the superbonus: the public accounts
If, on the one hand, banks and insurance companies withdraw from the government's moral suasion, on the other, a light is also turned on on public accounts, which are also addicted to the superbonus. The government first raised the tax credit from 110% to 90% of the costs, then blocked the generalized transfer of credits.
It's about understanding if future revenue losses they are already integrated in the estimates, for example those that the government published with the latest Update Note (Nadef in October). The new Eurostat indications that lead to the immediate accounting of the deficit linked to tax credits accrued by taxpayers for building works, Superbonus in primis, are weighing on Italy. In 2022 the Italian deficit/GDP ratio it stood at 8%. In the Nadef, the Government had forecast a deficit of 5,6%. The impact of the tax credits, and above all of the Superbonus, weighed on the increase, Istat underlined.
The Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti he doesn't even try to hide behind a finger: “I think there is bound to be an impact. In the Nadef we had estimated a strong use of tax credits, but not that strong as it later manifested”, he said, even if, he added, “the reaction of the market and of the European authorities seems positive to me, because everyone appreciates that clarity has been clarified and a line drawn”. That mechanism, says Giorgetti, “had generated an illusion: certain citizens and certain businesses began to take it for granted that the State would pay everyone the full cost of the works immediately, not in installments over five years. But this has never been a right. We had to restore some order, it seems to me that many people understood”.
The minister does not deny that an alarm bell on the accounts has emerged in the requirement for January and February: in the two months there is a loss of 16 billion more than a year ago, because many holders of tax credits have begun to offset them with their taxes.
