Under 36 relief: the long-awaited Inps message arrives. How to proceed?

For the two-year period 2021-2022, the application of the under 36 exemption (age limit equal to 35 years and 364 days) entails an exemption equal to 100 percent of the employer's contribution (excluding, as we shall see, some minor contributions) for a maximum of 36 months (or 48 months in some Italian regions) and up to the limit of €6,000 per year, reproportioned on a monthly basis (thus for a maximum of €500/month). In the case of part-time employment relationships, the ceiling of the benefit must be proportionally reduced.

The contribution exemption is granted for a maximum period of 48 months to private employers who make hires at a location or production unit located in the following regions: Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Basilicata, Sicily, Puglia, Calabria and Sardinia.

The facility is available in the case of hiring workers who on the date of first hiring:

• Have not attained the age of thirty-six years;
• have not been employed on a permanent basis with the same or another employer during their entire working life.

The under 36 also applies to permanent employment relationships established in implementation of the associative bond entered into with a labor cooperative or in the case of permanent employment for the purpose of administration, even where the work is rendered to the user in the fixed-term form.

Excluded from the benefit, however, are apprenticeships, intermittent employment contracts, domestic work contracts and contracts with management-qualified personnel.

Availment of the contribution waiver is subject to the following conditions:

• the worker, on the date of new employment, must not be 36 years old (maximum age of 35 years and 364 days);
• the worker, during his or her working life, must not have been employed, with the same or any other employer, under an employment contract of indefinite duration;
• any periods of apprenticeship, carried out previously, are not an impediment to the granting of relief;
• any permanent intermittent employment relationship is not an impediment to relief;
• a possible indefinite domestic work relationship does not affect the possibility of legitimately recognizing the relief;
• the worker must not have had a permanent employment relationship for the purpose of administration;
• you are also not entitled to the exemption where the previous permanent employment relationship was terminated due to failure to pass the probationary period or resignation of the employee;
• the employer must not have made, in the 6 months prior to hiring, individual dismissals for objective justified reasons or collective dismissals against workers classified with the same qualification in the same production unit;
• the employer shall not, in the 9 months following employment, carry out individual dismissals for objective reasons or collective dismissals;
• the employer must not be one of the enterprises in the financial sector engaged in the activities specified in the NACE classification under section "K" - Financial and insurance activities.

In the text of the Budget Law 2021, particularly in Article 1 paragraph 14, it is clearly stated how the under 36 measure (provided for in the same article paragraphs 10 to 15) is granted in accordance with section 3.1 of European Commission Communication C(2020) 1863 final of March 19, 2020.

The facility is therefore fully covered by the "Temporary Framework for State Aid Measures to Support the Economy in the Current COVID-19 Emergency," the limits of which are as of today set at 1.8 Million euros per enterprise.

Large companies - in particular - will therefore have to carefully consider whether to use the under 36 relief, given the fact that many of the reliefs born in 2021 are part of the Temporary Framework and their massive use may have already depleted the 1.8 Million euro platfond (think, for example, of the so-called "Decontribuzione Sud").

Although the relief provides 100 percent contribution relief, there are two important factors to consider.

The first is that the relief is not applicable on some minor contributions (see point 4 of the INPS Circular 56/2021), the second concerns the maximum monthly limit, set at €500.00.

Thus, there may well be a possibility that the exemption under discussion does not go to cover the entire monthly contribution, but only a part of it.

Can we then combine the relief with other incentives? The same standard tells us how the relief cannot be combined with "Other exemptions or reductions in financing rates provided for in current legislation, limited to the period of their application". Thus, it is not possible, for example, to cumulate with the Over-50s Relief or the Unemployed or Disadvantaged Women's Relief. Nor is it possible to take advantage of the exemption concurrently with the Decontribution Sud, at least for the same workers.

The message recently released by INPS comes just weeks after the expected EU approval to the under 36 relief. The Institute's previous circular, No. 56/2021 of April 2021, although helpful in clarifying some hitherto dubious points, reiterated the non-applicability of the measure until final EU approval.

By decision C (2021) 6827 final of September 16, 2021, Europe authorized the contribution exemption for all recruitments or conversions made in the period from January 01, 2021 to December 31, 2021.

It already appears from here how the approval, although obtained, is partial. In fact, Budget Law 2021(L. 178/2020) stipulated how the subsidized scheme would cover hires made in the 2021-2022 biennium.

We will then have to wait for a subsequent, and eventual, approval by the EU for the application of the same benefit also for permanent hires or conversions made in 2022, which will be followed by further INPS instructions.

To take advantage of the exemption under discussion, companies will have to show the current month's relieved contribution values in UNIEMENS, starting in September 2021.

In the individual worker's report, and in particular in the pay data, the company should enter:

• in the "InfoAggCausaliContrib" element the causal code "GI36," or the code "GI48" if we are talking about companies with headquarters or production unit in Abruzzo, Molise, Campania, Basilicata, Sicily, Apulia, Calabria and Sardinia;
• in the "IdentMotiveUseCausal" element the date of permanent employment (or transformation).

Specific guidance was provided for staffing agencies.

In the accrual reports for September, October and November 2021, the backlog of relief applied but not yet equalized in the current year, related to the months from January 2021 to September 2021, may also be recovered.

It will be sufficient to indicate in the "YearMonthRif" element of the individual subsidized employee the months that are being equalized in the report. As always, we will also have to wait for the software houses to update their procedures, which, given the tight schedule, will have to be done soon.

As of December 2021, arrears can no longer be carried forward and can only be done through regularization of claims.

Lastly, the message reiterates how, where the company is taking advantage of the under-30 facility with incentive code "GECO," which provides 50 percent relief from contributions and, requirements permitting, wants to take advantage of the facilitated scheme for under-36 hires, it can do so.

To do this, the employer will have to return what was facilitated during the application of the under 30 incentive (50 percent of the contribution), returning it to INPS via UNIEMENS report, applying at the same time the new under 36 incentive.

To this end, the message also summarizes the correct instructions for proceeding in such cases.