2022 to 2023. Between new disciplines, confirmations and denials

Decree Law No. 176 of 2022, which has not yet been converted into law, has, as is well known, granted a strong opening in favor of so-called fringe benefits, which, wanting to summarily define them, constitute additional elements of the actual remuneration that, in general, contributes to the formation of taxed income in the employee's head.

2022. The Decree Law, which concerned the exemption threshold for goods and services under Article 51, Paragraph 3, of the TUIR that entered the worker's disposal by 12.01.2023, provided a limit of 3,000 euros.

2023. In the absence of favorable regulatory provisions, the exemption threshold reverts to 258.23 (500,000 of the old coinage). Pending regulatory changes, Decree Law 5/2023 in Article 1 provided for the possibility of being able to guarantee an extra amount, as a fuel voucher, worth 200 euros per worker to be credited by Dec. 31, 2023

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On an experimental basis for 2023, it will be possible to access early retirement and achieve the right to the Early retirement upon reaching a minimum age of 62 and a minimum contribution period of 41 years, hereinafter referred to as "flexible early retirement pension." The early retirement benefit referred to in this paragraph shall be granted for a maximum gross monthly value not exceeding five times the minimum pension provided for under current legislation (571.61 x 5 = 2,858 euros), for monthly payments in advance of retirement from the time at which such entitlement would accrue as a result of meeting the requirements for access to the old-age pension system.

Replaced quota 102, whose entitlement, if achieved by the December 31, 2022 can also be exercised after the aforementioned date, with the new quota 103, which also includes an important innovation, the so-called flexibility or incentive to remain in service.

Workers who have met the minimum requirements to be eligible for Quota 103 can waive the IVS-related contribution credit-the portion related to pension crediting-and as a result of this have the contribution payment requirement come to their own.

With the same effective date, the amount corresponding to the contribution that the employer would have had to pay to the social security agency, if the aforementioned option had not been exercised, shall be paid in full to the employee.

Also confirmed for 2023 are the changes already introduced by the Budget Law 2022. Specifically:

• Elimination of the condition of the passing of the quarter in the state of unemployment for the category of the unemployed referred to in subparagraph (a) of Article 1, Paragraph 179 of Law No. 232/2016 (Article 1, Paragraph 91);
• new list of professions falling under the category of so-called heavy labor referred to in paragraph (d) of paragraph 179 of Article 1 of Law No. 232/2016 (Article 1, paragraph 92, first sentence);
• categories of workers in so-called heavy-duty occupations who qualify for the social APE benefit with the minimum contribution requirement reduced to 32 years (Article 1, paragraph 92, second sentence).

The eligibility for retirement benefits is extended for the year 2023 for female workers who, by Dec. 31, 2022, have accrued a contribution period of 35 years or more and a childbearing age of at least 60 years, reduced by one year for each child up to a maximum of two years, and who belong to one of the following categories:

• caregivers, i.e., assisting, at the time of application and for at least six months, a spouse or first-degree relative cohabiting with a severely disabled person pursuant to Article 3, Paragraph 3, of Law No. 104 of February 5, 1992, or a second-degree relative or relative-in-law cohabiting if the parents or spouse of the severely disabled person have reached the age of seventy or are also suffering from disabling diseases or are dead or missing;
• Disabled female workers (with a disability of 74% or more);
• female workers laid off or employees of company for which a crisis table is active.

The Budget Law 2023 extends the benefit linked to the hiring or transformation to permanent status - during 2023 - of workers Citizenship Income recipients. In such a case, it is provided for a maximum period of 12 months, exemption from the payment of 100 percent of total employer social security contributions, excluding premiums and contributions due to the National Institute for Industrial Accident Insurance, In the maximum amount of 8,000 euros.

Similar to the provisions of the legislature with respect to citizenship income recipients, the following is provided for For permanent hires and conversions of fixed-term contracts to permanent contracts occurring between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023 for female workers and young people.

Specifically, Paragraph 297 states how "in order to promote stable youth employment, the provisions of Paragraph 10 of Article 1 of Law No. 178 of December 30, 2020, also apply to new permanent hires and conversions of fixed-term contracts into permanent contracts made from January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023. For the recruitments referred to in the first period, the maximum amount limit of 6,000 euros referred to in paragraph 10 of Article 1 of the aforementioned Law No. 178 of 2020 is raised to 8,000 euros."

The effectiveness of the above provisions is conditional, pursuant to Article 108(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, on the authorization of the European Commission.

The eligibility for the so-called under-30 incentive remains in place. (so-called structural youth incentive) provided by l. 205/2017, Art. 1 paragraphs 100-105 and 107, which provides a 50% relief of employer's social security contribution - with the exclusion of premiums and contributions due to INAIL - for a maximum amount of €3,000.00 on an annual basis, prorated and applied on a monthly basis for 12 monthly payments̀, the maximum duration of the benefit is 36 months.  

The possibility of being eligible for the so-called Bonus Sud ends with Dec. 31, 2022. The provision, which provides for a contribution waiver in the amount of 30 percent until 2025, 20 percent in years 2026 and 2027 and 10 percent in years 2028 and 2029, of the employers' contribution, has always been subject to European authorization.

Specifically, by decision C (2022) 4499 final of June 24, 2022, the European Commission authorized the extension of the South decontribution until December 31, 2022. Recall how the expiration of the Temporary Framework for State Aid Measures to Support the Economy during the COVID-19 Emergency, Temporary Framework, set for June 30, had ended the possibility of using the facilities granted under European Commission Communication C(2020) 1863 final, dated March 19, 2020, including the decontribution South.

The new provision provides for the possibility, outside the limits of the Temporary Framework, to be able to grant as a temporary derogation from the state aid framework justified by the economic repercussions of the conflict in Ukraine, state aid no later than December 31, 2022 provided that the following conditions are met:

• 35,000 euros per enterprise engaged in primary production of agricultural products, fisheries and aquaculture;
• 400,000 for enterprises in all other sectors.

As far as 2023, it should be noted that the European Commission has extended the applicability of the Southern Decontribution to Dec. 31, 2023, believing that national support measures can help companies affected by the severe repercussions on the economy caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine, sanctions imposed by the European Union or its international partners, as well as economic countermeasures taken so far by Russia, while preserving employment levels.

In its message Dec. 21, 2022, No. 4593, INPS informs that, as a result, the benefits may apply until the accrual month December 2023. In addition, the maximum amount of aid disbursement has been raised to:

• 300,000 for enterprises active in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors;
• 2 million for all other enterprises eligible for the existing aid scheme.

One of the major innovations of the Budget Law 2022 (l. 234/2021) was the overhaul of social safety nets. Among the new features of the overall reorganization of this institution was a tightening of the financing rates of both the Extraordinary Wages and Salary Supplementation Fund (SIF).

For the year 2022 only, Article 1, paragraph 219, of Budget Law 2022 provided for a Reduction in the size of the SIF funding contribution., as follows:

• For employers who, in the semester of reference, employ average of up to 5 employees is 0.15 percent of the taxable contribution rate (ordinary rate of 0.50 percent, from which the 0.35 percent reduction is subtracted);
• For employers who, in the semester of reference, employ On average, more than 5 to 15 employees is 0.55 percent of the taxable contribution rate (ordinary rate of 0.80 percent from which the 0.25 percent reduction is subtracted);
• For employers who, in the semester of reference, employ more than 15 employees on average is 0.69 percent of the taxable contribution rate (ordinary rate of 0.80 percent, from which the 0.11 percent reduction is subtracted);
• for the Enterprises engaged in commercial activities, including logistics enterprises and travel and tourism agencies, including tour operators with an average employment of more than fifty employees during the six-month reference period is 0.24 percent of the taxable contribution rate (ordinary rate of 0.80 percent, from which the 0.56 percent reduction is subtracted).

For the year 2022 only, Article 1, paragraph 220, of Budget Law 2022 stipulates that. The ordinary contribution rate for financing the CIGS. is reduced by 0.63% for enterprises referred to in Article 1, paragraph 219 (c) of the same law (employers with an average of more than 15 employees). Therefore, for the year 2022 only, the measure of the financing contribution for extraordinary wage subsidies is 0.27 percent (of which 0.18 percent to be borne by the employer and 0.09 percent to be borne by the employee) of the taxable contribution amount.

As of January 1, 2023, the provisions of the Ministerial Decree of March 31, 2022, cannot be applied, which had introduced paragraph 3-bis to Decree 9544/2016 regarding the grounds for CIGO intervention. In particular, it will no longer be possible to consider the circumstance whereby it integrates the case of "market crisis" the suspension or reduction of work activity also resulting from the inability to conclude agreements or trade determined by the restrictions resulting from the crisis in Ukraine.

During the year 2023, the provision of Article 22-ter of Legislative Decree No. 148/2015, which, in order to support employment transitions at the end of the extraordinary wage supplementation intervention for the causes of business reorganization and crisis, will apply as a structural provision.

During 2023, the provision of Article 44, paragraph 11-ter, of Legislative Decree No. 148/2015 will also continue to apply. The provision provides for the possibility of resorting to extraordinary wage supplementation treatment to cope with reorganization processes and situations of particular economic difficulties during the two-year period 2022-2023.

Employers within the scope of the CIGS who-having reached the maximum limits of the total duration of treatments in the rolling five-year period, as established by Article 4 and Article 22 of Legislative Decree No. 148/2015-are not eligible for further extraordinary wage supplementation treatments are eligible.

In the year 2023, the provisions of paragraphs 11-quinquies and 11-sexies of Article 44 of Legislative Decree No. 148/2015 will no longer apply. This is the possibility, in order to cope, in the year 2022, with situations of particular economic difficulty, to be able to access, as an exception to the ordinary duration limits to ordinary social shock absorbers, if the company falls under specific Ateco codes identifying situations of economic difficulty.

Further novelty of the Budget Law 2022 was the reorganization of the regulation of Bilateral Funds. Specifically, Bilateral Solidarity Funds, governed by Articles 26, 27 and 40 of Legislative Decree No. 148/2015 and already established as of December 31, 2021, a transitional period to adjust to the new provisions, ending on December 31, 2022. In the event of failure to adjust, employers in the relevant sectors were to flow into the Wage Supplementation Fund (SIF) as of Jan. 1, 2023.

Paragraph 3 of Article 9 of the so-called Decreto Milleproroghe postpones to June 30, 2023 the deadline previously set for these Funds to December 31, 2022.

Otherwise, the maximum deadline for establishing New Bilateral Funds as an alternative to the Salary Supplement Funds (SIF) remains set at Dec. 31, 2022. Therefore, sectors not already covered by preexisting Bilateral Solidarity Funds, such as regional handicrafts, professional offices or public hygiene, which will have to adapt to the new treatments by June 30, 2023, will be conglobated in the ordinary rules of financing and management of the SIF, with the related charges.

During 2023, the provision of Article 41(1) and (1-ter) regarding the scope of the expansion contract will continue to apply. In particular, the minimum limit of work units in the workforce to be eligible for the social shock absorber cannot be less than 50, also calculated in total in the cases of stable aggregation of enterprises with a single production or service purpose.

Confirmed and structural changes to NASPI effective January 1, 2022. With respect to unemployment events occurring on or after January 1, 2022, NASpI Is reduced by 3 percent each month starting from the first day of the sixth month of use; this reduction takes effect from the first day of the eighth month of eligibility for NASpI recipients who have reached the age of 55 on the date of application.

The requirement of the 30 days of actual work (referred to in Art. 3(1)(c) no longer applies with reference to unemployment events after January 1, 2022 (Art. 3(1a)).

Among the various provisions of the Budget Law of 2022, Article 1 Paragraph 137 had not gone unnoticed, which, with the meritorious intent of delivering a facility to those mothers who wished to return to the workplace, literally stipulated: "On an experimental basis, for the year 2022, an exemption in the amount of 50 percent from the payment of social security contributions for female mothers employed in the private sector is recognized for one year from the date of their return to the workplace after taking compulsory maternity leave and for a maximum period of one year from the date of the aforementioned return.

2023. This discipline has not been confirmed for the year 2023, in which the benefit will still be available for the remaining period in relation to the 12 months of entitlement that are placed in the year 2023, again subject to the actual return to service of the female worker in the year 2022.

The year 2022 has repeatedly seen a review of the discipline introduced by Article 1, Paragraph 121 of Law No. 234 of December 30, 2021, which provided for a contribution exemption in the initial amount of 0.8 percentage points, later raised to 2 percent provided that the worker had a taxable contribution amount below a predetermined monthly threshold.

Building on last year's provisions, Section 281 of the budget law provides, for pay periods January 1, 2023 to December 31, 2023, that the exemption On the portion of social security contributions in question is recognized to the extent of 2 percentage points with the same criteria and procedures as in the aforementioned Article 1, Paragraph 121 of Law No. 234 of 2021 and shall be increased by an additional percentage point, provided that the taxable remuneration, parameterized on a monthly basis for thirteen monthly payments, does not exceed the monthly amount of 1,923 euros, increased by the accrual for the month of December, the accrual for the thirteenth month.

As part of the provisions on family support, Article 1, Paragraph 359 of the Budget Law 2023 introduced an important innovation regarding parental leave. The aforementioned paragraph provides., for the maximum duration of one month's leave and up to the child's sixth birthday, the elevation of the allowance from 30 percent to 80 percent of salary.

In anticipation of the reform of agile work, a number of benefits related to both the introduction of agile work in a simplified mode and the advantageous regime provided for certain categories are discontinued as of Jan. 1.

Therefore, agile work will be applicable upon agreement between companies and workers, without any derogation or sector specificity. The only legislative derogation concerns access to the tool for so-called Fragile workers for whom the provision in Article 1, paragraph 306, of the Budget Law 2023 "until March 31, 2023, for public and private employees affected by the diseases and conditions identified by the decree of the Minister of Health referred to in Article 17, paragraph 2, of Decree-Law No. 221 of December 24, 2021, converted, with amendments, by Law No. 11 of February 18, 2022, the employer Ensures the performance of work in agile mode also through the assignment to a different task included in the same category or area of employment, as defined by the collective bargaining agreements in force, without any reduction in the remuneration in enjoyment. This is without prejudice to the application of the provisions of the relevant national collective bargaining agreements, where more favorable."