On 18 November 2022, Italian Decree-law No 176/2022 (the ‘Aiuti–quater [LT1] Decree’) containing additional measures to support the energy sector and relating to employment and public finance, was published in the Italian Official Gazette.
With reference to the new initiatives in the employment sphere, the Aiuti-quater Decree provided for a further increase in the tax and social security exemption limit of employees’fringe benefits. In particular, Article 3, paragraph 10 of the new decree extended the exemption threshold from EUR 600 to 3,000. Therefore, up to the overall limit of EUR 3,000, the value of the goods and the services provided to employees, as well as the sums paid or reimbursed to them by employers for the payment of domestic utilities, do not form part of income.
This exemption is, at the moment, ‘limited to the 2022 tax period’. Therefore, to benefit from it, employers have little time to adopt an assistance plan for their employees, evaluate the economic resources to be used, and identify and make these benefits available to workers.
Lastly, the Italian Revenue Agency, with circular No 35 of 4 November 2022, clarified that if the exemption limit is exceeded, the entire amount, and not just the portion exceeding the limit, will fall within employee income.
Other related insights:
- Personnel situation, report by 14 October (Il Quotidiano del Lavoro of Il Sole 24 Ore, 6 October 2022 – Vittorio De Luca, Stefania Raviele)
- The 2020 Budget Law published in the Gazette: news on work, employment and social security