3 December, 2020

“Resto al Sud”

“Resto al Sud” is the new measure managed by Invitalia, aimed at encouraging young people to start their business activities in the Southern regions of Italy. The program is aimed at financing new production activities, both in the form of sole proprietorships or corporations, in industry, manufacturing, processing of agricultural products, fishing and aquaculture, provision of services to businesses and individuals, tourism, freelance activities.

The measure covers 100% of the start-up costs of new business initiatives, partly in the form of bank financing assisted by the SME Guarantee Fund and partly through a non-repayable grant, which covers up to 50% of eligible expenditure. In its first year of operation, between 2018 and 2019, Resto al Sud collected 16,218 applications and financed 2,177 proposals, resulting in more than 20 thousand new jobs, investments for € 145 million euros and € 68 million of benefits granted.

In this particular period of economic difficulty, the President of the Sicily Region has recently approved a new decree that provides for additional incentives for a total of € 4.7 million additional resources over three years, accessible in the form of tax credit, thanks to an agreement between the Finance and Credit Department of the Department of Economy and the Revenue Agency.

The available funds amount to 1 million euros for the year 2020, 1.7 million euros for the year 2021 and 2 million euros for the year 2022. The tax credit is based on some fiscal amounts due to the Region – paid for each of the first three tax periods starting from the one in which the application is filed – such as:

• the regional additional tax Irpef
• the car tax for owned vehicles registered in Sicily and strictly necessary for the cycle or for the transport of products
• the registration, mortgage and cadastral fee for the purchase of real estate falling within the regional territory and related to the performance of the activity.

The tax credit can be requested from 15 to 31 December 2020 for the current year and from 15 to 31 May in subsequent years and can be used as compensation with the F24 payment model to be presented exclusively through the telematic services provided by the Inland Revenue.