Equally important is the opportunity to access public funding, which can support the growth processes of your company. Currently, there are various subsidized finance tools available that perfectly address these two goals.

The first is the New Skills Fund grant, which will close its application window on February 28th. This is a very interesting grant because it provides non-repayable contributions directly to companies. Although the resources are now exhausted, the response from companies has been very positive: with the valuable collaboration of our technicians, we have assisted around 200 companies with the grant application, many of which are ACEPER members. We now just need to wait for the outcome of the review by Anpal.

The second tool is the tax credit for Internal 4.0 Training (F 4.0 interna). This is a benefit available to all companies, regardless of size or sector. The benefit will be extended through the end of 2023, pending the official publication of the extension decree.

The goal of this benefit is twofold: to promote the professional development of company staff on digitalization and new technologies, and to provide companies with an additional advantage, in the form of a tax credit, to encourage balanced development. It is an “automatic” benefit, not subject to any third-party approval, and covers an entire calendar year.

Here are the main features of F 4.0:

– It allows for the recovery of a tax credit, usable from the tax period following the one in which the eligible expenses were incurred, to offset taxes and contributions paid with F 24;

– The credit is cumulative with any other benefit and does NOT affect the de minimis threshold for the company;

– It supports training activities related to IT and technological topics (those covered by the National Industry 4.0 Plan), aimed at employees already familiar with IT or those involved in business process digitalization projects;

– Training can be conducted internally, including “on the job” (with internal teaching staff);

– The tax credit for F 4.0 can also be utilized by companies that have not yet made, or do not plan to make, 4.0 investments.

The third tool is the tax credit for External 4.0 Training (F 4.0 esterna).

This is the same benefit described above but is provided through qualified (and certified) external trainers. Our recommendation is to focus this training on the company’s extended management group (the entrepreneur himself, but especially all employees who coordinate departments or workgroups).

The strategic goal we suggest is to train a management team capable of mastering new digital technologies. It is important to remember that with the rise of these tools, which are continuously and rapidly evolving, the line between a healthy company and one at risk of closure is very thin.

It should be noted that F 4.0 esterna, compared to the ‘internal’ version, offers much more significant support, allowing for the recovery of 70% of both the cost of the training personnel and the cost of the trainers.

We are also awaiting the decree that officially extends F 4.0 esterna for 2023. Can an estimate be made of the actual tax credit available to a company? It is difficult, as situations vary from case to case. As a rough estimate, a company with 20 employees, 13 of whom are IT-trained, and with an hourly gross labor cost of about €19, can obtain an available tax credit of approximately €20,000, already net of the fees for consultants.

For this benefit, the service provided by CSB is “all-inclusive” and includes both the administrative management of the procedures, up to the final certification of them, and support in designing the training programs.

For further information:

Centro Sviluppo Brevetti:

Diego Girelli
Umberto Cè
Valerio Barbesino

Edited by Centro Sviluppo Brevetti – www.centrosviluppobrevetti.eu