[Newsflash n. 11]

On 21 September 2016 the Italian Ministry of Economic Development published the “Industry 4.0” national plan(*), which will be the basis of the upcoming Stability Law, with the objective to boost large-scale investments, innovation and productivity.

With this 13 billions Euro manoeuvre, the Government aims to activate innovative investments mainly by way of tax incentives.

The key measures will focus, inter alia, on:

  • Over-depreciation: one-year extension of the existing 140% super-depreciation measure (“superammortamento”) and introduction of a new rate up to 250% for the hyper-depreciation (“iperammortamento”) on investments in new technologies, agrifood, bio-based economy and investment to support optimization of energy consumption;
  • Research bonus: increase of tax credit for R&D investments from 25% to 50% (capped at Euro 20 millions, instead of the current Euro 5M);
  • Strengthening the financing of start-ups: tax deduction of 30% on investments up to Euro 1M, absorption of start-ups’ losses by sponsors, tax relief on capital gains from medium/long term investments.

The emphasis of the plan is to create an environment where SMEs and start-ups can grow by establishing, for example, Digital innovation labs, with the purpose of connecting enterprises, research and finance, making aware firms of the opportunities associated to Industry 4.0, as well as setting up so called Competence centres, with the involvement of major Universities, which are active in technology and financial research. In addition, the plan aims to provide support for new business accelerators, venture capital and for the development of ultra-broadband connection.

The presentation of the plan can be found here.

(*) Industry 4.0 or the fourth industrial revolution, as defined by Klaus Schwab (executive chairman of the World Economic Forum), may be described as the trend of automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies. It includes cyber-physical systems, the internet of things and cloud computing.

 

Contacts:

Vito Vittore
Senior Partner

Luigi Bonifacio
Associate