Emanuele Falorni - 01/24/2022
In this issue of our Taxnews we shall describe Italy’s new provisions - some of which expired on January 18, 2022 - for occasional self-employed workers, and the establishment (pursuant to Legislative Decree no. 230 dated December 29, 2021) of a single universal allowance (“Assegno unico e universale”) for families with dependent children.
Pursuant to art. 13 of Law Decree 146/2021 (which replaced art. 14 of Legislative Decree 81/2015), the work activity of an occasional self-employed worker must be notified in advance by his or her customer to the relevant Territorial Labor Inspectorate (according to where the activity will take place).
The Labor Ministry’s Note no. 29, issued on January 11, 2022, clarifies that:
As the Labor Ministry pointed out, the prior notice obligation does not apply to:
As regards the timing of the new obligation to notify occasional collaborations in advance:
In particular, the required prior notice must be made via text message or email, and in any case according to the operating modes referred to in art. 15 of Legislative Decree 81/2015 already in use for intermittent work relationships.
In order to make it easier to comply with the new obligations, the Labor Ministry will update and complement the applications currently in use. In the meantime, the notice must be sent via email to a specific address assigned to each Territorial Inspectorate. Because this address is for ordinary, non certified emails, the notifying customer must keep a copy of the notice, which may have to be produced during a possible inspection.
The notice need not be sent as an attachment, but can be inserted directly in the email message; it must contain at least the following (in absence of which the notice itself will be deemed as not having been submitted):
Failure to comply shall entail the application of an administrative fine ranging from 500 to 2,500 euros in respect to each occasional self-employed worker for whom the prior notice has not been filed or has been filed late.
The new single universal allowance AUU (Assegno Unico Universale) for dependent children may requested as of January 1, 2022. Applications must be submitted to INPS (the Italian social security agency) telematically via its web portal, either accessing INPS’s website (using a SPID, CIE or CNS code) or via a “patronato” (non-profit social welfare organization that provides multiple types of assistance to workers and others). The application can be submitted by one of the child’s parents (whether or not the child lives with him or her) or, in absence thereof, by the person who holds parental responsibility for the child in question, by a child who is of age on his or her own behalf, or by a foster parent or legal guardian in the sole interest of the minor. This is a structural provision; the application must be filed yearly.
The request is valid for one year and covers the monthly payments made from March of the year the application was filed to February of the following year. For this reason, the measures regarding temporary allowances for minor children have been extended through January and February 2022, and the amount per family unit was increased.
The new single allowance will go into effect on March 1, 2022, hence nothing will change from January 1 to February 28, 2022. The new allowance, which will apply from March 1 to December 31, 2022, combines and replaces several existing child benefits, including the family unit allowance (ANF – “Assegno per il nucleo familiare”), the bonus for birth (“Bonus mamma domani”), and income tax (IRPEF) deductions for dependent children up to 21 years old. Hence, starting in March 2022, birth bonuses and tax deductions will not appear on employee payslips and retirement pension payslips.
The current allowance for kindergarten costs (“bonus asilo nido”) remains in force, as do tax deductions for expenses incurred for dependent children of any age (e.g., education and medical expenses).
In its message no. 4747, issued December 31, 2021, INPS specified that in the case of applications filed between January 1, 2022 and June 30, 2022, AUU benefit will be applied from March 2022; hence, no monthly payment due will be lost. For applications submitted on or after July 1, 2022, the benefit shall start the month following the one the relevant application was filed.
The new allowance will be paid directly by INPS, hence it shall no longer go through employee or retirement pension payslips. INPS has explained that payments related to requests filed in January and February 2022 will start being made from March 15 to March 21, 2022, while those related to requests filed in or after March 2022 will start at the end of the month following the one the request was filed.
People who used to receive temporary allowances (“Assegno temporaneo”) must reapply for AUU allowance; people entitled to citizenship income (“Reddito di cittadinanza”) do not need to do so, because they will receive the new single allowance automatically. Allowance payments will be made through the entitled person’s IBAN (bank or postal checking account, credit or debit card, savings account), or paid in cash at any Italian post office.
The amount of the allowance depends on the number of children and on the household’s ISEE (socio-economic indicator), based on a complex calculation mechanism. In particular:
Moreover, the allowance is increased for each child born after the second one, for each child with disabilities, and for mothers less than 21 years old. Hence, a valid and correct ISEE must be submitted in order for one’s single universal allowance to be calculated. Applications may be submitted without the ISEE, but in this case only the minimum monthly allowance will be granted (€50 for minors and €25 for adult children). Individuals submitting their ISEE by June 30, 2022, will receive the full allowance they are entitled to, with back payments starting from March, 2022.
The single allowance will be granted to families for:
At the moment the request for the single allowance is filed, and for the entire duration of the benefit, the applicant must meet all the following requirements: