FIRST INDICATIONS ABOUT THE NEW COVID SHOCK ABSORBERS

 

The D.L. 104/2020, so-called Decree August, has innovated the regulation of social shock absorbers COVID-19 (Cigo, Cigd).

The main novelty consists in the possibility for employers to access the new treatments regardless of the previous appeal and the actual use of the same in the first half of the current year: the Decree, in fact, redetermines the maximum number of weeks that can be requested by 31 December 2020 (up to 18 weeks in total), resetting to zero the count of those requested and authorized, for the periods up to 12 July 2020, in accordance with Legislative Decree 18/2020 and 34/2020. However, the integration periods, already requested and authorized under the previous provisions, which are located, even partially, in periods after July 12, 2020, are automatically charged to the first 9 weeks of the new treatment period provided.

 

With message no. 3131/2020, while waiting for the publication of the appropriate circulars illustrating the detailed regulations, INPS has provided the first information regarding the aforesaid news.

 

Cigo and Cigd

 

Companies that, in 2020, suspend or reduce their work activity due to events related to the COVID-19 emergency, may apply for the granting of wage supplementation benefits (ordinary or by way of derogation) or ordinary allowance for a maximum duration of 9 weeks, for periods from July 13 to December 31, 2020, increased by a further 9 weeks, in the same period of time, only for employers to whom the previous 9-week period has already been fully authorized and provided that this period has fully elapsed. The maximum duration of cumulative treatment cannot, in any case, exceed 18 weeks in total.

For all the main categories of treatment (Cigo, Cigd) with causal “COVID-19 emergency”, the mechanism of sending 2 separate applications to request income support intervention is confirmed: while for the first 9-week period no specific conditions are provided, the use of the additional 9 weeks is, instead, linked to the verification of the turnover of the applicant companies. To this end, the rule provides for a comparison between the turnover of the first half of 2020 and that of the corresponding period of 2019, which may give rise to the obligation for the company to pay an additional contribution, to be calculated on the overall salary that would be due to the worker for the hours not worked during the suspension or reduction of work, determined according to the following measures:

 

• 18% rate for employers who have not had any reduction in turnover;
• 9% rate for employers who have had a reduction in turnover of less than 20% in the first half of 2020;
• no additional contribution for employers who have had a reduction in turnover of 20% or more or have started a business after 1 January 2019.

 

To request the additional period of 9 weeks, employers must accompany the application with a declaration of responsibility (which will then be verified), made in accordance with the provisions of Article 47, Presidential Decree 445/2000, in which they self-certify the existence of any reduction in turnover and based on which the INPS authorizes the treatments and establishes the extent of the additional contribution due. In the absence of such self-certification, the additional contribution will be required to a maximum of 18%.

For the requests relating to the first 9 weeks, or the shorter period that results in the periods already requested or authorized under the previous legislation starting from July 13, 2020, employers will have to continue to use the “COVID-19 national” reasoning already in place.

 

For the additional 9 weeks, operational instructions for sending questions will be provided with a subsequent message.

If the employers, in relation to the provisions of the previous discipline, have already requested and obtained the authorization for periods after July 13, 2020, the request of the first 9 weeks will have to take into account these authorizations in order to comply with the above-mentioned limit: if several weeks longer than allowed will be requested (9 weeks in total, also considering those charged in relation to the previous discipline), the requests will be partially accepted.

 

Terms

 

When fully operational, applications for access to the treatments provided for by the August Decree must be forwarded to INPS, under penalty of forfeiture, by the end of the month following the month in which the period of suspension or reduction of work began.

In case of direct payment by the Institute, the employer is required to send all the necessary data by the end of the month following the month in which the period of salary integration is placed, or, if later, within 30 days from the adoption of the granting measure.

 

During the first application of the rule, for applications with the start of suspension/reduction from July 13, 2020, the ordinary deadline of August 31 is, however, postponed to September 30, 2020.

The deadlines for sending applications and data useful for payment or balance of the processing operations, which would normally expire in the period between 1 and 31 August 2020, including applications for processing with the start of suspension/reduction from 1 to 12 July 2020, are also postponed to 30 September 2020, even though they are not included in the new regulations.

About the transmission of data useful for the payment or balance of Cigo, Cigd, Aso and Cisoa processing operations, in cases where, based on the ordinary rules, the deadline for sending such data is 31 August 2020, it is deferred until 30 September 2020.

For the deadlines that will occur from September 1, 2020, no deferment is foreseen.

 

It is also provided for the postponement to 31 August 2020 of the deadlines for sending applications for access to processing operations connected to the emergency by COVID-19 and for transmitting the data necessary for payment or the balance of the same, including those deferred administratively, expiring by 31 July 2020.

 

EMERGENCY AND SMART WORKING EXTENSION

 

It was published in the Official Gazette no. 190 of July 30, 2020, Law Decree 83/2020, containing urgent measures related to the expiry of the declaration of epidemiological emergency by COVID-19 resolved on January 31, 2020.

In order to contain and combat the health risks arising from the spread of the COVID-19 virus, on specific parts of the national territory or, if necessary, on the whole of it, one or more measures may be adopted among those provided for, for predetermined periods, each of a duration not exceeding 30 days, which may be repeated and modified several times until October 15, 2020, the end of the state of emergency, and with the possibility of modulating its application in an increase or decrease according to the epidemiological trend of the aforementioned virus.

 

The measures of Decree 33/2020 (Further urgent measures to deal with the epidemiological emergency from Covi-19) shall apply from May 18, 2020 to October 15, 2020, without prejudice to the different terms provided for in Article 1.

 

 

Smart working

 

As for the extensions ordered by Decree Law 83/2020, the following table summarizes the situation.

Provisions on smart working related to the state of emergency and extended by D.L. 83/2020
valid up to to 15 October 2020 steps 14 and 32, attachment 1	Employees with disabilities according to Article 3, paragraph 3, Law 104/1992, or who have a disabled person in their household under the conditions set out in Article 3, paragraph 3, Law 104/1992, are entitled to perform the work in an agile manner according to Articles 18 to 23, Law 81/2017, provided that this mode is compatible with the characteristics of the benefit.
	Workers in the private sector suffering from serious and proven pathologies with reduced working capacity are given priority in the acceptance of requests to perform work in an agile manner by Articles 18 to 23, Law 81/2017.
	The above provisions also apply to immunodepressed workers and family members living with immunodepressed persons.
	The right to perform work in an agile manner is recognized, based on the assessments of the competent physicians, even to workers most at risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 virus, due to age or risk condition resulting from immunodepression, oncological diseases or the performance of life-saving therapies or, in any case, from comorbidities that may characterize a situation of higher risk ascertained by the competent physician, provided that this mode is compatible with the characteristics of the work performance.
	Employers in the private sector communicate to the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, electronically, the names of the workers and the date of termination of work in agile mode, using the documentation made available on the website of the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies.
	Without prejudice to the provisions for public employers, limited to October 15, 2020 and in any case no later than December 31, 2020 if the emergency will be extended, the agile mode of work can be applied by private employers to any employment relationship, even in the absence of individual agreements; the obligations of information are fulfilled electronically also using the documentation made available on the Inail website.
valid up to to September 14, 2020 Item 32, Attachment 1	Parents employed in the private sector who have at least one child under the age of 14, provided that there is no other parent in the household who is the beneficiary of income support instruments in the event of suspension or cessation of work or that there is no non-worker parent, have the right to perform the work in an agile manner even in the absence of individual agreements, subject to compliance with the information obligations provided for in Articles 18 to 23, Law 81/2017, and provided that this mode is compatible with the characteristics of the benefit.

 

 

VERIFYING THE CONTRIBUTIONAL FEE REGULARITY

 

With message no. 2998 of 30 July 2020, INPS recalls that with the conversion of the Relaunch Decree by Law no. 77/2020, the provision that intervening in article 103, paragraph 2, Decree-Law no. 18/2020, had provided that the extension of validity regulated therein would apply to all the documents indicated except for the Durc expiring between 31 January and 15 April 2020, which therefore remained valid until 15 June 2020, was deleted with effect from 19 July 2020.

 

This suppression means that Durc on line expiring between January 31, 2020 and July 31, 2020 shall remain valid for 90 days after the declaration of cessation of the state of emergency (July 31 when the Inps message in question was written), i.e. until October 29, 2020, with the consequence that all taxpayers for whom a Durc on line has already been produced with an end date of validity between January 31, 2020 and July 31, 2020, or applicants who have been notified of the formation of the same Durc online, must consider the same document valid until October 29, 2020, as part of the proceedings in which its possession is required, without proceeding to a new question.

 

However, the Simplifications Decree has introduced an exclusion from the application of the provisions on the extension of validity: in any case in which, for the selection of the contractor or for the stipulation of the contract in relation to works, services, or supplies provided for or in any way regulated in Legislative Decree 76/2020, it is required to produce Durc, or to indicate, declare or self-certify the regularity of contributions or possession of the Single Documents, the provisions on the extension of validity of Durc expiring between 31 January 2020 and 31 July 2020 do not apply. Therefore, the contracting stations are obliged to request verification of the regularity of contributions ordinarily, having to assess the possibility of using or not using the Durc online with an expiry date between January 31, 2020 and July 31, 2020 and with extended validity ope legis in relation to the specific purposes for which the verification of the regularity of contributions is required.

With message no. 3089/2020, INPS reminds that the state of emergency has been extended to October 15, 2020 and that Decree-Law 83/2020 has not, however, included among the terms that, as a result of the extension, remain valid for 90 days after the end of the state of emergency Article 103, Decree-Law 18/2020. This exclusion means that the extension does not affect the validity of Durc online with expiry between January 31 and July 31, 2020, for which, therefore, it is confirmed that it remains fixed on October 29, 2020.

 

FRINGE BENEFIT – CLARIFICATIONS ON COMPANY CAR FOR PROMISCUOUS USE

 

The Inland Revenue, with resolution no. 46/E of August 14, 2020, answered a question about the fringe benefit mixed-use company car (Article 51, paragraph 4, letter a), Tuir), concerning the changes introduced by Article 1, paragraph 632, L. 160/2020, which provides that from July 1, 2020 the fringe benefit must be calculated as a flat rate based on CO2 emissions of the vehicle, to be applied to the cost per kilometer referred to in tables Aci, conventionally multiplied by 15,000 km.

The Agency specifies that the moment of signing the deed of assignment by the employer and the employee for the assignment of the benefit is the relevant moment in order to identify the “contracts entered into as from 1 July 2020”. For the new wording of the standard in question to be applied, the motor vehicle, motorcycle or moped must be assigned to the employee as from 1 July 2020.

 

Regarding vehicles granted in promiscuous use with contracts signed by June 30, 2020, the same legislator provides for the application of the old rule, which, consequently, will continue “to live” for the duration of the contract.

 

Finally, it is clarified that if the contract for the concession in promiscuous use of the vehicle is stipulated after 1 July 2020, but the vehicle has been registered before that date, the valorization of the benefit is not possible because of the “normal value” criterion, provided by article 51, paragraph 3, Tuir, since this principle is to be used to valorize vehicles, motorcycles and mopeds granted for private use. Consequently, the benefit must be fiscally valued only for the part referring to the private use of the motor vehicle, motorcycle, or moped, thus separating from its normal value the use in the interest of the employer.

 

LDP Payroll stays at your disposal for any further information.

Arianna De Carlo – adecarlo@ldp-payroll.com

Head of Payroll Department