Edited by By Vitalba Passarelli, Giovanni Marra and Fabiana Verduci
On 14 March 2025, Legislative Decree 14 March 2025, no. 25 “Urgent provisions on recruitment and functionality of public administrations” (GU General Series no. 61 of 14-03-2025) was published in the Official Journal, which in art. 19, paragraph 5, establishes the reopening of the terms, setting the deadline for submitting the request at 3 June 2025, for availing of the spontaneous repayment procedure (so-called “sanatoria”) of tax credits for research and development activities pursuant to article 3 of Legislative Decree 23 December 2013, no. 145, converted with amendments, by Law 21 February 2014, no. 9.
The regularization procedure was introduced with art. 5 paragraphs 7 – 12 of Legislative Decree no. 146/2021, establishing that the subjects who had used the tax credit for investments in research and development activities as a compensation – accrued starting from the tax period following the one in progress on 31 December 2014 and up to the tax period in progress on 31 December 2019 – could repay the amount of the credit used without applying penalties and interest.
This provision set the deadline for applying for access to the procedure on 31 October 2024 and also established that the repayment of the sums due could be made in a single instalment by 16 December 2024, or in three equal instalments, of which the first to be paid by 16 December 2024 and the subsequent ones by 16 December 2025 and 16 December 2026.
The new regulation affects not only the reopening of the time window for submitting the application, but also the related deadlines for payment. In particular, the new procedure provides that:
- the payment can be made in a single solution by 3 June 2025, or in three equal installments, the first of which must be paid by 3 June 2025 and the subsequent installments by 16 December 2025 and 16 December 2026. Interests accrued from 4 June onwards, based on the legal rate, must be applied to the latter two installments;
- in the case of a tax act or measure that has become definitive on the date of submission of the application, the payment must be made for the entire amount of the credit used by the deadline of 3 June 2025;
- in the case of credits subject to recovery acts or tax measures for which a dispute is pending on the date of submission of the application, in order to adhere to the regularization, it is necessary to renounce the dispute by 3 June 2025 and, in such cases, the legal costs are offset between the parties;
- with reference to the tax credits used in the years 2016 and 2017, the deadline for issuing recovery acts is extended by two years.
Furthermore, the terms established by art. 1 paragraph 458 of Law no. 207 of 30 December 2024 (Budget Law 2025) are adapted to the new provisions. For taxpayers who have submitted the request for access to the regularization by 3 June 2025 (as well as for those who have submitted the request by the previous deadline set at 31 October 2024) a capital contribution is recognized, as a percentage of the amount of the credit repaid, with an available national budget of 250 million euros, divided as follows:
- 60 million euros, for the year 2025;
- 50 million for 2026;
- 80 million for 2027 and
- 60 million for 2028.
Access to the procedure is in any case excluded in cases where the tax credit used is the result of fraudulent conduct, of objectively or subjectively simulated circumstances, of false representations of reality based on the use of false documents or invoices that document non-existent transactions, as well as in cases where there is no documentation suitable to demonstrate the incurrence of expenses eligible for the tax credit. The applicants lose access to the procedure, and the sums already paid are considered acquired as an advance on the amounts due, in the event that the Offices, in the exercise of the powers attributed to them, ascertain fraudulent conduct by the taxpayer.
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