Transparency obligations in public payments

| Tax

Sanctions starting from January 1, 2022

Legislative Decree 52/2021 has extended the deadline for the application of sanctions for the year 2021 to January 1, 2022, against companies and non-commercial entities that have not complied with the publication of the complete and detailed list of aid and public grants not of a general nature received during the previous year, for a total amount exceeding 10,000 euros.

In fact, starting from January 1, 2022, failure to comply with this requirement will result in a penalty equal to 1% of the amounts received, with a minimum amount of 2,000 euros, as well as the ancillary sanction for compliance with the publication obligations.

After 90 days from the dispute without the transgressor having complied with the publication obligations, the sanction of full restitution of the benefit is applied.

The aids covered by the publication are those other than those of a general nature received from the State:

  • Regions, Provinces, Municipalities, Mountain Communities and their consortia/associations
  • Universities
  • Autonomous institutes for public housing
  • Chambers of Commerce and their associations
  • National, regional and local non-economic public bodies
  • Administrations and companies of the National Health Service
  • Agency for the Negotiation Representation of Public Administrations (ARAN)
  • Tax Agencies
  • Publicly controlled companies.

The information to be provided for State Aid not on the RNA (National Aid Register) site is:

  1. name of the disbursing entity
  2. amount collected (for each individual underlying legal relationship)
  3. date of collection.

From an operational point of view, advertising is completed alternatively in the Explanatory Notes or on the website or digital portal, depending on the beneficiary. Given the current legislation, it is not certain that said behavior is exempt from the obligation to publish them on the company website.

Therefore, it is still considered correct to publish the aid and contributions received on the company website (or, failing that, on the website of the relevant trade association).