Superbonus, Ruffini: “In some banks there are large margins of capacity”

Between 15 October 2020 and 1 March 2023, the building bonus system generated over 13.5 million transactions for an amount of tax credits, in terms of sales discounts on invoices totaling 110.8 billion, of which 61 ,9 attributable to the Superbonus 110% and the rest to the package of other bonuses (among others, 25 billion for ‘facades’, 11.5 billion for the eco-bonus). It is the “balance sheet” of the tax relief reported by the director of the Revenue Agency, Ernesto Maria Ruffini, in the Finance Committee of the Chamber during the hearing on the Superbonus Decree. From the point of view of annuities, the loans registered amounted to approximately 3.2 billion in 2020, 56.2 billion in 2021, 50.7 billion in 2022 and 819 million in 2023. Ruffini also highlighted that «the first assignments and the discounts on the invoice of the building bonuses relating to the expenses incurred in 2022 can still be communicated to the Agency for the entire month of March 2023. Therefore, a rather consolidated figure relating to the bonuses deriving from the expenses of 2022 will only be available in the first ten days of April 2023, that is, when the data will have been uploaded to the platform».

The director of the Revenue Agency then reported that the building bonuses for construction companies amounted to almost 20.4 billion, corresponding to approximately 18.4% of the total, again as of March 1 last year. With regard to the banking system, he added, there are building bonuses purchased since 15 October 2020 and held as of 1 March 2023 totaling almost 51.3 billion. Ruffini specified in this regard that the Agency “does not have information relating to commitments undertaken by the banks in progress, not yet communicated. Therefore, the data reported could be undersized, since they only include the transactions already entered on the Platform”. The installments of the tax credits to be used for the years 2023 and subsequent for over 47.7 billion remain with the banks and group companies. As for the insurance companies and for the same period, the building bonuses purchased and held amount to 4.5 billion.
“Considering the installments of building bonuses currently available to banks for 2023, equal to around 9.5 billion euros, there would be an ability to purchase and absorb additional building bonuses for around 7.2 billion in compensation”, continues Ruffini, who adds : «The situation refers to the entire system and, therefore, is differentiated with reference to the individual banks» with some that «have substantially exhausted the “fiscal capacity” for the purchase of further credits, while others would still have ample margins».
The frauds
To date, the frauds intercepted” with respect to the use of tax credits “have been equal to 9 billion, of which “approximately 3.6 billion have been seized by the judicial authorities”. This was stated by the director of the Revenue Agency Ernesto Maria Ruffini, during the hearing in the Finance Committee on the Superbonus. More than half of the frauds (58%) come from the facade bonus, 23% from the Ecobonus, 8% from the sismabonus and 5% from Superbonus and rental bonuses.
The fiscal capacity of banks
“The situation described above – Ruffini specified – refers to the entire banking system and, therefore, is differentiated with reference to the individual banks”. This means that “some banks have substantially exhausted the ‘fiscal capacity’ for the purchase of further credits” but others “would still have ample room for further operations” underlined the director.