THE NUOVA SABATINI: "A grant to buy new capital equipment"

The measure

The Capital Goods Measure ("New Sabatini" or “Nuova Sabatini” in Italian) is the facility provided by the Ministry of Economy and Made in Italy with the aim of facilitating companies' access to credit and increasing the competitiveness of the country's production system.

The facility supports investments to purchase or lease machinery, equipment, plant, capital assets for productive use and hardware, as well as software and digital technologies.

Beneficiaries

There are specific requirements that companies (SMEs) must meet to be eligible for the facility:

They must have an operational headquarters in Italy;
Must be properly registered in the Commercial Register;
Must be allowed to exercise their full and free rights;
They cannot be in voluntary liquidation or bankruptcy for liquidation purposes, nor can they be in distress;
Must not have received and then reimburse or deposit into a blocked account any aid deemed illegal or incompatible by the European Commission;
Companies without residency in Italy must provide evidence of a local unit in Italy upon application submission.

All productive sectors, including agriculture and fishing, are eligible for aid, with the exception of the financial and insurance activities.

Object of the measure

The goods must be new and refer to tangible fixed assets such as "plant and machinery," "industrial and commercial equipment," and "other assets." These are expenses that can be classified as assets in the balance sheet in accordance with items B.II.2, B.II.3, and B.II.4 of article 2424 of the Civil Code, as declared in Accounting Standard No. 16 of the OIC, as well as software and digital technologies.

Investments must meet the following requirements:

assets must be functionally autonomous, financing for components or machinery that do not meet this requirement is not allowed;
subsidized assets must be correlated to the enterprise's productive activities;
financing must not exceed a duration of 5 years.

Renewable energy production facilities, such as photovoltaic systems, cogeneration plants, mini-wind turbines, and microgeneration plants, are qualified for government grants.

For companies involved in power generation (Ateco code 35.11), the single purchase of a power generation plant is eligible.
For agricultural companies, according to article 2135 of the Civil Code, the purchase of a renewable energy system is eligible.
For companies not engaged in activities listed in parts 1 and 2, an energy production facility purchase is only eligible if it is "related" to a larger investment project, which must be organic and functional to the company's activity.

The grant

The aid in question consists of the financing of SMEs by banks and financial intermediaries that are party to the addendum to the agreement between the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Made in Italy, the Italian Banking Association and Cassa Depositi e Prestiti S.p.A., to support the investments provided for by the measure, as well as a contribution from the Ministry in relation to the interest on the aforementioned financing.

The investment may be covered entirely by bank financing or leasing.

The loan, supported by the "Guarantee Fund for Small and Medium Enterprises” (established by Article 2, paragraph 100, letter a, of Law No. 662/96) for up to 80% of the loan amount, must be:

Of a duration not exceeding five years;
Of an amount ranging from 20,000 euros to 4 million euros;
Fully used to cover eligible investments.

The Ministry offers a subsidy for equipment investments, the amount of which is determined by the interest value calculated through an agreement on a five-year loan equal to the investment, at an annual interest rate equivalent to:

2,75% for ordinary investments;
3,575% for investments in digital technologies(4.0);
3,575% for green investments, (for applications submitted on or after January 1, 2023).

The New Sabatini is not subject to the "de minimis" rule, the threshold of which has been increased to €300,000.00 for the three fiscal years beginning January 1, 2024.

Starting investment program

The investment program must be started after - that is, on a date that does not coincide with or precede - the date of transmission of the application to the financing entity by the PEC.

The program start date is the date on which one of the following conditions first occurred:

a) The company has made legally binding commitments that make the program irreversible, for example, by entering into contracts or issuing order confirmations for goods covered by the investment program;

b) Invoices have been issued for the goods included in the program;

c) Payments, including prepayments, have been made for assets that are part of the capital expenditure program.

An enterprise can submit multiple facility applications to different financing entities, as long as they relate to different investment programs and the total financing value per enterprise does not exceed 4 million euros.

Investments must be completed within 12 months from the date the bank loan or financial lease contract is signed.

Procedure for accessing the facility

The portal can only be accessed through the SPID of the company's legal representative or authorized persons.

To apply for facilitation, complete the application exclusively online through the procedure available in the 'Compilazione domanda di agevolazione' section of the IT platform dedicated to the measure. Failure to do so will result in ineligibility.

After completing the application using the aforementioned procedure, you will receive a Unique Project Code (Codice unico di progetto - CUP) associated with your application. Please include this code when submitting electronic invoices.

After providing the digital signature, the application must be sent, exclusively from a certified electronic mail address (PEC), to the PEC address of the bank/financial intermediary from which the financing is requested, chosen among the participants in the initiative.

Anti-mafia controls

Grants exceeding €150,000 and loans exceeding the following amounts are granted only after obtaining anti-mafia documentation:

If the financing is for a program entirely composed of investment in capital goods, the amount will be €1,943,699;
If the financing is for a program entirely composed of '4.0 investments' and/or 'green investments,' the amount will be €1,486,199.

Methods of provision of the contribution

The grant will be provided in a one-time payment only for applications submitted by companies to banks and financial intermediaries:

from January 1, 2022, if the SME financing operation does not exceed 200,000.00 euros, as already provided for by Article 1, paragraph 48 of Law No. 234 of December 30, 2021.

The grant will be directly transferred to the bank account connected to the Iban provided at the time of application.

Green Investments

Starting in 2023, " Nuova Sabatini Green " has been promoted as a continuation of " Nuova Sabatini " to support SMEs in the purchase of brand new machinery, plant and equipment for production with low environmental impact: in fact, there is an extension to investments for the ecological transition and an increase of the contribution by 30%.

To be eligible for the 'green investment' grant, the legal representative or attorney of the beneficiary SME must certify in the RU form alternatively::

On the date of submitting the grant application, it is required to possess an appropriate environmental process certification from the list provided in Section 1 of Annex 6/C to the Circular;
For each good covered by the 'green investment' line of intervention, there must be environmental product certifications or appropriate environmental self-declarations, as indicated in Sections 2A and 2B of Annex 6/C to the Circular. Additionally, suppliers must provide release statements according to the outline in Annex No. 4, which must be transmitted with the RU form. These statements certify the existence of the aforementioned certifications and/or self-declarations, in addition to the requirement of being brand new.

Investments

in 4.0 The "4.0 Investments" are defined as investments in brand new tangible assets and intangible assets as listed in Appendices 6/A and 6/B of Circular No. 410823 dated December 6, 2022.( (https://www.mimit.gov.it/images/stories/normativa/Circolare_6_dicembre_2022_def.pdf).

Again, there is an increased subsidy, and to receive it, the "capital goods whose operation is controlled by computerized systems or managed by appropriate sensors and drives" in Annex 6/A must be equipped with all of the following features, without exception:

control by CNC (Computer Numerical Control) and/or PLC (Programmable Logic Controller);
Interconnection with the computer systems of the factory with remote uploading of the instructions and/or the part programs;
Automated integration with the logistics system, supply network, and other machines in the production cycle.
Simple and intuitive human-machine interface;
Compliance with the latest occupational safety, health and hygiene parameters.

The machines must be equipped with at least two of the following features:

Remote maintenance, diagnostics, and control systems.
Continuous monitoring of work conditions and process parameters using suitable sensors and adapting to process drifts;
Integration features between physical machines and/or installations with modeling and/or simulation of their own behavior in carrying out the process (cyber-physical system).

Possibility of cumulation

Nuova Sabatini is cumulated with:

The tax credit for investments in the South of Italy ("Zes Unica" from January 1, 2024), within the limits of the maximum intensities provided for by the relevant exemption regulation applicable to each sector;
With the facilities provided by the Energy Account , subject to the limits covered by Article 26 of Legislative Decree 28/2011 and the exemption regulations applicable to the specific sector;
With interventions provided by the PNRR, within the maximum intensities allowed by the relevant sector exemption regulation and subject to specific regulatory provisions governing individual measures financed by the PNRR. It is also important to comply with the prohibition of double financing, as highlighted in the RGS Circular of the MEF on October 14, 2021, No. 21, and further clarified in the RGS Circular of the MEF on December 31, 2021, No. 33.Circolare RGS del MEF del 31 dicembre 2021, n. 33.

On the other hand, there are no limits on cumulation with other public measures that do not constitute State aid.

The Nuova Sabatini contributions can therefore be combined with any tax measure of a general nature that does not constitute State aid for the majority of companies.

The tax credit for investments in capital goods does not constitute State aid and therefore the cumulation limits provided for by the Nuova Sabatini scheme do not apply.

However, the cumulation may not result in the acquisition cost being exceeded.

REFERENCE TO LEGISLATION:

Article 13 of Decree-Law No. 145 of October 18, 2023 (Advance Decree);
Article 1, paragraphs 414-416, of Law No. 197 of December 29, 2022 (Budget Law 2023);
Article 1, paragraphs 47-48, of Law No. 234 of December 30, 2021 (Budget Law 2022);
Table attached to Law No. 143 of September 24, 2021 (Provisions for the adjustment of the state budget for the financial year 2021);
Article 1, paragraphs 95-96, of Law No. 178 of December 30, 2020 (Budget Law 2021);
Article 60, paragraph 1, of Decree-Law No. 104 of August 14, 2020 (August Decree), converted by Law No. 126 of October 13, 2020;
Article 39, paragraph 1, of Decree-Law No. 76 of July 16, 2020 (Simplification Decree), converted by Law No. 120 of September 11, 2020;
Article 1, paragraphs 226-229, of Law No. 160 of December 27, 2019 (Budget Law 2020);
Article 20, of Decree-Law No. 34 of April 30, 2019 (Growth Decree), converted, with amendments, by Law No. 58 of June 28, 2019;
Article 1, paragraph 200, of Law No. 145 of December 30, 2018 (Budget Law 2019);
Article 1, paragraph 32, of Law No. 205 of December 27, 2017 (Budget Law 2018);
Article 1, paragraphs 40 et seq. of Law No. 205 of December 27, 2017 (Budget Law 2018);
Article 1, paragraphs 52 et seq. of Law No. 232 of December 11, 2016 (Budget Law 2017);
Article 8 of Law No. 33 of March 24, 2015;
Article 1, paragraph 243, of Law No.190 of December 23, 2014 (Stability Law 2015);
Article 2 of Decree-Law No. 69 of June 21, 2013.