The warning of the business crisis in 2022

The new alert mechanism

The lack of provisions on the alert of the business crisis, within the CNC, was filled by Legislative Decree 152/2021 which provided for a real alert mechanism for qualified public creditors such as INPS, Revenue Agency, Revenue Collection Agency. The new rules on the alert require qualified public creditors to report to the entrepreneur and the supervisory body, in the person of the president of the board of auditors, the non-payment of taxes and contributions, above a certain threshold, inviting the entrepreneur to submit a CNC request if the conditions are met.

Conditions and deadlines for reporting

Reports must be sent by named qualified public creditors in the presence of unpaid amounts; in particular, with regard to amounts due and not paid, the report to the entrepreneur and the president of the board of auditors must be sent:

• by the INPS in the event of a delay of more than 90 days in the payment of social security contributions exceeding an amount, for companies with subordinate and para-subordinate workers, than 30% of those due in the previous year and the threshold of 15,000 euros, and, for those without the recalled workers, the threshold of 5,000 euros;
• by the Agency Revenue, in the presence of an overdue and unpaid debt for VAT, resulting from the communication of the data of periodic payments (LIPE), exceeding 5,000 euros;
• by the Revenue Revenue Agency, in the presence of credits entrusted to collection and overdue for more than 90 days, exceeding, for sole proprietorships, more than 100,000 euros, for partnerships 200,000 euros and, for other companies, 500,000 euros.

The times with which the reports will be sent vary depending on the person required to report, distinguishing between those sent:

• by the INPS and the Revenue Agency Collection which must be carried out within 60 days of the occurrence of the conditions or exceeding the thresholds indicated, via certified email or, failing that, by registered letter with acknowledgment of receipt;
• by the Revenue Agency which must be carried out within 60 days of the deadline for submitting the communications of the data of the periodic VAT payments. (LIPE), together with the letter informing the taxpayer of the inconsistency of the payments made with respect to the declared tax.

On the last point, it is worth remembering that VAT payers electronically transmit to the Revenue Agency a communication of the accounting data summarizing the periodic tax payments (LIPE) by the last day of the second month following each quarter (art 21-bis of Legislative Decree 05/31/2010 nr.78).

In this sense, the communication of the data relating to the second quarter is an exception which is instead carried out by 16 September and with the possibility of communicating the data relating to the fourth quarter of sending, alternatively, with the annual VAT return which, in this case, must be presented by February of the year following the end of the tax period.

The reporting mechanism starts in 2022

The reports, which qualified public creditors are required to do, will be applied from this year, in particular:

• for the INPS, the reports will concern debts ascertained from 1 January 2022;
• the Revenue Agency will report the debts resulting from the communications relating to the 1st quarter of 2022;
• for the Revenue Collection Agency, the reports will be made in relation to the loads entrusted to the collection agent from 1 July 2022.