The government will increase the costs, both benefits and social contributions, of companies that increase their workforce by 50% in line with what has been agreed in the Social Dialogue. At stake is the 5.1% wage increase set for 2023 in the medium-term deal to improve incomes, wages and competitiveness, signed by employers and unions on Sunday. The tax incentive, which the government estimates will benefit more than 500,000 companies, will cost the state 75 million euros, with an impact in 2024.
The amount is stated in the report accompanying the OE proposal for 2023, with management explaining that it wants to “promote the stability of industrial relations”. But not alone. It also wants to fight “income inequality” so that companies that increase the pay scale between the highest paid and the lowest paid are excluded from this incentive.
To encourage private investment, the government is creating a new specific corporate capitalization tax regime, which will cost $120 million. It is also part of the agreement signed in the Social Dialogue, in exchange for, for example, an increase in the national minimum wage to EUR 760 in 2023, to EUR 810 in the following year, to EUR 855 in 2025 and to EUR 900 in the end of the legislature.
The new tax regime of Incentive to the Capitalization of Companies (ICE) corresponds to the merger and simplification of the current regimes of deductions for retained and reinvested earnings and conventional return on equity capital. It provides for the option to deduct, at an annual rate of 4.5% and for ten fiscal years, the amount of net increases from equity. In the case of micro, small, medium or small-mid cap companies, the so-called small mid cap, the deduction percentage will be 5%. The deduction is limited to two million euros or 30% of the EBITDA, whichever is more.
Double profit subject to reduced IRC rate
In order to “support the growth of most national companies”, the government decided to extend the application of the reduced IRC rate of 17% to taxable profits of 50 thousand euros, double the current amount. The measure should benefit 221 thousand entities, with an estimated cost of 60 million euros. In addition to micro, small and medium-sized companies, small mid-cap companies can also benefit from this tax reduction. The measure also applies to domestic companies, in which case the reduced rate is 12.5%.
The 2023 OE will also improve companies’ investment aid tax regime (RFAI), which will have an increase from 25 to 30% in investment recovery deductions to 15 million euros. From this value, the deduction is 10%. Business investments in North, Center, Alentejo and in the Autonomous Regions are eligible, “according to the national map of state aid for regional purposes for the period 2022-2027”. In Lisbon and Vale do Tejo and in the Algarve the deduction of the IRC collection remains unchanged at 10%. The government estimates that companies pay 25 million euros less in tax in this way, with the limit on the deductible amount being 50% of the IRC collection.
In addition, the loss deduction period, which was now five years for large companies and 12 years for others, is now unlimited, such as in countries such as Spain, Germany, Denmark, France or Hungary. On the other hand, the annual deduction percentage drops from 70 to 65%.
For companies most affected by inflation, the OE for 2023 will increase the IRC by 20% of increases in energy expenditure and 40% in agricultural spending, carried out in 2022, of which more than 500 thousand companies benefit. The measure, with budgetary impact in 2024, is estimated at 60 million euros. The exceptional support for fuel costs in agriculture costs 40 million euros and benefits approximately 140,000 farmers. It equates to the equivalent of the ISP reduction for the minimum rate, VAT compensation and the current value of the carbon tax, in a total reduction of 10 cents per liter.
Unexpected profit already taxed in 2022
Later this year, the new wind tax will come into effect, which will be levied on extraordinary profits. It will have a minimum rate of 33% and will target the crude oil, natural gas, coal and refining sectors, in accordance with what has been decided at the European level “and to which all countries are obligated,” he stressed. minister.
Ilídia Pinto is a journalist for Dinheiro Vivo
Source: DN
