Studio Associato Ventimiglia - Consulenza societaria, Consulenza tributaria, Consulenza contrattuale, Consulenza lavoro, Progettazione immobiliare

Map of the Ventimiglia Urban Enterprise Zone

 

Urban Enterprise Zones

Abbreviated in Italian as Z.F.U. (Zona Franca Urbana), the Urban Enterprise Zone was created through several legal dispositions including Law no. 296 dated Dec. 27, 2007. The zone must meet the following requirements:

1. a minimum demographic size of 25,000 inhabitants (source ISTAT - National Statistics Institute 2006);
2. a higher unemployment rate in the municipality than the national 2005 average. The zone is designed to favour small and micro-businesses already present or starting up in the area – there are however certain limits. Italy has 22 Urban Enterprise Zones, only two of which are in Northern Italy (Massa Carrara in Tuscany and Ventimiglia in Liguria).

The companies working in the following sectors are excluded from these benefits: automotive, naval, large-scale textiles, steel, and road transport.

Anyone opening a business in the above-mentioned area may take advantages of tax and social security benefits for the first five years (total income tax exemption for the first five years on up to 100,000 Euros in revenues produced in the zone with an increase of 5,000 Euros each year for each person employed with an open-ended contract); IRAP-Regional Income tax is also included in the exemption (up to 300,000 Euros of net production value each year).

There is also an exemption from ICI-property tax valid for the first 5 years on real estate located in Urban Enterprise Zones belonging to companies and used for business activities. From a social security point of view, the exemption applies to open-ended contracts and contracts with a fixed-term of at least one year, while at least 30% of employees must reside in the Urban Enterprise Zone.