Aid to enterprises for consultancy services - P.L. 6/1999

Aid granted by way of exemption, through the submission of a single annual application, for the outsourcing of various consultancy services.

The eligible consultancy services relate to the following business activities

• innovation;
• quality;
• pilotinitiatives in the environmental field;
• market surveys, marketing plans and telemarketing;
• specialised services for theinternationalisation of businesses;
• information technology and telecommunications;
• services of a strategic nature;

Each business activity must have specific characteristics, as set out in the criteria.

In order to submit an application for aid, theminimum amount of expenditure must exceed EUR 40,000. The maximum amount of eligible expenditureis EUR 100 thousand.

Eligible expenditure is assessed by the investigating body through specific fairness parameters, such as the company's turnover, the number of employees, and the hourly cost of consultancy(click here to view details of the parametric calculation limits).

The aid, granted and paid in a single instalment, is 50% for small enterprises and 40% for medium-sized enterprises.

The business activities to which the consultancy services relate must be started after the aid application is submitted and completed by 31 December of the year following the year in which the aid is granted (subject to any extension for completion), as specified in the criteria.

In return for the aid received, thecompany is obliged to comply with a number of obligations set out in the criteria.
There are also specific obligations for individual areas of facilitation.

Small and medium-sized enterprises, meeting specific requirements set out in the criteria.

The application may be submitted by:

• Owner, legal representative of the enterprise
• Delegate

Each applicant company may submit only one aid application per year, starting from 1 January 2023, and in any case not before the last application submitted under these criteria has been accounted for.

The aid application must be submitted by certified electronic mail (PEC) only.

Specific documentation required by the criteria must be attached to the aid application.

The documentation also includes

• news sheet including description, location and list of costs of the initiative;
• cost estimates for the planned services, with specific indication of the total cost of the service in terms of hours provided and the expected timetable of the activity (timesheet);
• presentation of the consulting service provider.