In recent days there has been a lot of talk about “cashback” and “super cashback”, refunds and rewards that Italian citizens will be able to obtain from next year if they make frequent use of electronic payments in physical stores. “Cashback” and “super cashback” are the names of two initiatives that the government is defining and which are part of a broader plan to incentivize electronic payments in Italy and reduce tax evasion: in the last few days, he talked about it also the Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, and the government intends the plan to start next December.
Italy is one of the European countries where it is done less use payments by credit card or debit card and for some time the government had said it wanted to intervene to increase the use of electronic payments and contribute to the reduction of tax evasion (electronic payments as traceable are in fact more difficult to hide from the tax authorities ). Funds for some kind of reimbursement related to the use of electronic payments were already foreseen in the budget law for 2020, but the government projects have slowed down due to the coronavirus epidemic and have been postponed for a few months.
The central idea of the plan to incentivize the use of electronic payments is to motivate consumers with rewards and refunds for those who use them: the details of the plan have not yet been all announced, but the government has spoken about it several times. the funds were allocated with the so-called “August decree” and the newspapers already have a lot of information.
The “cashback” will provide for a six-monthly refund of 150 euros for those who make at least 50 purchases with electronic payment for a total value of at least 1,500 euros (in one year it will therefore be possible to obtain 300 euros in refunds). The refund can only be received for payments in physical stores – therefore online purchases will not count – and will provide some form of registration of one’s credit cards, so that purchases can be counted. At the moment the technical aspects related to obtaining the reimbursement are not very clear: the IO app (the one also used for the distribution of the “holiday bonus”) will certainly have a role, but alternative solutions could be found by December.
What has been called “super cashback” or “super bonus” is instead a prize of 3,000 euros for the 100,000 people who in a year will have made the most electronic payments in physical stores, regardless of the total value of the purchases. The government therefore plans to make a sort of ranking of all credit card users and to distribute prizes at the end of the year. Again some form of consumer registration will likely be required to access the leaderboard and rewards, and the IO app will be used to view the leaderboard.
– Read also: “IO” is available, the app to access the services of the Public Administration
The newspapers write that Giuseppe Conte is a strong supporter of this plan to incentivize electronic payments and that the government is talking to the companies that manage electronic payments to find better ways to make rewards and incentives work. For example, there is talk of the possibility that the commissions that merchants pay for each transaction by credit card are canceled, at least for purchases of a smaller amount, so that greater use of electronic payments does not burden merchants. The Sole 24 Ore also writes Conte has asked the companies in the sector to study other reimbursement systems that can further encourage the use of electronic payments.
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