AGI – Outdoor advertising operators take to the streets to demonstrate in Piazza Montecitorio. “Families are bankrupt 50,000 jobs are at risk among electricians, locksmiths, installers, printers, graphic designers. The entire sector in the month of February alone recorded a loss of revenues of 70% compared to the previous year (Nielsen-Upa data) “.
The reasons are due to the arrest of mobility which has lasted for a year, and discourages companies from investing in posters, as well as from the general economic contraction due to the pandemic. Over one hundred demonstrators ask the government to postpone the Single Fee; the postponement of tax bills and assessments; the tax credit as for advertising on radio, TV and newspapers; specific refreshments for the sector.
The outdoor advertising companies – the note still reads – have not had any type of specific refreshment as happened for other sectors, no concessions as for the occupation of public land in bars and restaurants, no tax credit as for the publishing (radio, newspapers and TV), no postponement of tax assessments.
To this situation is added the introduction of the Single Fee, a rule that brings together the previous taxes, and has generated further confusion. Each municipality adopts its own regulation which is different from the other, and now the taxes are also claimed by the Provinces. The result is that advertising companies find themselves paying higher taxes, without being able to make adequate budget forecasts, finding themselves on the verge of bankruptcy. External Advertising, on the other hand, is “friend of the cities”.
And it explains: “It contributes with 50% of its revenues to the improvement of urban furniture and to the resources of local authorities to guarantee services. The boost provided for clean mobility and technological innovation, with the wi-fi spot shelters, and bike sharing, has led cities towards smartness and the European objectives expressed in the Recovery Plan. The investments worth 600 million euros a year have helped mobility infrastructures such as airports, subways and public transport by road “.
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