L’INPS has provided updates regarding previous instructions on small landholding “piccola colonia” and seasonal profiting contracts, as well as rules surrounding social security contributions. These provisions are still valid in the Italian legal system, provided they strictly follow either the seasonal biological cycle of the crop or the insufficient productivity/profitability of the land.
Both small landholders and those involved in seasonal profit sharing, along with their families, are treated in the same category as temporary agricultural workers for the purposes of social security contribution crediting and the access to unemployment, disease, and maternity benefits.
For these contracts to be valid, they must be in written form and registered with the Revenue Agency. Verbal or unregistered contracts do not allow for contribution credit.
The declaration to activate the pension relationship must be submitted within 30 days of signing the contract, along with any subsequent modifications. The social security relationship automatically ends on 31 December each year, regardless of the contract’s intended duration.
For small landholding, if the relationship continues into the next year, a renewal application must be submitted by 30 January. If the concessionaire fails to submit the statement, the grantee can do so within 60 days from the start of the year.
Workdays are not determined based on actual days worked but rather on assumed values. The Institute applies averages of manpower outlay designated per province with a ministerial decree. These values form the taxable basis for both the contribution to disability, old age, and survivors’ benefits and temporary benefits.
Lastly, INPS specifies that calculated workdays, based on the land’s expansiveness and the crops grown, should be distributed among the family members of the grantee actively involved in farming the land, in accordance with their workability and age.
