How to combine SIFIDE and RFAI into an integrated tax strategy

Throughout the Tax Benefits Week, a central idea became clear: there is a set of highly relevant tax benefits for companies, which apply to the phases where companies are often subject to a greater financial effort.

Mechanisms to Support Growth

In this context, SIFIDE stands out, supporting R&D expenditure incurred in the creation of new products, processes, or services, which, as we know, are uncertain and lengthy processes, and not always successfully completed. And RFAI, which supports companies in productive investment cycles, whether to industrialise and produce these R&D results, to increase their productive capacity, or even to invest in technology and new equipment that allow them to diversify what they do and/or change the way they do it. As such, it is important to know each of these mechanisms, but it is no less important to understand how to combine them intelligently, aligned with the company's growth strategy.

Principles of Combined Use

It is important to understand the principles and rules underlying their combined use. Companies can, and should, organise the application of deductions so as not to waste tax benefits; however, they must respect the individual limits on deductions, the reporting deadlines, and the legally defined criteria, i.e., the principles of seniority and proportionality, the latter being applicable when dealing with tax incentives calculated in the same time period. This implies looking at the calculated IRC (Corporate Income Tax) liability, the available tax credit, prioritising the deductions, and ensuring that their use is maximised, but always correctly and in compliance with all principles and rules.

Tax Liability Management and Projections

Combining SIFIDE and RFAI is, essentially, managing tax liability over several financial years. Instead of looking at tax only at the end of each year, the company should work with profit projections, investment plans for productive assets, and R&D project maps. With this information, it is possible to:

• Adjust the investment calendar to maximise RFAI;
• Plan R&D projects continuously, optimising SIFIDE;
• Define a trajectory for the use of benefits that keeps the effective IRC rate low and stable over time.

This multi-year tax planning is not just a technical exercise: it is a way to support strategic decisions, from choosing the moment to launch a new production line to reinforcing the commitment to innovation.

In short, when there is a broad vision of these instruments, the company stops treating each benefit as an isolated opportunity and starts integrating the incentives into its strategy for investment, innovation, and capitalisation. It is this paradigm shift that makes it possible to transform taxation into a true competitive advantage.

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Last updated: 16/03/2026