Bonus 100 euro, from January 2025 in the pay envelope. Here is who gets it and how to claim it

With the Council of Ministers' go-ahead for the decree implementing the tax delegation on IRPEF and IRES, the details of the 100 euro bonus recognised by the government for employees with incomes of up to 28,000 euros begin to emerge. Awaiting the final text that will now be sent to the Houses of Parliament for the opinion of the Finance Committees, let us see what the requirements are that will allow one to claim the new allowance from one's employer. An allowance introduced, as underlined by Deputy Minister for the Economy Maurizio Leo, to support household consumption and in anticipation of a more structural intervention aimed at detaxing thirteenth month bonuses, in line with what is indicated in the delegated law reforming the tax system.

The bonus, we read in the draft decree, is granted to employees for whom, in the year 2024, the following conditions are jointly met: total income must not exceed EUR 28,000 and the gross tax determined on income from employment (excluding pensions and allowances equivalent thereto), received by the worker, must be higher than the amount of the deductions due to the worker. Translated into other terms, the worker must not be incapacitated.

To claim the bonus, the worker must have a spouse and at least one child, both dependent. Not only that. The decree also looks at single-parent households by stipulating that the worker must have at least one dependent child and the other parent is missing or has not recognised the child and the taxpayer is not married or, if married, has subsequently separated, or if there are adopted, fostered or affiliated children of the taxpayer alone and the latter is not married or, if married, has subsequently separated.

Beware, from what emerged from the post-Council of Ministers press conference, the 100 euro bonus will be subject to withholding and will therefore be at a variable amount depending on the tax rate and the tax deductions due to the employee. Since the total income is up to €28,000, the applicable rate is the marginal rate of 23 per cent. Not only that. The amount due will be related to the period of employment, so if a worker is hired on 1 July, the starting bonus will be 50 euros and on this will be applied the deductions.

The allowance will be paid with the January 2025 pay packet and will affect 1.1 million families. To obtain it, it will be the worker who will ask his employer for the bonus, certifying in writing that he is entitled to it by indicating the tax code of his spouse and children. Tax withholding agents, for their part, will recover the credit accrued by offsetting it against taxes and contributions to be paid. In addition, it will always be the tax withholding agents who will verify the entitlement to the allowance when making the adjustment and, if it turns out not to be due, it will always be the employers who will recover the amount already paid.