Banks use the 'discount' of the Manoeuvre: 1.8 billion paid to the tax authorities

The main Italian banks used, in their 2025 accounts, the 'discount' provided for by the Budget Law to release the capital reserves set aside in 2023 (instead of the tax on extra-profits), thus paying the tax authorities just over 1.8 billion euro.

A glance at the balance sheets released by credit institutions in recent days reveals, more or less clearly, the use of the measure in order to benefit from the 27.5% preferential tax rate this year, with an aggregate saving of approximately €800 million.

In fact, the mechanism envisaged by the Mef and the legislators envisages a rate that increases over the years in order to entice the banks to redeem the 6.8 billion in reserves, resulting in a collection for the state coffers.

The capital comes from the banks' decision to accumulate these reserves instead of paying the tax on extra profits in 2023. A measure that was surprisingly decided by the government in that summer and then, under pressure from the ECB, was changed by giving banks the option to build up capital reserves.

With this year's budget law, which also provided for a series of measures for the sector, first and foremost the increase in Irap rates, the executive and then the parliament provided for a subsidised rate to induce the redemption of this capital. In the 2025 budget, therefore, various banks communicated this decision.