CGIL simulations: the Irpef cut in the manoeuvre yields 3 euro per month for those earning 30,000 euro per year
Union study shows that employees and pensioners pay much more tax than professionals, the self-employed and those living on financial income
Key points
The decrease of the second Irpef tax rate from 35% to 33% up to an income of 50,000 euro - the cut that, according to government announcements, is the 'mainstay of the next budget law - for 70% of tax returns below 28,000 euro would produce no annual benefit, for incomes of 30,000 euro the benefit would be just 3.3 euro per month (40 euro per year), rising to 36.7 euro per month for an income of 50,000 euro (440 euro per year).
"It is almost a mockery," according to the general secretary of the CGIL, Maurizio Landini who points the finger at our tax system that "progressively taxes only employees and pensioners, while financial income, real estate income, profits and all other forms of income are taxed less and at a flat rate. This is madness.
Tax due by income type; penalised employees and pensioners
The economics office of the Cgil has made some simulations. Well, out of 35,000 euro of income in 2025, an employee pays 6,898 euro in taxes to the tax authorities, a pensioner 8,413 euro, a self-employed person who benefits from the flat tax 4,095 euro, and a financial income 4,375 euro. The CGIL simulation serves to highlight that with the same income there is a tax disparity, since employees and pensioners pay much more tax than professionals, the self-employed and those who live off financial income.
In another simulation, the CGIL takes the case of a professional with a gross income of EUR 85,000 who, benefiting from the flat tax, owes the Treasury just over EUR 7,000; if he had applied ordinary Irpef instead, he would have to pay EUR 19,000.
The impact of fiscal drag: cost of more than 25 billion between 2022 and 2024
Not only that, workers and pensioners have also been penalised by the impact of the fiscal drag, fuelled by a cumulative inflation between 2022 and 2024 of +16.4 per cent. The phenomenon of fiscal drag is caused by an increase in the tax burden on incomes caused by inflation. In our progressive income tax system, under the pressure of inflation nominal incomes increase, causing taxpayers to move into higher tax brackets: the consequence is that these workers as taxpayers end up paying more taxes, selling real purchasing power decrease.
