From Portofino to Cavargna: here, municipality by municipality, where incomes have grown the most

From Portofino, symbol of luxury and destination of VIPs from all over the world, to Cavargna, a small mountain municipality in the province of Como. The map of the total per capita incomes declared by Italians in 2023 depicts a growing gap between the richest and the poorest. The data released yesterday by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on 2022 incomes, included by Italians in last year's income tax returns, show that in Italy the overall average income - on which the tax relief due is to be applied in order to identify the taxable income for the calculation of the Irpef tax - is 20,039 euro, up by 5% compared to the 19,006 euro declared the previous year and referred to 2021.

On the one hand, there are the 97,219 euros on average recorded in the Ligurian municipality of Portofino (+120% compared to 2021), where 301 taxpayers submit the tax declaration form; on the other hand, there are the 93 taxpayers resident in Cavargna (Co), who declare an average of 6,156 euros each (+5.8% on an annual basis). The gap between the two municipalities, the richest and the poorest in Italy, is basically more than 91,000 euros. The previous year, the municipality with the highest average income was Lajatico (in the province of Pisa), in last place was still Cavargna from Como: in this case, however, the gap between the average incomes of the two municipalities stopped at 47,534 euro.

The transfer of a single 'large taxpayer' is enough to affect these averages: for example, the incomes of a single VIP or a large industrialist, effectively out of scale with those of already resident taxpayers, can raise the average per capita income even by a lot in a municipality. In the municipal map of declared incomes, elaborated by Il Sole 24 Ore starting from the sum of total incomes (amount in euro) compared to the number of taxpayers in each territory), it is possible to consult the average per capita value of one's own municipality, compare it with one's own and with last year's.

In the 15 richest municipalities in Italy, after Portofino, we also find Milan in 13th place for total per capita income (37.After the already mentioned Lajatico (Pi), Basiglio (Mi), Cusago (Mi), Forte dei Marmi (Lu), Torre d'Isola (Pv), Pino Torinese (To), Bogogno (No), Pieve Ligure (Ge), Segrate (Mi), Padenghe sul Garda (Bs) and Courmayeur (Ao) are also confirmed among the richest municipalities.)

Comparing the average incomes declared in the large metropolitan cities, the gap between Milan and Rome is very wide: in the Capital the total per capita income stops at 29,155 euro (also up by 4.8% year-on-year). That of Turin's inhabitants drops to 26,971 euro per capita. While it rises again in Florence, where the average declared income is 28,409 euro, up 6% year-on-year.