Manoeuvre, the government aims to cut bonuses and deductions. Save those on home mortgages, healthcare and work
"There are bonuses, such as the 'famous' one on the scooter, which appear to be clientelistic expenses and which now have no reason to exist," said the chairman of the House Finance Committee Marco Osnato speaking at the Rimini Meeting
by Redazione Roma
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Bonuses and tax rebates - so-called tax expenditures - will also be on the menu of the next manoeuvre. "There are bonuses, like the 'famous' one on the scooter, that appear to be clientelistic expenses and now have no reason to exist," said House Finance Committee chairman Marco Osnato speaking at the Rimini Meeting before taking part in the debate with Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti.
Towards the revision of tax credits
This is a confirmation of what the government has already stated it intends to do in the last Defence that expressly indicates a 'revision of the discipline of tax credits'. A razor's edge has already arrived this year with the limitations introduced on the superbonus. Then there was the first form of the tax reform that introduced a 260 euro franchise for incomes above 260,000 euro. But the revision operation on the other rebates still seems to be one of the manoeuvre's obligatory ways of finding resources. Tax credits, deductions, various allowances: their number has risen from 466 to 626 in seven years, due to Covid's economic difficulties and the need to support the economy and incomes.
Doubled revenue loss from 2008 to 2014 for various deductions and allowances
The account was drawn up by the Parliamentary Budget Office, in fact the Italian authority of public accounts, which calculated that between 2018 and 2024 the loss of revenue has almost doubled from 54 to 105 billion. Cutting some spending to bring down the deficit-GDP ratio as indicated in the Def," Osnato explained in Rimini, "can and should be done. It is an enormous mass of money in which rethinking some spending would be necessary'.
Deductions for medical expenses not affected
Most of the 'drain' of resources, however, comes from certain items that politics and the government do not intend to touch. Home mortgages, healthcare expenses, labour. Deductions for health expenses actually enjoyed alone make up two thirds of the total, are worth 3.8 billion and are used by 18.7 million taxpayers. This is followed by deductions for interest on mortgages for the purchase of a main home: 730 million out of 3.7 million beneficiaries.
Rationalisation needed
.But that there is a need for rationalisation is also clear from other data. Despite the jumble of rules, regulations and management processes of the various rebates, the real average benefit, calculated by the UBB, stood at EUR 175 in 2021 and only 4% of taxpayers had a tax relief above EUR 1,000. Then there is another knot.
