The Senate gives the green light to the IRPEF advance payments decree: here are the novelties

The Senate Chamber's green light for the decree that lays down provisions on the Irpef advances due for the year 2025. The measure passes to the Chamber of Deputies for consideration, to be converted into law by 22 June. The decree intervenes to make the regulations consistent after the 2025 budget law stabilised the new Irpef rates and the expansion of the no-tax area. In particular, the rule that excluded the Irpef remodulation from the calculation of advance payments is limited to 2024. The imbalance created with the 2023 tax reform, which had reduced the Irpef rates and raised the no tax area for employees, is redressed, but only for 2024. The government intervenes to correct the regulatory distortion concerning the calculation of Irpef advances for the current year. The measure, consisting of two articles, has already been in force since 24 April and aims to ensure consistency between the new Irpef structure - which came into force with the budget law - and the way in which tax advances are paid.

The decree eliminates the old rule for 2025: advance payments will now have to be calculated using the new rates and deductions in force. A decision that affects about 2.2 million taxpayers, mainly self-employed or persons with income not from employment or pensions. For the vast majority of employees and pensioners, nothing changes: the new rates had already been 'absorbed' in the 2025 Irpef withholding calculations. For the others, the change means a reduction in the advance payments due in 2025 (amounting to 245.5 million euro), with a recovery expected in the balance of 2026.

Paragraph 1 states that the calculation of the 2025 Irpef advance payment must take into account the new rates and deductions established by the reform, limiting the application of the transitional rule only to 2024. The new deduction of EUR 1,955 for employment income up to EUR 15,000 (excluding pensioners) is confirmed. It should be noted that only about 2.2 million out of 37.8 million individuals are actually required to pay the Irpef advances. For employees and pensioners, however, the higher advance payment has already been 'absorbed' in 2025, so no real impact. For other taxpayers (with income not from employment or pensions), the effect is a shift in revenue: less revenue in 2025 (-245.5 million) and more in 2026 (+245.5 million). The Mef, in a communiqué of 25 March 2025, specified that the rule only applies to those who have residual Irpef debts exceeding EUR 51.65. Finally, paragraphs 2-4 concern the financial coverage: increase of a fund of the MEF for 2026 (+245.5 million); with corresponding reductions from other existing funds to offset the financial impact.

After the Prime Minister's words, "at last the time has come to implement the measure that consists in lowering the Irpef rate from 35 to 33%," stressed Maurizio Casasco, Forza Italia's economic manager, "for incomes of up to 60,000 euro gross per year, which will put resources in the pockets of Italians that will also serve to increase consumption and the general growth of the economy. As this is fully shared by Prime Minister Meloni, now let us move quickly to the concretisation and implementation of a fundamental measure for the social class that participates with great responsibility in the growth of the country," Casasco concluded. 'The priority is the Irpef cut. We are not against scrapping, but first we do the Irpef cut then the scrapping, so we help the middle class. Plus the postponement of the sugar tax by one year'. These are the words of Antonio Tajani, vice-president of the Council and secretary of Forza Italia, questioned in the Chamber of Deputies.