3' min read
3' min read
Last year, the more than 790 thousand immigrant taxpayers employed in the Triveneto region paid a total of 1.8 billion in Irpef. The per capita income differential with Italians remains high, which in Trentino Alto Adige reaches approximately 11,700 euro per year; in Veneto it is 8,200 euro; in Friuli Venezia Giulia 8,000 euro. Comparing the revenue that the work of foreigners generates for the State (in terms of taxes and contributions paid) with the outlays in public spending for welfare services, the balance for the immigrant component is positive, given that these contributors have a young average age and their impact on health expenditure and pensions is decidedly marginal. This is stated in the 2024 Annual Report on the Economy of Immigration, edited by the Leone Moressa Foundation, and accompanied by fact sheets, which outline the effects of immigration on regional and provincial territories.
Here is the picture in the North-East. Taxpayers born abroad - mainly from Romania, Albania, Morocco, China, Ukraine and Moldavia - and working in Trentino Alto Adige number 145,415 (almost 80,000 in Bolzano; the rest in Trento). They account for 18.1% of the total population in South Tyrol and 15% in the neighbouring autonomous province. Their average income is around 16,212 euro, higher in Bolzano. The Irpef (personal income tax) paid in 2023 by each was 3,213 euro, for a total of 328 million euro.
The province of Verona holds the record in the neighbouring Veneto and in the entire macro-area for the number of foreign workers who contribute to GDP with their taxes. In 2023 there were 108,018 immigrants employed in fields, companies and construction sites on the banks of the Adige River, i.e. 15.2% of the total number of workers. Their income averaged 16,440 euro per year. In the region, there are 499,694 taxpayers (13.5% of those paying taxes) and they reach an average income of 17,720 euros, with peaks in Treviso and Belluno, where it exceeds 19,000 euros. Also in the Verona area, the difference with the average income received by an Italian worker is higher: it is 9,670 euro less, a heavy gap, which is not being closed over the years, despite the contribution made by foreigners to the economic system for decades. In the seven provinces, each person in fact pays around 3,090 euro for an aggregate value of over 1.1 billion.
Finally, in Friuli Venezia Giulia, foreigners who pay taxes number 145,227 (15.4%); they receive an average of 17,750 euros per year, each paying about 3,260 euros in Irpef for an aggregate of 354 million euros. Trieste holds the record for per capita Irpef paid in the North-East, which comes to 3,510, for an aggregate value of 72 million.
Many immigrants,' the study points out, 'have opted for self-employment, especially in commerce, construction, catering and handicrafts. In Taa, there are now 15,181 entrepreneurs (9.2% of the total), with a positive variation of almost 37% in ten years. In Veneto, there are 66,795 (10.1%) and they have increased by 22.6% since 2013. Finally, in Fvg there are 17,513 (12.8%), up by 15.9%, again over the ten-year period. In Trieste, the percentage of companies in the hands of foreign owners is the highest of the three regions, rising to 18.3%. While the most significant variations in the number of non-native business owners over ten years can be found in Bolzano (+48.3%), Venice (+42.5%) and Trieste (+35.1%). On the contrary, in all the north-eastern provinces, the number of Italian entrepreneurs fell over the same period.
