IRPEF paid by foreign nationals amounts to 12.6 billion

The average income declared by a taxpayer born abroad and resident in Lombardy (20,170 euros) exceeds that declared by an Italian in Calabria (19,610 euros). Although, on average, Italians have an income that is 9,250 euro higher than that of those born abroad. These are some of the figures compiled by the Leone Moressa Foundation for the 2026 Annual Report on the Economics of Immigration, which will be presented in October and which Monday’s edition of Il Sole 24 Ore is able to preview.

Taxpayers born abroad (including those who have acquired Italian citizenship) number 5,156,370. Income declared in 2025 (relating to the 2024 tax year) amounts to 87.9 billion. Growth has been steady in recent years: income declared by foreign nationals stood at 46.6 billion in 2014 (55.7 billion when adjusted for inflation using the FOI index).

The total IRPEF paid by taxpayers born abroad amounts to 12.6 billion, representing 6.4 per cent of the total net tax declared, which stands at 197.4 billion. In practice, even taking into account monetary values revalued to 2024, there has been a substantial increase over the last ten years in both the volume of income (+57.8% since 2014) and the volume of personal income tax (+55%).

Foreign or naturalised taxpayers have an average income of 17,670 euros, compared with the 26,920 euros declared by those born in Italia. 38.2 per cent fall into the bracket up to 10,000 euros (compared with 23.4 per cent of Italians in this bracket) and 40.1 per cent are in the bracket between 10,000 and 25,000 euros. Only 2.5 per cent earn more than 50,000 euros a year (compared with 8.4 per cent of those born in Italia).

“These differences,” explains Enrico Di Pasquale, “reflect a shorter average contribution history and shorter average length of service among the immigrant population, but they also highlight more structural factors linked to the segmentation of the Italian labour market. Workers born abroad are, in fact, more concentrated in sectors requiring lower qualifications and offering lower pay, such as domestic work, logistics, agriculture, construction and catering, characterised by low wages, greater job instability and limited opportunities for career progression. Added to this – he continues – are factors such as the lack of recognition of qualifications obtained abroad, language barriers, occupational segregation and a higher incidence of involuntary part-time work amongst immigrants’.