Manoeuvre 2025 in the final rush: record flat tax and VAT numbers approaching 2 million

In this crescendo, there are also flat taxes that do not affect self-employed and corporate income. In fact, from the 2025 tax year there will also be a double broadening of the cordons on the separate taxation of tips received by employees working in tourism, including hotels, bars and restaurants.

The favourable measure had been introduced as of 2023, providing for a 5% taxation on tips on condition that the taxpayer's total income did not exceed EUR 50,000 in the previous tax period and that the fees from tips did not exceed 25% of the total income. The manoeuvre now intervenes precisely on these two parameters. Firstly, the taxpayer's total income may be up to EUR 75,000, while the limit of income received in the year for the relevant work to which the substitute tax is to be applied will be raised to 30%. Awaiting the data from the tax statistics of the Finance Ministry, the first trends collected by Caf Acli (see 'Il Sole 24 Ore' of 5 August) show how the average value of the tax-free gratuity is worth 943 euro in the 730s (few in fact: 0.33% of the 720 thousand models processed). However, the regions with the highest average amount of tax-free tips are Lombardy (1,569 euro per year) and Liguria (1,082 euro), while most of the workers who took advantage of the bonus (88.2%) have an income below 30,000 euro per year.

There is also a third axis on which the manoeuvre intervenes. There is also a flat tax of 5 per cent that will be used to detax overtime paid to nurses of companies and bodies of the National Health Service. The substitute tax (of Irpef and regional and municipal surtaxes) will be applied by the withholding agent to remuneration paid as of 1 January next. A way to facilitate overtime work in the face of the workloads on nursing staff. EUR 53 million for 2025, EUR 57.6 million for 2026 and EUR 57.3 million annually from 2027 have been set aside to cover the measure.

All this after a year that has seen the number of flat taxes grow and spread even further, also by virtue of the progressive Irpef taxation substitute levies that have been envisaged for the arrangement with creditors for VAT numbers and for the special amnesty, i.e. the amnesty that was introduced last October precisely to encourage access to the arrangement and that was constructed with a mechanism of increasing rates according to the decreasing reliability of taxpayers, measured through tax report cards (the Isa).

There remains, in short, a twofold attempt to try to bring out the undeclared or to facilitate an additional income component, also as a productivity lever. A tendency to multiply escapes from the Irpef, just when debates on the reduction are underway and the implementation of the tax delegation is still open.