Manoeuvre 2026: new EUR 2 tax on parcels up to EUR 150 and doubling of the Tobin Tax
Two euro also on packages up to 150 euro that leave and arrive in Italy. This is one of the government amendments to the manoeuvre expected in the Senate Budget Committee
by Marco Mobili and Gianni Trovati
The 2 euro contribution for micro-shipments will concern all parcels, even those departing from and arriving in Italy, because a request reserved only for non-EU arrivals would in fact translate into tariffs, within customs policies that are the exclusive competence of the European Union. The doubling of the Tobin Tax, from the current 2 per thousand to 4 per thousand on unregulated markets and from 1 to 2 per thousand on regulated ones, should be immediate, from 2026, without the three-year progressive path hypothesised by the amendments of Fratelli d'Italia. The current structure of taxation on financial transactions brings 546 million a year into the State's coffers, according to the Department of Finance's statistical bulletin: a straight doubling could therefore bring additional coverage to the manoeuvre for about 1.5 billion euros in three years, thus producing about 60% of the funds needed.
The double intervention was designed to cover the stop of double taxation on dividends with the new rule based on the alternative thresholds of the participation value, 5% or EUR 500,000, which will continue to guarantee the favourable treatment ensured by the participation exemption.
The government's amendments to the manoeuvre expected today in the Senate Budget Committee have taken shape in the last few hours, where in the meantime the usual round of warm-up meetings continued yesterday in preparation for the decisions that will only come to a head in the coming days.
The government's dossier of corrective measures is much lighter than the more than 80 proposals for action presented in recent days by the various ministries. The aim of the changes constructed at the Ministry of the Economy is to delete the most problematic aspects of the Dl approved in mid-October with measures that are practically self-compensating, and therefore do not need to be backed by further coverage. Because 'the balances remain the same', as Economy Minister Giorgetti had made clear from the very moment the bill arrived at Palazzo Madama, to which the parliamentarians had initially contributed 5,742 amendments, later reduced to 414 reported.
In the same spirit, the amendment of the rule on short-term rentals responds, with the rate remaining at 21% for the first house rented out for tourism, rising to 26% only for the second flat, while the business activity will start from the third and no longer from the fifth property as is the case today.
