The race for the manoeuvre begins: target Irpef cut and new scrappage scheme, 9 billion needed

The aim is to support the middle class. While the oppositions, accomplices of the expensive umbrellas, empty beaches and even the running shopping trolley, press the government that in their opinion does nothing for wages, it is the centre-right that insists on the need to lower taxes from the majority front. On one side is the League, which, through Matteo Salvini, calls for 'the definitive scrapping of all tax bills', and a flat tax for incomes up to 100,000 euro for the self-employed. On the other Forza Italia, which has made the Irpef cut for intermediate tax brackets its 'workhorse'. The problem remains that of resources, those 'approximately 4 billion' that must be found to extend the tax reduction, one of the central points of the centre-right programme. Nine billion are needed between the scrapping of taxes and the Irpef cut.

So much so that after last year's unsuccessful attempt, even in the ranks of Fratelli d'Italia there are those who are beginning to speculate that with the manoeuvre for 2026 it will finally be the right time. A reduction of the tax rate 'from 35% to 33% for incomes up to 60,000 euro', Fi's economic manager Maurizio Casasco, would save '440 euro' in taxes to incomes 'up to 50,000 euro' and '1440 euro to incomes from 50,001 to 60,000 euro'. The Azzurri also suggest the cover, with a mix of 'tax concordat, tax amnesty and increased employment' that also increases revenue.

"We want to bring the flat tax to incomes up to 100,000 euro as early as the next budget law," announced League leader Matteo Salvini speaking at the Versiliana on Monday, 11 August. 'Moreover,' the deputy prime minister noted, 'we also want to review some parameters of the Isee so as not to penalise those who have small properties in accessing services or the code of procurement along with a gigantic intervention to cancel the bureaucracy that paralyses development and businesses.

Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti will certainly insist on the policy of 'prudence' that has been preached so far, not least because efforts are being made to bring the deficit below 3 per cent as early as 2026, so as to get out of the infringement procedure a year early. An initial round of meetings at the Mef with ministers has already begun before the summer break. And Orazio Schillaci announced that an extra two billion has been earmarked for health care, another key on which the opposition, led by the Democratic Party, is relentlessly thrashing.

But the list is already quite long: there is to stabilise the Ires premiums, just unblocked, as the deputy minister for the economy Maurizio Leo has already anticipated. And then there would be the 1,000 more agents for the penitentiary police requested by the Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni herself. And again fashion, to be supported with an ad hoc tax credit (250 million) on which minister Adolfo Urso is counting. Also to be found is the financing of the extension of the ZES to Umbria and Marche, just approved by the Council of Ministers. And it will be necessary to figure out how to recalibrate the ceiling on public sector salaries, after the 240,000 euro threshold introduced by the Renzi government in 2014 was rejected by the Constitutional Court. The League then hopes for a freeze on the retirement age ("the Ragioneria at first spoke of 200 million, we will see," said Labour Undersecretary Claudio Durigon). Forza Italia has already put on the list of requests the 'detaxation of overtime' and also 'contractual renewals'. Moreover, the Irpef cut has so far duelled with the other proposal in the tax field, the Leghist proposal of scrapping. There is a bill at an advanced stage in the Senate Finance Committee, which will move on to the amendment stage when it resumes in September, as President Massimo Garavaglia has assured. And the summer idea launched by the party in Via Bellerio is to finance the new tranche of 'fiscal peace' with a 'contribution' from the banks.