Manoeuvre, from school to bonuses: mini-news for families

The arrival of the last amendments to the budget law, the actual start of their examination, and the head-on clash between the majority and the oppositions. This is what is on the menu today at the Budget Committee of the House, where this morning at 10.30am the marathon is scheduled to start, with the aim of bringing the text to the House tomorrow, with or without a mandate to the rapporteur, where between general debate, confidence question and votes the dossier could close between Friday evening and Saturday morning. On the keeping of this timetable hang the hopes of the senators to be able to ratify in the first days of next week what has been decided in Montecitorio, and thus avoid the return to Palazzo Madama between Christmas and the New Year for an act of presence that in any case could not change the contents of the budget law.

The climate of parliamentary relations, however, is turning sour. It had already begun to spoil between Friday and Saturday, after the long waits for the government's amendments that were then transformed in extremis into proposals by the rapporteurs in order to avoid technical reports (a few brief partial reports arrived yesterday) and cut the legs off any sub-amendments. Even after the unpacking of what was originally supposed to be an omnibus government amendment, however, the individual texts continue to contain very disparate interventions. 'This way it is impossible to examine the manoeuvre', the oppositions wrote yesterday to the president of the Lorenzo Fontana Chamber of Deputies (Action did not sign the letter in an attempt to still aim for a confrontation on the merits), while in particular the PD raises doubts on the coverage and accuses the Minister of the Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti of 'bullying Parliament'.

Underneath the dust of controversy runs the whirligig of corrective measures, often in the form of interventions down to the microscopic detail, which, however, are bound to affect the accounts of families as well as those of companies. For the former, it is worth mentioning first of all the increase in the ceiling on deductible expenses for attendance at recognised public schools, which from next year will rise from EUR 800 to EUR 1,000. This novelty goes hand in hand with another measure brought in by the rapporteurs' correction proposals, which increases the fund for parochial schools that take in disabled pupils by 50 million in 2025 and 10 million from the following year.

Still on the subject of deductions, the safeguard clause is defined that allows the discounts for renovations related to this year's expenses to remain excluded from the calculation base that defines the ceiling for the use of tax discounts. The same safeguard also applies to all other deductions that are accrued over time, such as insurance premiums (death, permanent disability and natural disasters for buildings) and first home mortgages. On the other hand, a contribution to families with an Isee up to 15,000 euro is introduced for young people from 6 to 14 years of age who take part in sports or leisure activities outside school hours.

The Lega for its part claims the new bonus for the purchase of household appliances. For those who buy new energy-efficient refrigerators, washing machines or stoves in the new class B, replacing old appliances will get a 30% discount up to a maximum of 100 euro per appliance. For families with an Isee up to 25,000 euro, the State contribution will rise to 200 euro.