Severance pay, a tax-free allowance for young people, income tax cuts for the middle classes, a healthcare card for pensioners: Forza Italia revives its tax proposals

Severance pay that can be used freely during the first few years. A tax-free allowance for young people. Lower income tax for the middle classes, which essentially means not backing down on extending the second income tax bracket of 33 per cent from 50,000 to 60,000 euros of income. A healthcare card to cover medical expenses incurred by pensioners. All this accompanied by a firm ‘no’ to any taxation of windfall profits. Deputy Prime Minister and Forza Italia leader Antonio Tajani has reiterated his stance on the budget’s tax chapter, on which the Draft Budgetary Plan (DPB) has outlined a narrow – very narrow indeed – path in terms of the scope for manoeuvre. A series of policy parameters were set out during the interview on ‘Mattino Cinque’ on Canale 5.

Regarding the budget, Tajani said, “We have only set out the headlines; now we need to flesh out the details, and see how to put these positions into practice.” The priorities “are families and businesses, so we too,” Tajani continued, “will continue to put forward proposals, for example, to extend the road tax exemption to all first cars; we will propose a ‘no tax area’ – that is, for young people up to the age of 30–35 – a way of helping young people as they start their working lives and go on to start a family; we could also consider allowing greater flexibility in the use of severance pay during the early years, we are considering lowering personal income tax, and we are also looking at ensuring that our system achieves an overall reduction in the tax burden’.

In fact, the issue of the IRPEF reduction is back on the agenda, raising the need to determine whether it will be possible to examine it in greater depth, whilst identifying the necessary funding and defining the scope within which to consider it, given that, as envisaged this summer, the measure would have cost 2.7 billion and would have primarily benefited those with incomes above 60,000 euros in terms of tax savings.

As part of the support package for vulnerable groups, Forza Italia is pushing ahead with a proposal for a sort of advance on the tax deduction for healthcare expenses, which is currently claimed via the tax return and therefore only a year after the costs of treatment have actually been incurred. Hence the idea of a ‘card for pensioners, which they can use to receive’ in this way ‘direct financial assistance’. Essentially, a sort of voucher designed to cover certain healthcare costs, such as dental treatment.

In his interview on *Mattino Cinque*, Tajani also reiterated that ‘we will never vote in favour of a tax on windfall profits’ and called for dialogue: ‘I propose a robust and substantive dialogue,’ he explained, ‘with the entire financial sector and with other sectors that can make a contribution – a voluntary, agreed contribution – which allows this business sector to be part of the country’s economic growth, rather than adopting a heavy-handed stance that frightens the markets.’ ‘We must work with great intelligence, as we have done in recent years,’ explained Tajani, ‘as was done with the oil companies, because the best results are achieved by involving companies rather than through taxation; because once you start imposing taxes, you never know where it will end. So great caution is needed, and Forza Italia will be very cautious. We will certainly never vote in favour of a tax on windfall profits. I want to make that very clear.”