Sugar tax, final OK on postponement to 2026 but pressure grows to cancel it

The extension of the sugar tax to 2026, which has become definitive with the final OK of the Chamber of Deputies (160 votes in favour, 99 against and 3 abstentions) to the Economics Decree (Decree 95/2025), does not close the game. The pressure remains strong within the majority to reach adefinitive cancellation of the levy. The government's openness with its favourable opinion on the agenda presented by Raffaele Nevi of Forza Italia may open up more than a glimmer of hope for the autumn within the manoeuvre. Although the reformulation with which it was accepted already makes it clear what the main issue is. The commitment to the executive is in any case linked to 'public finance constraints' and could take the form of a further postponement 'with a view to a possible subsequent elimination'. An opening that meets with the satisfaction of Assobibe, the Confindustria association representing soft drink producers in Italy. The sugar tax is an 'ineffective, regressive and damaging tax for the Italian production system', explains president Giangiacomo Pierini. "It penalises companies, many of them SMEs, without generating," adds Pierini, "any concrete benefit for public health. We ask the government to take the decisive step towards cancelling the tax in the next economic manoeuvre'.

In the parliamentary passage, the Economy Decree saw a further extension of topics. In addition to measures such as the introduction of the 5 per cent VAT rate on the subsidised sale of works of art already present in the text that had passed through Parliament, there were also measures ranging from sustainability budgets to the safeguard for those who had not paid the first or single instalment of the special tax amnesty by 31 March 2025 (see 'Il Sole 24 Ore' of 5 August). A simplification on the kindergarten subsidy also entered into the first reading passage in the Senate. The application no longer has to be repeated every year. It will suffice to submit it once for it to be valid until the child turns three years old, without prejudice, however, to the obligation to send the documentation attesting to the child's attendance at the nursery school and the verification of requirements every year.

Also in the decree are measures to meet companies on the issue of the healthcare payback. In particular, a sanatorium on medical devices has been envisaged for the years 2015-2018, with a payment reduced to 25% and the establishment of a 360 million state fund to compensate the regions, while SMEs will be able to resort to guaranteed loans in order to adhere to the reduced payment. "The approval of the Dl Economia and the reduction of the burden on companies to 25% represent the first step on the path that tackles the issue of payback medical devices, a rule recognised by all institutions as unfair, which cannot be structural and which must be definitively overcome for the following years and for the future, as, moreover, clearly indicated by the rulings of the Constitutional Court," stresses Fabio Faltoni, president of Confindustria dispositivi medici. "It is now necessary to eliminate the rule in the Budget Law 2026," Faltoni points out.

Another novelty introduced in Palazzo Madama is the 30 million increase in the first home guarantee fund.