Supplementary pension, changes in sight for Rita tax benefits

Temporary early supplementary pension better known by the acronym Rita. It is the mechanism introduced in 2018 by the Italian legislator to allow those who have lost their jobs, and are close to retirement, to receive what they have paid into the supplementary fund on favourable tax terms. It is a pension bridge for those who have no more than 5 years to the maturation of the age for old age pension (thus accessible from 62 years of age) and for those who have been unemployed for more than 24 months. Thanks to Rita, those who collect these sums periodically pay taxes of between 15 and 9 per cent, and not the ordinary Irpef rate, even on sums paid before 1 January 2007, the date on which the pension fund reform became operative.

Four years ago, however, on 17 September, there was a widening of the pool of beneficiaries. A circular of the Covip, the supervisory authority for pension funds, considered that Rita could 'also be paid out if the beneficiary receives, at the time of the application or during the course of the Rita payment, first-pillar pensions in advance or seniority pensions'. This is why, from 2020 onwards, there was a surge in Rita applications for those enrolled in pre-existing pension funds: from 433 in 2019, this rose to 788 the following year, with a continuous progression up to 1,685 in 2023.

The reason for the increase in applications is linked precisely to the tax advantage: members of pre-existing pension funds are among those who have strong asset positions (mounts) in supplementary pensions and have every interest in collecting them in the form of Rita, which, as mentioned, extends the benefit even before January 2007. For all other cases, the favourable tax treatment is in fact only applied to benefits paid from 2007 onwards.

However, the Rita scheme could be drastically reduced. Since April, rumours have been circulating of a change in the mechanism by the government, which would like to recognise the annuity in question with exclusive reference to the termination of employment occurring after 1 January 2025 for reasons other than retirement of any type: a stop, therefore, to the social security bridge and the annexed tax benefits. It is not yet clear, however, in which measure this change will be included, which, according to some experts, should be envisaged in an overall reform of supplementary pensions. If and how Rita will be modified, we will know in the coming weeks/months.