Tax relief for companies that support parents

A one per cent discount on contributions due to INPS, up to 50,000 euro per year, for companies that implement actions to support the reconciliation between family and work, maternity and paternity. This is the incentive introduced by the job decree in force since 1 May (Decree Law 62/2026), now being examined by the Chamber of Deputies for conversion into law (AC 2911). Actually, as provided by Article 6, the relief will be operative from the date of entry into force of the law converting the measure, with rules that will be outlined in detail by a subsequent inter-ministerial decree.

To finance the incentive, the Labour Decree provides an allocation of 7 million for 2026 and 12 million for each of the years 2027 and 2028.

The explanatory report to the decree specifies that the companies receiving the relief will be those that certify themselves in accordance with the Uni/Pdr 192 reference practice of 14 April 2026. A practice that has just been adopted, which envisages a management system for work-life balance, with a series of objectives (or Kpi, Key performance indicators), in seven assessment areas: work organisation and time-space flexibility, maternity support, parenting support, support for care commitments, health and wellbeing, economic support and services for families, professional development and career continuity. Organisations (private or public) that will be eligible for certification are divided into four classes based on the number of employees, and the score required to obtain the certificate increases as the size increases.

To get an idea of the indicators, the percentages of workers who have access to agile work, the presence of support policies for returning to work after maternity leave or policies that enhance the skills developed by female workers during maternity leave, up to the adoption of 'back-to-work' programmes for both parents are mentioned in Practice 192:2026. Particular emphasis is placed on the division of caring burdens: for example, one indicator sets a minimum threshold of 65% for the ratio of working fathers taking the mandatory 10-day paternity leave to eligible fathers. Another indicator/target is the minimum threshold of 25% as the ratio of fathers taking parental leave to the total number of those entitled. Finally, another indicator is the average number of days of parental leave during the first year of a child's life for newborns in the last two years: for fathers, the minimum threshold is 35 days. An ambitious target, considering that the average number of parental leave days taken by male workers in 2024 was 22, compared to 53 for women. Additional permits and leave for family caregivers granted to workers over and above their legal obligations, and facilitated access to counselling or agreements for home or residential care of family members will also be considered.

An assessment area is dedicated to economic support and services provided for families, with an explicit reference to corporate welfare. "This practice," explains Emanuele Massagli, president of the Italian Corporate Welfare Association and member of the team of experts that drew up Pdr 192:2026, "has, among other objectives, that of encouraging the adoption of more social forms of corporate welfare, i.e. focusing not only on vouchers for purchases but also on services for families. One of the indicators to which a score is associated,' he adds, 'is the presence in the organisation of a structured corporate welfare plan, with a dedicated family budget. If we want to find a critical element in the Pdr's text,' he concludes, 'it is the fact that the direct involvement of workers and their representatives is not valued'.