Manoeuvre 2025: baby bonus, housing, pensions and bank contributions, all new items approved by the Council of Ministers

"We will make the tax cut on workers structural," the premier continued, "and 3.5 billion from banks and insurance companies will be earmarked for healthcare and the most fragile to guarantee better services closer to the needs of all.

The last-minute novelty is a EUR 1,000 'new born' bonus. The manoeuvre has in its belly, among other measures, the amalgamation of Irpef rates, fringe benefits for new hires who move more than 100 kilometres away from their original residence to encourage employment. It is a path of solutions that runs from the extension of the renovation bonus on the first home to pensions, passing through measures to support families and businesses and a severe spending review.

Here are in detail, and in extreme summary, the solutions put in place.

A 'Carta per i nuovi nati' is introduced, the Mef explained in a note published at the end of the Council of Ministers meeting, which grants 1,000 euro to parents within the Isee threshold of 40,000 euro to meet the many first expenses for each newborn child. The kindergarten bonus is also strengthened, and the single allowance comes out of the Isee calculation,

In order to be able to bring fresh resources to the manoeuvre, the ministries will have to cut expenditure by 5 per cent. Local authorities and municipalities should 'save' themselves from the slimming diet.

Health spending will not, in any case, be cut. Minister Schillaci was confident that compared to the 5 billion allocated in the last budget law, there could be an increase of up to 3 billion.

Not only banks but also insurance companies: about 3.5 billion of fresh funds should come from a contribution by the larger banking institutions. On the table would be an advance on Dta (deferred tax assets) for three billion. Instead, an increase in IRES and IRAP seems to be excluded.

The confirmation of the tax wedge cut and the three Irpef tax brackets alone are worth more than half of the manoeuvre, around 14 billion. As far as the wedge cut is concerned, some flaws should be overcome with a double action. From next year it could, in fact, remain contributory for incomes up to 20,000 euro, and then turn into a fiscal one, with an increase in deductions for employees up to 35,000 euro. At that point a decalage would start, rather quickly, up to 40 thousand euro. If the funds coming in from the concordato preventivo and the linked reprieve are sufficient, the government could then reduce the intermediate tax rate, up to 50 thousand euro income, from 35 to 33 per cent.

Deductions will be based on the number of members in a household. The hypothesis would be the introduction of a maximum amount that can be deducted, which would in turn be modulated according to the household. Introducing in fact, it is explained, a first taste of 'family quotient'. Among the hypotheses is also that of revising downwards the income threshold above which the 19% tax discount is triggered (today it starts at 120,000 euro), but the entire package is still being worked on. Among the measures that are taken for granted is the extension to self-employed women of the decontribution for working mothers with two or three children.

In southern Italy, employment incentives for young people and women are confirmed, including for employment relationships activated in the two-year period 2026-2027. Also confirmed are the decontribution in favour of companies located in the ZES and the incentives for self-employment in strategic sectors for the development of new technologies, digital and ecological transition. Fringe benefits are confirmed, with increased amounts for new hires who agree to transfer their residence by more than 100 kilometres. The subsidised 5% taxation of productivity bonuses to workers is confirmed for the three-year period 2025-2027.

A confirmation, but with some adjustments, is also aimed for the measure on company support. The last budget law raised the exemption threshold for fringe benefits to EUR 2,000 for workers with dependent children and to EUR 1,000 for all others (opening up the possibility of also using them to pay rent or the first home mortgage).

There is a move towards extending the 50 per cent renovation bonus on first homes into 2025, thus preventing the tax relief from dropping to 36 per cent from January.

No structural reforms on this front but work is being done, however, to confirm the full indexation of pensions to inflation. And an increase in minimum pensions. Among the hypotheses circulating is also that of a refinement of the so-called Maroni bonus, with incentives for those who choose to stay at work even if they meet the requirements for retirement. Also not excluded is a boost to complementary pensions with the introduction of a six-month period of silent consent.

As Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti confirmed, the manoeuvre will also allocate resources for the renewal of public contracts for 2025-27.

The manoeuvre, the Mef announced at the end of the Council of Ministers, 'extends the effects of the tax reform and the cut in the tax wedge, making them structural, with the unification of the Irpef rates divided into three brackets already in force this year'. The renewal of contracts is also foreseen 'by immediately providing resources to finance the procedures for the renewal of civil service contracts, with particular reference to the three-year period 2025-2027'.

The manoeuvre, the Mef explained, 'reinforces the bonus intended to support the attendance of kindergartens, also by providing for the exclusion of the sums relating to the universal single allowance from the calculation of the Isee'.

The Mef clarified that 'the budget bill also allocates resources to ensure that, after the end of the NRP, the trend in public investment spending is consistent with the requirements of the new European governance. In particular, the strengthening of investments in the defence sector is also envisaged'.

A squeeze on the remuneration of managers of public bodies, foundations and unlisted companies is coming: according to government sources, the measure has been included in the manoeuvre. These managers will not be able to earn more than the Prime Minister, i.e. approximately 80,000 euro. This would be an intervention, it is explained, introduced on the strong input of the Minister of the Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti.

As far as the economic and fiscal decree is concerned, the one that got the go-ahead from the executive is a decree law that introduces urgent measures on economic and fiscal matters and in favour of territorial entities. According to the indications provided by the government in the note issued at the end of the summit, the solutions include the modification of the substitute tax, for the years still to be assessed, of the subjects that adhere to the two-year arrangement with creditors. Individuals who have applied the synthetic indexes of fiscal reliability (Isa) and who adhere by the deadline of 31 October 2024, can adopt a tax amnesty scheme, paying the substitute tax on income tax and related surcharges as well as the regional tax on production activities. The decree adjusts the tax amnesty regulations for entities that adhere to the two-year tax amnesty and that for the years 2020 and 2021 have declared the presence of a cause of exclusion from the application of ISAs in relation to the spread of the Covid pandemic.

Finally, the measure on excise duties. The Government has approved, in preliminary examination, a legislative decree to revise the provisions on the subject. Among the solutions envisaged is the revision of the methods of assessment, settlement, and payment of excise duty on natural gas, overcoming the current system based on a historical advance payment mechanism. The new system will be based on monthly advance payments commensurate with the amount billed to end consumers month by month. This, the executive explained, will avoid unreasonable economic exposure for operators in the sector and will make fraud more difficult. In addition, in order to rationalise the taxation system and reduce litigation, the current distinction between 'civil' uses (for which there is a higher excise duty) and 'industrial' uses of natural gas will be replaced by one between 'domestic' and 'non-domestic' uses.

The measure also includes a simplification for retail alcohol sales businesses (e.g., bars) for which the report to the Customs and Monopolies Agency (ADM) will be absorbed by the (already provided for) communication of the start of activities for the sale of subject alcohol products, to be submitted to the Single Desk for Production Activities. The issuance of the licence will only be required for certain types of storage of alcoholic products and only above pre-established minimum volumes.

New also for smoking products. The duration of authorisations for the sale of liquid inhalation products and tobacco products is to be extended from two to four years.