Because with the IRPEF reform the middle class will lose
Income exceeding 50 thousand euros, owned by just 7.4% of taxpayers, will bear 33.6% of the total personal income tax, compared to 31.7 "before". Gianfranco Polillo's analysis
Better not to express judgments on the recent and tiring compromise reached to introduce the mini-reform of the personal income tax, but to let the numbers speak for themselves. Which are not really in tune with what was being ventilated. After all, it was difficult to balance the accounts of such a large majority, such as the one that supports the Draghi government and that contains everything and the opposite of everything. An element that does not prejudice as long as it comes to addressing issues strongly felt by the electorate such as the fight against the pandemic – almost 90 percent of the vaccinated – but which breaks down when it comes to putting your hands in the pockets of your electorate . Both to take and to give.
In truth we were left with the premier's burning affirmation, according to which those who longed for assets to reward young people had replied abruptly, that this was not the time. It is difficult to think that this simple joke had stopped those who have, in their constituency, the dogma of an equality not mitigated by the recognition of merit. And here then is that in the tiring meetings in Via XX Settembre, in the end the red mole, as it was once said, worked well. Those 8 billion, found to bring down the tax wedge will be for the exclusive benefit of the workers. But not all of them. Mainly of those who, due to their sociological characteristics, best recognize themselves in the identikit of the left.
The first simulations carried out in the field, using the available data, offer a fairly precise overview. At the beginning it was thought that not everyone should necessarily gain from the first step of the reform, but at least not lose. That is to see the tax burden on one's income worsened. That this, on the other hand, is the essence of the compromise achieved can be seen with the naked eye: in the textual analysis of the announced amendment. The statutory rate of the second and third income brackets (from 15,000 to 50,000 euros) will suffer a reduction of 2 per cent between 15,000 and 28,000 and 3 per cent for the immediately higher class. For those who have an income between € 50,000 and € 75,000, the exact opposite is true. Their rate will rise by 3 percent to offset the burden of previous reductions. But on this particular, the Rai news have turned a deaf ear.
By doing so, on incomes exceeding 50 thousand euros, owned according to the 2019 returns and relating to 2018 income, by just 7.4 per cent of taxpayers, 33.6 per cent of the total Irpef levy will be borne, against 31, 7 of "before". When the idea of tax reform was still in the minds of the. It must be recognized that, in the end, Roberto Gualtieri, as Minister of the Economy, was right. The rich had to cry a little to find the necessary resources to redistribute. All the more so now: when Silvio Berlusconi himself converted to "citizenship income". The greater resources that will enter the fathers' paycheck may perhaps be diverted to the children, without necessarily having to resort to the patrimonial. Which however, according to the indications of Enrico Letta, had to hit the more affluent classes that definitely do not seem to coincide with those who earn 50 thousand euros a year. Just over 2,000 euros per month, after paying the necessary taxes.
It is beauty social justice! If it were so we would be more than happy. Increasing the net salary of those who work is a categorical imperative, especially at a time when consumption is languishing and, for the first time, Italy sees its capital position significantly improve abroad. A clear sign that, despite the thousand troubles, the country is recovering, to return to being a possible protagonist. On the other hand, what is disconcerting is the three card game. That is, to continue whining about a bad redistribution of the tax burden, without denouncing the real causes that have it and continue to determine it. That is to say that tax evasion which does nothing but reflect the backwardness of the entire system, with respect to the evolution of the way of being and living of Italian society. As if the fifty years and more that separate us from that distant reform had not passed. And Italy was still dominated by Fordism as the prevailing mode of production.
Having said that, however, it must be immediately added that to this bad macroeconomic picture, on the contrary, there is a distribution of the tax burden towards those who really pay taxes which is absolutely inequality and not in the sense so dear to the left. On the contrary, its distribution is entirely aimed at favoring the less well-off classes and striking, with a taste that sometimes smacks of sadism, the alleged rich. Those who, as we have seen, earn just over 2 thousand euros a month. Obviously, we are not talking about all this. Indeed the figures are almost secret, hidden under the thick layers of the so-called "tax expenditures". That is to say, of the tax concessions whose reform we have been talking about since time immemorial, but only to then set aside the related problem.
If we are not mistaken, it was Giulio Tremonti, as Minister of the Economy, who raised the problem, providing for a specific study commission. We were around 2010. Since then, only talk, for the simple reason that these concessions are concentrated on the lowest income brackets, creating a double regime. There is that of a legal rate, to be shaken in the course of the most swamped debates to demonstrate compliance with the progressiveness invoked by the Constitution. And then there is an effective rate, difficult to calculate precisely due to the jungle of privileges that are reserved for those who enjoy penalty discounts. Some numbers can be found in the data of the Finance Department of the Mef . But unraveling that skein involves a lot of effort.
As an indication only, it is possible to provide some elements. From the analysis of the 2019 tax returns, it is clear that incomes of up to 15 thousand euros a year were affected, on average, by a legal rate of 22 percent. That was reduced, however, to 6 per cent, once all the deductions were calculated. In the immediately higher class – the one between 15 and 29 thousand euros – the same mechanism: legal rate of 27 percent, real of 14. And so on. Diminishing discounts as income increases, with their maximum concentration – 93 per cent of the total – coinciding with income classes between 40 and 50 thousand euros a year. So sermons for greater fiscal fairness are fine, but at least spare us the sermons. They all taste like a ride for a ride.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/economia/perche-con-la-riforma-dellirpef-il-ceto-medio-perdera/ on Fri, 26 Nov 2021 09:44:50 +0000.