Cgia: “This year the tax burden is at a record 43.8% of GDP”

Among the files on the table of the Meloni government there is also the one on a tax relief for VAT numbers and employees. Meanwhile, today the CGIA reports that the tax pressure in Italy, given by the ratio between tax revenues and GDP, has reached 43.8 percent, a level never reached before. The CGIA Studies Office notes that the historical record reached this year, however, is not attributable to an increase in taxation on households and businesses, but by the interaction of three distinct economic aspects. The first is a sharp rise in inflation, which has caused indirect taxes to rise; the second from the economic and employment improvement that took place in the first part of the year, which favored the growth of direct taxes and the third from the introduction in the two-year period 2020-2021 of many extensions and suspensions of tax payments, concessions that were canceled for the 2022.

Single check
In addition to these three specificities, it should also be considered that starting from March of this year Italian families receive the single allowance, a measure that has replaced the “old” deductions for dependent children. This change (all things being equal) has obvious implications for the calculation of the tax burden. If the deductions reduced the personal income tax to be paid to the tax authorities, their abolition increased the total annual tax revenue by about 8.2 billion euros. Recall that, now, the resources to disburse the single allowance are accounted for in the state budget as expenditure.

Finally, in absolute terms, the CGIA reports that according to the data released in recent days by the Ministry of Economy and Finance (January-September 2022), tax revenues, compared to the same period of 2021, increased by 37 billion euro: of which 5.5 billion for personal income tax, 8.9 billion for Ires and 17.8 billion for VAT.