It may seem strange to someone, but those directly involved, or VAT numbers, know this very well, because they experience the problem firsthand: the average income tax on self-employed workers is clearly higher than that for employees and pensioners .
According to the data relating to the 2018 tax returns, in fact, the average personal income tax paid by self-employed workers is 5.091 euros, that for employees of 3.927 and that for pensioners of 3.047.
In other words, VAT pay 30% more income tax per year than employees and 67% more than pensioners pay.
The coordinator of the CGIA Study Office, Paolo Zabeo, stresses:
“We believe it is important to clarify this issue to disprove a widespread thesis, especially in some trade union circles, according to which in Italy taxes are honored almost exclusively by those who suffer the withholding tax. Let me be clear, no one denies that there are areas of evasion or sub-declaration among the self-employed which, of course, must be absolutely eradicated. The results of this elaboration, however, demonstrate in an irrefutable way that VAT numbers are on average more harassed than other taxpayers-natural persons ".
In principle, we can say that the gap relating to the average Irpef payment between these 3 categories of taxpayers is due, in particular, to the combination of 2 factors:
- having on average higher income from employees and retirees, the personal income tax levy on self-employed workers is higher;
- self-employed workers and pensioners, especially those with medium-low incomes, can count on tax deductions that are significantly lower than those paid to employees.
CGIA secretary Renato Mason declares: “After deciding to cut the tax wedge, thus making the payroll of employees heavier, in our opinion it is desirable that the Conte Government will return to lighten the tax burden even on small and micro companies. This, indirectly, would also benefit employees, given that in the last few years of economic difficulty the vast majority of new jobs have been created by small-scale entrepreneurial activities ".
Returning to the numbers, the personal income tax is the main tax paid by taxpayers to the Italian state. Only natural persons pay it (employees, pensioners, self-employed workers and holders of other personal incomes) and as shown by the 2018 tax returns (2017 tax year) these subjects give the tax authorities 157,5 billion euros 'year; the incidence of this revenue on the national total of tax revenues is 31,5 percent.
Over 36 million 300 thousand people are employed and retired in Italy: together they make up 88,2 percent of Irpef taxpayers in the country and pay almost 130 billion euros to the tax authorities (equal to 82,5 percent of the total). The self-employed, on the other hand, are just over 4 million and 300 thousand units (equal to 10,5 per cent of the total Irpef taxpayers) and guarantee the tax authorities 22 billion euros of Irpef (14 per cent of the total income tax).
Also in this case, the CGIA studies point out, the comparison between the incidence of the percentage of taxpayers and that on the revenue shows that the self-employed are subject to higher taxation and therefore more "squeezed" than the others.
At the territorial level, the region with the highest number of active workers is Lombardy (over 3.962.000 employees and almost 777.000 self-employed workers) which, we recall, has over 10 million inhabitants. Immediately below are Lazio, as regards the number of employees (just over 2,1 million) and Veneto, as regards self-employed workers (around 429.300). Veneto is in third place at national level also for the number of employees (1,9 million), while Emilia Romagna is positioned on the bottom step of the podium due to the presence of self-employed workers (391.300). Even the largest number of pensioners is concentrated in Lombardy (almost 2,5 million). In second place we see Lazio (1.272.373) and third in Piedmont (1.228.747).
Finally, on the front of the income tax by regions, the territory that pays the most is Lombardy. In absolute terms with 35,9 billion euros (equal to a pro tax payer personal income tax of 6.220 euros). Lazio followed with € 17,8 billion (average income tax of € 6.150) and Emilia Romagna with € 14,5 billion (average income tax € 5.390). At the bottom of the ranking we see Puglia with an average personal income tax per taxpayer of 3.840 euros, Basilicata with 3.720 euros and Calabria with 3.650 euros.
More generally, they conclude from the CGIA, from the comparison with the other European countries, a result is very disheartening for us. In 2018, Italians paid 33,4 billion euros in taxes more than the average total amount paid by citizens of the European Union. It is a differential that "weighs" almost 2 points of GDP. In per capita terms, however, we paid the taxman 552 euros more than the average of European citizens.
From this comparison only France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Austria and Finland have a tax burden higher than ours. The "surprise" comes from Paris: every citizen of the other side of the Alps paid 1.830 euros more than us. In absolute terms, the tax gap is favorable to us and amounts to 110,7 billion euros. Compared to the other main competitors, however, we always "succumb". If we had the tax burden of Germany we would pay 24,6 billion less taxes (407 euro per capita), Holland 56,2 (930 euro per capita), the United Kingdom 114,2 (1.888 euro per capita) and the Spain 119,5 (1.975 euros per capita).
