The idea is to build a mechanism shared with companies: companies should commit to increasing the paychecks of younger employees and, in exchange, the additional portion of the salary could be subjected to a lighter substitute taxation compared to ordinary Irpef rates. The starting point, explained Giorgetti, is the difficulty of young people entering the job market in reaching adequate salary levels. For this reason, according to the minister, it would be necessary to develop a tax incentive that can accompany the willingness of companies to recognize increases.
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To outline the proposal, Giorgetti recalled a mechanism already tested with the previous Budget Law. The 2026 Budget had provided for a preferential tax rate of 5% for certain sums paid to workers following the renewal of national collective agreements. The new intervention could take up that logic, but apply it to a different area: instead of focusing on the sums linked to contract renewals, the relief would be linked to the salary increases granted by companies to young people. The minister also reopened the issue of raising the income limit for the flat tax, currently set at 85 thousand euros for VAT numbers. The hypothesis, long supported by the League, is to raise the threshold to 100 thousand euros. To proceed, however, it would be necessary to intervene on the European constraints that currently affect the subsidized regime.
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The proposed mechanism is relatively simple. A company decides to give a young employee a pay increase. On the additional sum, instead of applying the normal IRPEF taxation based on the worker's total income, a fixed and reduced rate would be used. The benefit would therefore concern exclusively the increase and not the entire salary. In this way, the tax benefit would be directly linked to the company's decision to increase pay. However, the most important aspects of the provision remain to be defined. Neither the level of the possible rate nor the income ceiling within which the tax discount can be used have yet been indicated. Furthermore, there is a lack of rules to establish which increases could fall under the subsidized regime.
The scope of the beneficiaries is also yet to be established. The reference to young workers was not accompanied by a precise age limit and it is not clear whether access will also be conditioned by income. Among the possibilities there would therefore be a benefit intended for all employees under a certain age, or an intervention reserved for those who have been employed for a certain number of years.
The proposal is part of a framework characterized by the need to support the purchasing power of workers and to make wages more attractive, especially in the initial phase of the career. The intervention could also have a function in combating the flight of qualified young people, encouraging companies to offer better economic conditions.
For Giorgetti, at the same time, it is necessary to create a context favorable to the return of young people to entrepreneurship. The broader objective indicated by the minister is therefore to use the fiscal lever to stimulate both a greater ability of companies to remunerate work and new professional opportunities for the younger generations. At the moment, however, the proposal on the flat tax applied to salary increases remains a proposal being defined. The next Budget Law and the discussion with businesses will determine whether the idea will be translated into a concrete measure and, above all, with what limits and conditions.
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