Last Updated on January 13, 2025
Publication of Law no. 207 of 30 December 2024 governing the ‘State Budget for the financial year 2025 and multi-year budget for the three-year period 2025-2027’.
Below is a summary of the main measures to support businesses and workers.
CONTRIBUTION EXEMPTIONS
Contribution Exemption For Working Mothers
2025 sees the introduction of a partial social security contribution exemption for employed or self-employed mothers of two or more children, who receive an income from self-employment or business or from shares and who have not opted for the flat-rate tax regime.
Modalities for implementation and the extent of this relief will be defined by a subsequent decree (paragraphs 219 and 220).
Incentives for Southern Italy
Introduction of a new social security contribution exemption for the years 2025 to 2029 for companies in the South of Italy (i.e. Abruzzo, Basilicata, Calabria, Campania, Molise, Puglia, Sardinia, and Sicily) employing workers on open-ended contracts (paragraphs 406 to 420). The relief also applies to existing contracts and depending on the year, will vary from 25% to 15% of the social security contributions up to a maximum set amount for each year.
For companies with more than 250 employees, the incentive:
- will only be granted to employers who, on 31 December of each year, can prove they have increased the number of open-ended employment contracts compared to the previous year;
- subject to authorisation by the European Commission and is suspended until the decision is adopted.
TAX MEASURES
Company Cars
As of 1 January 2025, the value of private use of company cars granted to employees for mixed use changes. From the start of the new year, the relevant factor is now the type of fuel used by the car and not its Co2 consumption. In detail, it stipulates a single percentage of 50% of the amount corresponding to a conventional mileage of 15,000 km, calculated on the basis of running cost per kilometre as indicated by the ACI tables, reduced to 20% in the case of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and 10% for battery electric vehicles (paragraph 48).
Transfer
Reimbursed expenses for board, lodging, travel or transport using non-scheduled public services (i.e. taxis and rentals with driver, so-called NCC) by employees on business transfers are not counted as income for tax purposes if these payments are made using traceable methods (paragraph 81).
Productivity Bonuses
The substitute tax rate applicable to productivity bonuses under Law 208/2015, paid in the years 2025, 2026 and 2027 (paragraph 385) has been reduced from 10% to 5%.
Rents
For the first 2 years from the date of hiring, the amounts disbursed or reimbursed by the employer to employees hired with an open-ended contract from 1 January to 31 December 2025, for the payment of rent and maintenance costs of the buildings leased by them, shall not count as income for tax purposes, up to a maximum of €5,000. In order to benefit from this incentive, the employee must have received an income of no more than €35,000 previous to the hiring and changed their residence to a municipality that is more than 100 km from their previous one (paragraphs 386 to 389).
Fringe benefits
For tax years 2025, 2026 and 2027, the value of goods sold and services rendered, sums paid or reimbursed to employees by the employer for the payment of utilities and rent of their main dwelling as well as for interest on the mortgage relating to the same (paragraphs 390 and 391) do not count as income for tax purposes, up to a maximum limit of €1,000 (or €2,000 for employees with dependent children).
Night Work And Overtime
To make up for the shortage of labour in the tourism, accommodation and spa sectors, workers in this sector who received an employee’s income of no more than €40,000 in tax year 2024, shall receive, also for the period from 1 January to 30 September 2025, a special supplementary allowance, which does not count as income for tax purposes, equal to 15% of the gross remuneration paid in relation to night work and overtime on public holidays (paragraphs 395 to 398).
Maxi Deduction
The increase (already stipulated in Budget Law 2024) in the deductible personnel cost for new hirings resulting in an average-percentage employment increase (paragraph 399) has been extended for the tax period following the current one at 31 December 2024 and for the two subsequent ones.
SOCIAL SECURITY MEASURES
Retention In Service
Workers who have accrued, by 31 December 2025, the pension requirements for access to the so-called Quota 103 or early retirement pension (42 years and 10 months for men and 41 years and 10 months for women) may choose to remain in service and ask their employer to pay them a sum equal to the share of their social security contribution which the company, instead of paying to the social security institution, therefore pays directly to employees. This share does not count as income for tax purposes (paragraph 161).
Exit Flexibility
Extension of the following measures:
- the ‘Women’s Option’, i.e. early retirement for female workers who, by 31 December 2024, have 35 years or more of social security contributions and an age of 61 (or 60 for mothers of one child and 59 for those with two or more children) in specific categories as defined by law (i.e. caregivers, disabled, laid off or employees of companies in crisis) (paragraph 173);
- the so-called Quota 103 or access to early retirement for workers who, by 31 December 2025, have reached 62 years of age with 41 years of social security contributions (paragraph 174);
- the ‘Ape sociale’ or the allowance granted, until the attainment of old age pension requirements, to persons who, in 2025, are 63 years and 5 months old and in specific categories as defined by law (i.e. caregivers, disabled, unemployed or perform heavy work) (paragraph 175).
SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS
Redundancy pay and Allowances
Additional resources have been allocated for 2025 from the Social Fund for Employment and Training to finance:
- income support measures for employees of companies in the call centre (paragraph 195) and sea fishing sectors (paragraph 188);
- the CIGS (Extraordinary Wage Guarantee Fund) and mobility in derogation for firms operating in areas of complex industrial crisis, pursuant to Article 44, Paragraph 11 bis of Legislative Decree 148/2015 (paragraph 189);
- the CIGS (Extraordinary Wage Guarantee Fund) for companies that cease productive activity pursuant to Article 44, Legislative Decree 109/2018, which can be granted for a maximum period of 12 months (paragraphs 190 and 191);
- the CIGS (Extraordinary Wage Guarantee Fund) for reorganisation or crisis of companies with strategic economic relevance pursuant to Article 22 bis, Legislative Decree 148/2015. This measure shall also be refinanced for the years 2026 and 2027 (paragraph 193).
Companies of national strategic interest, with no fewer than 1,000 employees, which have ongoing corporate reorganisation plans as yet not completed due to their complexity, may benefit from an additional period of CIGS until 31 December 2025, as an exception to the deadlines and procedures set forth in Legislative Decree 148/2015 (paragraph 196).
NASpI benefits
A specific provision has been introduced for employees who have involuntarily lost their jobs since 1 January 2025 but who, in the twelve months previous, voluntarily terminated an open-ended employment relationship through voluntary resignation or following a mutual termination agreement. They can now receive NASpI benefits on the condition that they had at least 13 weeks’ contributions in those 12 months (paragraph 171).
FAMILY MEASURES
Parental Leave
Workers who have completed or will complete their maternity or paternity leave after 31 December 2023 and 31 December 2024 are now granted a parental leave allowance of 80% of their pay for the first three months (instead of 60% for the second month and 30% for the third), to be taken by the sixth year of the child’s life (paragraphs 217 and 218).
Working mothers’ pensions
Working mothers with four or more children can now retire and claim their old age pension 16 months earlier, instead of the current 12 months (paragraph 179).
Toffoletto De Luca Tamajo is at your disposal for any clarification you may need.
Per maggiori informazioni: comunicazione@toffolettodeluca.it
