The budget was torn to pieces by Istat, the Court of Auditors, and the Bank of Italy: the Irpef cut rewards the richest, but does little to address inequality.

It is the social right of Giorgia Meloni , and yet even the latest budget law signed by the Minister of Economy Giancarlo Giorgetti , skimmed by the propaganda of Palazzo Chigi, leaves crumbs for the weakest groups.

It's not the opposition who said this, but Istat , the Court of Auditors , and the Bank of Italy during the hearing before the Senate and Chamber of Deputies Budget Committees. This is the harshest blow to the Meloni government, which for weeks has talked about a budget that "gives families a break" and will allow for increases in wages and purchasing power.

The IRPEF cut for the highest income brackets

It begins with the personal income tax cut, one of the government's most widely touted measures. A cut that, ISTAT President Francesco Maria Chelli explained in his hearing before the Senate and Chamber of Deputies Budget Committees, "would affect just over 14 million taxpayers, with an average annual benefit of around €230."

Approximately 11 million families (44% of resident families) would benefit, with an average benefit of approximately €276 (each family can have more than one contributor). So, all good? Not quite. Chelli explains that "by sorting families by equivalent disposable income and dividing them into five groups of equal size, we see that over 85% of the resources go to families in the richest fifths of the income distribution: over 90% of families in the richest fifth and over two-thirds of those in the second-to-last fifth are affected by the measure. The average income ranges from €102 for families in the top fifth to €411 for families in the bottom fifth. For all income brackets, the benefit results in a change in family income of less than 1%.

Inequality in household income

The Bank of Italy also clearly rejected the proposal, with Fabrizio Balassone , Deputy Head of the Department of Economics and Statistics, emphasizing that, overall, the measures to support household income "do not lead to significant changes in inequality in the distribution of equivalized disposable income among families."

Bankitalia, like ISTAT, also points the finger at the personal income tax cut: the reduction in the tax rate envisaged in the budget for the second income bracket "benefits households in the top two-fifths of the income distribution, but with a modest percentage change in disposable income. The effects of the main social assistance measures, however, are concentrated on the top two-fifths of households and are also modest," Balassone explained.

Limited effects on consumption

The intervention of Mauro Orefice , president of the coordinating committee of the Joint Sections of the Court of Auditors' audit committee, dismantles another chapter in Meloni's narrative: that of the budget intervention in favor of consumption and wages. According to Orefice, the intervention on contract renewals, and on the tax exemption of portions of wages, is "temporary in nature, limiting the effects to 2026 for renewals that occurred in 2025 and 2026," and therefore the "impetus on consumption could be limited."

"The incentive for contract renewals," Orefice explained, speaking before the Budget Committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, "requires avoiding excessively differentiated treatment for those workers who will be able to benefit from the tax benefits of contract renewals obtained in the 2025-2026 two-year period compared to those who will not be able to, because their renewal occurred immediately before, or will occur immediately after, the time window considered by the law under consideration." The temporary nature of the incentive, Orefice concluded, "implies that the contract renewal amount, subsidized for one year, will return to the ordinary rules (i.e., the progressive nature of income tax) as soon as the time window expires. Furthermore, for this reason too, the resulting effect in terms of stimulating consumption could be limited."