Italian banks warn 2025-2027 budget measures total 22 billion euros in taxes

Bank levies in the 2027 budget bill

Marco Elio Rottigni, director general of the Italian banking association ABI, told the joint Budget committees of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate on 10 November 2026 that the bill would add about 7 billion euros in state revenue from banks over three years. ABI counts that on top of almost 15 billion euros raised through the 2024 and 2025 measures, and puts the combined impact of the 2025, 2026 and 2027 measures at 22 billion euros. The largest item is an additional Ires surcharge: the bill adds three points for 2027 and 2028 to the 3.5-point surcharge already in force, raising the bank rate from 24% to 30.5%. ABI puts the structural cut in Irap deductions at 4.8 billion euros and the deferrals of deductions and compensation at 2.1 billion euros. The association calls the permanent cut in deductible administrative costs and depreciation, from 90% to 30%, the hardest measure, because it hits branch costs and investment in technology and cybersecurity.

Structural Irap deduction cut4.8

Deferrals of deductions and compensation2.1

Structural Irap deduction cut

4.8 billion euros

Deferrals of deductions and compensation

2.1 billion euros

Data from the article text

The bill also lowers the deductible share of interest expenses from 97% to 96%, moves the deduction of old loan losses planned for 2027 to 2028 and 2029, and reduces the ceiling for using prior tax losses from 42% to 25%. It doubles the Tobin tax to 0.8% on unlisted instruments, 0.4% on listed ones and 0.08% on high-frequency transactions. ABI says this could weigh on market liquidity and on the competitiveness of Italy's financial centre.

The Superbonus credit stretch-out

Article 37 spreads the 2027 share of tax credits linked to 2023 Superbonus building works over ten annual instalments. Banks bought those credits on a usage schedule fixed by law, and ABI argues the change would alter their economic and financial value. Under the bill, 18.5 billion euros would be spread over ten years, with only 2 billion charged to next year's debt, and use of the credits would run until 2036. ABI estimates that banks hold between 70 and 80 percent of the total credits, which would make them the first to bear the cut. Small and medium-sized companies holding credits below a threshold, to be set between 100,000 and 200,000 euros by a later amendment, could be exempt. ABI describes the measure as a "forced restructuring of state debt", and says the impact on liquidity and balance sheets of banks and the firms involved would be heavy.

Total spread over ten years18.5

Charged to next year's debt2

Total spread over ten years

18.5 billion euros

Charged to next year's debt

2 billion euros

Data from the article text

Constitutional concerns and the cumulative burden

Rottigni told the committees that the timing of the credit compensations conflicts with constitutional limits on changing firms' economic calculations retroactively. ABI also cites the Constitutional Court's 2015 ruling on the Robin Tax. The association extends these doubts to the whole set of additional fiscal measures on banks, not only the Superbonus change.

“We must avoid a succession of tax measures concentrated on the banks squeezing the resources they have available to fulfil their core role of supporting the entire economy.”

Rottigni said the state's tax choices must be assessed for their indirect effects on banks' ability to lend and finance investment, particularly during periods of international uncertainty. He cited 1,700 billion euros of financing to households, firms and public administration, and more than 400 billion euros of Italian public debt held by banks.

Family savings fund for minors

Valeria Vittimberga, director general of INPS, the national social security institute, told the hearing that families with minor children born before 2027 could open positions in the new Fondo Nuovi Nati. They could make voluntary payments with the 19% tax deduction, up to 1,000 euros, even without the state's 100 euro contribution. She estimated the cost at 45 million euros from 2028, falling to zero from 2046.

“This would avoid, for example, a disparity between siblings born before and after 2027.”

Vittimberga described the fund as the most innovative measure in the budget bill.