Tax and benefit reforms to support employment and inclusiveness and address poverty in Italy

This paper assesses Italy's 2019 tax and benefit reforms, analyses hypothetical reforms and proposes a reform package that balances goals of reducing poverty, encouraging employment and fiscal sustainability. Using the OECD's Tax-Benefit and the EUROMOD microsimulation models, it shows tha...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Bulman, Tim
Other Authors: Pacifico, Daniele, Pisu, Mauro, Rastrigina, Olga
Format: eBook
Language:English
Published: Paris OECD Publishing 2019
Series:OECD Economics Department Working Papers
Subjects:
Online Access:
Collection: OECD Books and Papers - Collection details see MPG.ReNa
LEADER 01999nma a2200277 u 4500
001 EB002075279
003 EBX01000000000000001215369
005 00000000000000.0
007 cr|||||||||||||||||||||
008 220928 ||| eng
100 1 |a Bulman, Tim 
245 0 0 |a Tax and benefit reforms to support employment and inclusiveness and address poverty in Italy  |h Elektronische Ressource  |c Tim, Bulman ... [et al] 
260 |a Paris  |b OECD Publishing  |c 2019 
300 |a 43 p 
653 |a Economics 
653 |a Italy 
700 1 |a Pacifico, Daniele 
700 1 |a Pisu, Mauro 
700 1 |a Rastrigina, Olga 
041 0 7 |a eng  |2 ISO 639-2 
989 |b OECD  |a OECD Books and Papers 
490 0 |a OECD Economics Department Working Papers 
028 5 0 |a 10.1787/2a2a5978-en 
856 4 0 |a oecd-ilibrary.org  |u https://doi.org/10.1787/2a2a5978-en  |x Verlag  |3 Volltext 
082 0 |a 330 
520 |a This paper assesses Italy's 2019 tax and benefit reforms, analyses hypothetical reforms and proposes a reform package that balances goals of reducing poverty, encouraging employment and fiscal sustainability. Using the OECD's Tax-Benefit and the EUROMOD microsimulation models, it shows that the new guaranteed minimum income scheme introduced in 2019 significantly strengthens Italy's low income protection system but can also financially discourage recipients from working. The debated flattening of personal income tax rates would do little to improve work incentives, but would drastically cut tax revenues and increase inequality, by reducing the progressivity of the personal tax system. A proposed reform package that maintains progressive personal income tax rates, gradually withdraws low-income support and provides additional benefits for low-wage earners would make inroads into poverty and inequality while encouraging formal work. This paper accompanies and extends the results of the in-depth chapter of the OECD 2019 Economic Survey of Italy (2019[1]) on social and regional disparities