Italian Premier Wants a Lower Corporate Income Tax Rate

According to Tax-News, Italian Premier Matteo Renzi, a member of the center-left Italian Democratic Party, stated that he wants to see Italy’s corporate income tax rate reduced.

“He noted that the combined rate of the Italian corporate income tax (IRES) and regional tax on production (IRAP) reaches 31.4 percent. Lowering this burden to 24 percent would enable Italy to go from one of the burdensome countries in the European Union to one of the most competitive.”

His goal is to get the Italian corporate income tax rate to 24 percent by 2017 to show that Italy is no longer a country of high taxation.

According to our International Tax Competitiveness Index, Italy’s tax code is currently one of least competitive in the OECD and only slightly more competitive than the United States’ tax code. Its corporate income tax of about 30 percent is 5 percentage points higher than the OECD average, it has high property taxes, and a burdensome individual income tax. A lower corporate income tax rate would certainly be an improvement for Italy’s tax climate. It would bring its rate well below other large European countries such as France (34.4 percent) and Germany (31 percent).

Read more about Italy’s tax code and International taxes here.