The idea is this: from 2015 January 50, anticipate XNUMX% of Severance pay. Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced it yesterday during the leadership of the Democratic Party, specifying that the operation would be carried out through a protocol between the Government, ABI and Confindustria.
The goal is revitalize consumption, supporting production as well as public coffers, due to the higher VAT-related collections. However, it would not be a measure with an immediately quantifiable scope, since the workers could decide whether or not to take advantage of this possibility. Furthermore, the intervention would have limited effectiveness over time: we are talking about one maximum term not exceeding three years, but the most probable hypothesis is to start by forecasting the novelty only for 2015. As for the figures, the first calculations assume an increase of 80 for those who earn 2 euros a month and 50 for those with a salary of 1.500.
It is good to clarify that this measure has nothing to do with the famous 80 euros: in that case it is a discount on Irpef, while the liquidation is the result of earnings already accrued by the workers. The severance pay is calculated by setting aside for each year a share equal to 6,91% of the salary, on which a revaluation is then applied, and is usually paid in a single solution at the end of the employment relationship.
The project Renzi is talking about was not developed by the Treasury technicians and above all raises some doubts on the tax side. The severance pay today enjoys privileged treatment and it is not clear whether its migration to payroll will help to increase income, thus raising the marginal income tax rate. Basically, the risk is to pay more taxes, unless you choose the path of withholding tax or separate taxation from salary.
The second order of problems concerns INPS and SMEs. Companies with more than 50 employees transfer the severance pay that the workers have chosen to leave in the company (instead of paying it into supplementary pension plans) to a Treasury fund managed by the National Insurance Institute. Companies with fewer than 50 employees, on the other hand, keep it in cash. It is clear that the payroll advance would have potentially negative consequences on the balance sheets of both INPS and SMEs. Not to mention the effects on the supplementary pension system.
Finally, a question of perspective. To date, the severance pay can be advanced to the worker for the purchase of a first home or to support medical expenses. In other cases it is left intact, because it will be needed in the future, when the ratio between the working population and pensioners will be more disadvantageous and the social security system even less sustainable. Anticipating the severance pay means transferring future income to the present, with the risks that this may involve.
