In Italy, 43% of wealth is in the hands of 10% of the population. The wealthiest 20% of Italians have 60% of the wealth, while the poorest 20% have just 0,3%. This is certified by an OECD study on the taxation of household savings, which also shows that the Italian disparities are less wide than those of France and Germany, where respectively 51 and 56% of wealth is the prerogative of the richest 10%. . In Northern Finland (45%) the concentration is also higher, while it is lower in Luxembourg (41%).
To reduce these inequalities, the OECD invites the many industrialized countries (including Italy) that have a flat rate on private assets and savings (that is, an equal rate for all) to take into consideration a certain degree of progressiveness.
Not only. According to the OECD, "there could be room for a tax on wealth in countries where taxation on capital income is low and where there are no inheritance taxes".
The Organization places Italy among the countries in which disparities have increased the most between the 80s and the present day. The Gini index, which measures this disparity, has in fact gone from 0,29 to 0,32 in the peninsula, which is therefore in tenth place for inequalities out of the 35 OECD countries.
In its general recommendations, the OECD sees among the options that of a comprehensive taxation of labor and capital income with progressive rates (“dual progressive income tax”). The study also recalls that "the recent international rules on the exchange of tax information should reduce the possibilities of hiding income and wealth in tax havens", thus facilitating tax collection.
At the same time, the study underlines that "in any reform, politicians must take into account that the mobility of highly skilled and high-income workers has increased in response to a tax increase".
