(Finance) – The government has reached a majority agreement with a government amendment to the Asset decree, rewrites the rule that introduces the tax on banks’ extra profits and puts into play theAntitrust which will ensure that the institutions do not pass on to their customers the burden of the tax they will have to pay from this year. “Banks are prohibited from transferring the charges deriving from the tax on extra profits onto the costs of services provided to businesses and end customers. The Competition and Market Guarantor – states the government’s amendment to the law introducing the tax on extra profits, stamped by the Accounting Office – supervises the timely compliance with the provision also through random checks and reports annually to Parliament with a specific report”.
The tax changes but it shouldn’t change yours revenue, estimated by the government at just under 3 billion. The amendment recalibrates the levy for the two-year period 2021-23 and sets the tax rate at 0.26% (instead of 0.1%). maximum tax ceiling. But changes the tax base: no longer the total assets but the overall amount of exposure to risk, a clarification which therefore excludes government bonds.
Furthermore, banks will be able to choose whether to pay the tax or strengthen their capital: the possibility is given to pay two and a half times the tax into a reserve which cannot distribute profits but which is calculated “among the elements of primary class 1 capital”, i.e. it strengthens the banks’ capital.
”The government’s amendment to the Asset decree which improves the tax on extra profits does not change the substance. In fact, banks will be able to decide either to pay the tax of 40% of the greater profits obtained passively, as a result of the increase in ECB rates, or to allocate the entire amount of those extra profits to a specific budget reserve – explains the senator of the Brothers of Italy in a note, Nicola Calandrini, president of the V Budget Commission –. In this second way they capitalize more, thus being able to use these amounts set aside to grant a greater number of mortgages to families and businesses, once again supporting GDP, employment and growth. The estimated revenue resulting from these changes remains virtually unchanged. A courageous choice made by the Government considered a priority in this difficult context in order to restore greater social justice”.