CashNews.co
(Bloomberg) — Italy is considering asking banks for a symbolic contribution calculated from earnings posted in the last two years, Corriere della Sera reported on Sunday.
Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government is studying a 1%-2% one-time payment by lenders based on their profits, the newspaper reported, without saying where it obtained the information.
The so-called “solidarity contribution” would be done after working together with the sector and differ from a controversial windfall tax that Italy attempted in 2023. The payment could also involve insurers and energy companies.
If the government could agree with lenders for “a contribution to state coffers,” it would be different from a levy imposed from above, Deputy Prime Minister Antonio Tajani said in a separate interview to Corriere on Sunday. “A generalized tax would end up hitting popular and cooperative banks, which provide loans to citizens, and must be defended,” he said.
Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti is working on funding a fiscal package for 2025 worth about 25 billion euros ($27.9 billion), with only about half that amount currently available.
Officials from the prime minister’s team have had preliminary discussions with the finance ministry about how to raise more taxes from lenders and insurers, whose earnings have been boosted by high interest rates over the past couple of years, people familiar with the matter have said.
In the summer of 2023, a plan to levy a 40% tax on banks’ excess profits triggered a selloff in the Italian financial sector before being diluted dramatically.
©2024 Bloomberg L.P.