taxes at all-time highs

Bergamo. In the Bergamo area, poverty is increasing and the gap between the wealth of the upper and middle classes of workers is widening in a worrying way.

A clearly visible phenomenon, net of the great inflation of recent months, from the data collected and analyzed by Welfare department from the Cisl Of Bergamowanted on municipal surcharges and recovery of tax evasion.

“Social dialogue, negotiation and participation must be the pillars of a new European governance to advance quality, stability and security of work, encourage sustainability and growth of the territories, root investments by relaunching and redistributing productivity, raising innovation and promoting the person in transitions – comments Angelo Murabito, provincial secretary of CISL Bergamo -. We need to make the job market a place of personal growth. The Pillar of Social Rights must be fully implemented, promoting the improvement of wage levels, working conditions and social protections”.

The findings highlighted the increase in poverty and the widening of the gap between the richest and the middle class.

In the last tax year analyzed (the 2022), given a number of taxpayers that does not change, the amount of taxes in the medium range (from 15 to 55 thousand euros, where the majority of pensioners and employees are found) represents almost 64% of the total, while less than 20 is to be “charged” to the ranges between 55 and 120 thousand euros.

This, despite the fact that the classes of self-employed workers and entrepreneurs have grown in terms of earnings on average by 10%while employees and pensioners saw their meager increases “eaten” by the explosion of inflation.

In absolute values, the municipal surcharge paid in the province of Bergamo has gone from 109 million of 2021 ai 121 of 2022 (there were fewer than 65 in 2012). The regional one from 251 to 268 million. In total, another 30 million more taxes have risen on the shoulders of taxpayers.

“By now the possibilities of taxpayers have reached their limit, as has, hopefully, the level of surcharges in our municipalities – insists Murabito -. Other tools and above all new policies are needed to finance the social spending of municipalities, which however remains growing, given the continuous rise of various fragilities. Above all, we will have to invest more efficiently and concretely in the fight against tax evasion.”

Precisely on the fight against tax evasion, an elaboration by the Welfare Department of the CISL of Bergamo on the data of Mef highlights how in the last few 7 years have been recovered by the municipalities that have participated in the tax and contribution assessment activity as well 10 million of Euro.

“It’s a shame that only 52 out of 243 municipalities are participating in this action – condemns the CISL secretary –. A more incisive and branched action would certainly allow for greater redistribution to respond to new needs. We hope that, through associated management in the various territorial areas, the action to combat tax and contribution evasion can be increasingly extensive and effective”.

“The demand for social protection is constantly increasing, inequality in our territory remains high, but the surcharge cannot yet be raised to fill the need for social spending. We need to find modern virtuous circles that bring new resources without further burdening sections of the population that risk confinement to the sphere of poverty. Negotiation can play an important role: low wages lead to poverty and difficulty in accessing the most essential services such as social, health and educational ones, therefore we must start renewing national and company contracts when they expire, to guarantee decent wages and intervene against job insecurity and false part-time jobs which are a more significant problem for young people, as shown by the INPS data analyzed by Eures”.

“Bargaining is a strategic tool for promoting projects at a territorial level capable of involving workers and people who live in the area. It is important to understand how to integrate social bargaining with company bargaining and also reach people who are excluded from the welfare system (immigrants, pensioners, neets, vulnerable people of various types) and ensure that through the resources of this welfare system we can broaden the range of beneficiaries. Finally, we have the possibility of taking social planning into our own hands through the Area Plans, it is central to the actions to be implemented, involving the third sector and the trade union world”.

“We hope that Europe will become increasingly social and intervene to address the issue of inequalities – concludes Murabito -, with increasingly concrete actions on disabilities, care work and long-term care. At work, the growth of skills and the valorisation of our talents is strategic, to ensure that there is quality employment”.