ROME (Reuters) – Italy plans to raise revenues worth around 0.2% of gross domestic product (GDP) or roughly 4 billion euros ($4.35 billion) in 2025 from changes in tax rules for banks, insurance products and business licences for gaming, Rome’s draft budgetary plan (DBP) showed on Wednesday.
The document, sent to the European Commission for approval, estimates higher revenues amounting to 0.168% of GDP as a contribution to consolidating public finances.
Italy said on Tuesday it would raise 3.5 billion euros from domestic banks and insurers, after the cabinet approved budget plans for the next three years.
The DBP said revenues from banks, insurance products and gaming would fall by 0.073% of GDP in 2026 and by 0.096% the following year.
Officials said the levy on the financial sector would derive from a change in the taxation of stock options for managers and in the rules governing banks’ tax credits stemming from past losses, known as deferred tax assets.
Economy Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti will hold a news conference on Wednesday to detail the measures planned for next year.
Talk of a bank levy had swirled for weeks and weighed on lenders’ shares in the absence of clarity from the government.
Giorgetti last week said a contribution from banks “shouldn’t be considered blasphemous.”
Italy last year shocked markets by imposing a 40% tax on banks’ windfall profits, only to backtrack by limiting the scope of the levy and giving lenders an opt-out clause which meant that in the end it raised zero for state coffers.
($1 = 0.9190 euros)