Tax wedge cut for excluded from 80 euro

(ANSA) - Rome, January 14 - The government's planned tax-wedge cut will be for those excluded from an existing 80-euro monthly benefit, Economy MInister Roberto Gualtieri said Tuesday.
    Speaking at a brainstorming seminar of his centre-left Democratic Party (PD), Gualtieri said "we want to start the first tranche of the fiscal reform as soon as possible".
    He said the government was still "making a technical assessment of the scope" of the tax wedge cut.
    But by the end of the month, he said, a cut would be implemented that would "enable us to reduce taxes on up to 14 million workers, especially low-to-medium income households so far excluded from the 80 euros".
    Gualtieri said an enabling law on the fiscal reform would be passed in April.
    "Already in April an enabling law on the fiscal reform will be passed," he said.
    The government has vowed that its tax wedge cut will help lower earners. The tax wedge is defined as the ratio between the amount of taxes paid by an average single worker (a single person at 100% of average earnings) without children and the corresponding total labour cost for the employer.
    The average tax wedge measures the extent to which tax on labour income discourages employment.