Fringe benefits to be exempt from social security charges

(ANSA) - ROME, JUN 8 - Fringe benefits will be exempt of social security contributions as well as taxation up to a threshold of 3,000 euros under an amendment to the labour decree currently before parliament, Minister for Relations with Parliament Luca Ciriani told ANSA by phone on Thursday.
    "We have found the (financial) cover that was missing: 190 million euros that will be used" to exempt fringe benefits contribution charges that would otherwise be carried by the employer.
    "The government and President Meloni wanted fringe benefits be a disbursement not covered by any kind of expense for businesses.
    It is a sign of consistency with the announcements made and it is a support to families because it is pure corporate welfare," he said.
    Parliament is converting into law a labour package passed by decree by the government on May 1 cutting income tax for low earners, making it easier to renew temporary job contracts, reintroducing the so-called voucher system to pay for seasonal or occasional work and replacing the so-called citizenship wage with two new anti-poverty benefits, among other measures.
    The changes to labour contract regulations and the reintroduction of the voucher system have been criticised by opposition parties and labour unions.
    "We are fed up of seeing heaps of poor, insecure jobs that condemn young people, especially in the south, to unbearable precarious conditions," said centre-left opposition Democratic Party (PD) leader Elly Schlein after the measures were approved.
    Under the terms of the decree the reduction in income tax for low earners will only be effective from July until the end of the year.
    However, the government has already said that it intends to make the cut structural. (ANSA).