The proposal of the Democratic Party (Pd) to increase the inheritance tax for assets above 5 million euros and to finance a “dowry” for 18-year-old girls and boys from the proceeds is both minimal, radical and divisive. Which is good, in an electoral campaign that has so far dealt very little with serious issues and innovative proposals, especially with regard to young people.
The proposal is minimal, because it would be only a small step towards the level at which other European countries tax inheritances; moreover compared to the current situation, in which at the time of the straight line succession (children, spouse, grandchildren, parents) a rate of 4 per cent is applied for assets exceeding one million euros, it would pass to a rate of 20 percent, but only if the bequest exceeds 5 million euros, a circumstance that affects, on average, no more than 500 thousand people (1 percent of the population).
Despite these limitations, the proposal is very divisive, the right wing uses it for political attacks that are often instrumental, and perhaps not surprisingly it is not present in the propaganda materials that the PD itself provides to the militants. What is striking is that the proposal is not contested only by the richest – thus those who have more than 5 million euros in property and savings can be defined – and by those who represent them, whether in sweatshirt or double-breasted. There is a general tendency to say: no more new taxes. This argument can be answered: it would not be a new tax, but a way to make a tax that already exists more equitable and effective, by calling the heirs of the richest to pay a little more when they collect what is not. the fruit of labor or merit, but of one’s own birth privilege.
Then there is another objection, made by Draghi himself as prime minister when the Democratic Party put forward the proposal for the first time: it is not the time to take money, but to give it. Which would be a perfect slogan, were it not for the fact that the tax authorities and contributions continue to “take” on average 40 percent of what a person earns by working, and zero from the wealth received as an inheritance; and that in addition the inflation tax has come to take up so much of our daily purchasing power.
So maybe it’s time to take something from those who (always) have more, and give something to those who (always) have less. It would certainly not be the amnesty of the profound injustice of the Italian tax system, the weight of which weighs disproportionately on dependent work; but it would be a small course correction, in the right direction.
The money thus obtained would be used to finance a check for 10 thousand euros intended for those who are 18 years old, and this is what makes the proposal radical. The idea has a noble father, the economist Tony Atkinson, one of the leading scholars of inequality, who died in 2017. Atkinson proposed to give every person, as a member of society, a starting quality, fairly consistent and unconditional, to rebalance the inequalities that exist at birth. The proposal was studied, adapted to the Italian situation and relaunched by the Inequalities and Diversity Forum of Fabrizio Barca. The Democratic Party has made it his, albeit mitigating it.
As far as is known, the “dowry of citizenship” would not go to all 18-year-old boys and girls, but would be distributed on the basis of income and family status: it is estimated that 280,000 eighteen-year-olds would receive it, about half of the total. There would be an obligation to use it for training activities, to launch a business or to buy a house. In short, dad and mom’s money can be wasted, not the state’s.
Even with these measures, the proposal has received much criticism: because it continues to focus on monetary “bonuses”, rather than on structural changes in living and working conditions; because it would also favor those who do not strictly need; because people over the age of 18, without work or with precarious jobs and perhaps with children, have more problems than eighteen-year-olds who still live with their parents; because it is a tip to those who go to vote for the first time.
All these criticisms ignore one fact: it is a limited and specific proposal, on the use of funds obtained by another limited and specific measure (the inheritance tax for the very rich 1 percent). It is not an alternative to measures to combat underpaid jobs, imbalances between workers, too high rents, crazy bills: indeed, it must necessarily go hand in hand with these. And in particular with the reform of citizenship, in order not to exclude eighteen-year-old Italians in fact but not by law.
In this limitation, the proposal is nevertheless innovative and radical, because for the first time it puts power – money – in the hands of the very young, and not as alms or pocket money for (rich) parents, but as a right. Which the older ones don’t like, and neither do their parents, who are the overwhelming majority. This may be why there is little or no talk of it. In this regard, it would be appropriate to listen to the opinion of those directly involved, the 571,994 who turn 18 in 2022.