They amount to a total of 40.6 billion euros in profits made by the credit institutions of our country in 2023, against which they paid only 8.1 billion in taxes. It follows that the tax rate, i.e. the ratio between taxes paid into the state coffers and profits, was equal to 20.1%. This is what emerges from a paper by the Unimpresa Study Centre according to which on average, from 2018 to 2023, our country’s banks paid 3.7 billion in taxes against 86.1 billion in turnover and 19.2 billion in profits. “Heavenly” tax pressure for Italian banks.
Banks: over 40 billion profits in 2023
In detail: last year the overall turnover of the Italian banking sector was equal to 102.6 billion and, of these, 62.1 billion are linked to the interest margin, i.e. earnings on rates linked to loans to customers. A result not different from that of the previous year: in 2022, in fact, the sums paid to the tax authorities by the institutions amounted to just 4 billion and 300 million euros, compared to 88.1 billion in collections, of which 45.5 billion deriving from the interest margin and 25.4 billion in profit.
taxes for 8.1 billion
Over the last six years, the total payments of the banking sector to the tax authorities are 22.6 billion or 19.6% of the profit earned, equal to a total of 11,569 billion.
A tax rate, contested, but not corrected, by representatives of the sector, which is clearly lower than the Italian average for companies and workers, steadily above 42%. This without forgetting that the weight of taxes on companies, especially the smaller ones, is often higher than 60%.
Tax rate 20.1%
“As in 2022, also in 2023 the banking sector has benefited from monetary policy and extraordinary profits on loans. 2024 will close with even better results. The tax on extra profits made by banks thanks to the increase in the cost of money, which has been discussed again in recent days, represents a measure of social equity that serves to redistribute the wealth produced in the country by exogenous factors, i.e. external to the trend of the internal economic cycle. It is not clear whether the government will pass a measure in this direction: from our point of view, a clear and clear line will be essential, avoiding, like last year, a push and pull, accompanied by sometimes unclear corrections, which have only generated confusion also on the financial markets” comments the president of Unimpresa, Giovanna Ferrara.
According to the paper by the Unimpresa Study Center, which processed data from the Bank of Italy, in the period from 2018 to 2023, Italian banks paid a total of 22.6 billion in taxes to the state coffers: in the six years under examination, revenues amounted to 516.2 billion (compared to costs of 332.7 billion) and, of these, 266.7 billion referred to credit activity (interest margin); profits amounted to 115.6 billion. On average, each year, in the period under examination, banks achieved: 86.1 billion in “turnover” (with 55.4 billion in costs) of which 44.4 billion related to loans, paying 3.7 billion to the tax authorities, 19.6% of profits, equal to an average of 19.2 billion over six years.
