Slow start because not all potential beneficiaries have requested the tax relief introduced by the law on their paychecks. The association of large families: a positive measure but with some limitations.
Time for the first assessments for the Bonus mamma, the tax relief reserved for women who are mothers and, at the same time, workers, contemplated in the Budget Law 2024 that is added to the single allowance. A measure welcomed by Anfn, the association that gathers and gives voice to large families in Italy “because – observe the presidents Alfredo and Claudia Caltabiano – it is a recognition of the titanic efforts of those women who decide to generate more children (offering a contribution to the generational turnover in a time marked by the demographic winter) and, at the same time, to make their skills available to the country system”. But which shows some limits. “The relief – reconstructs Paolo Moroni (political observatory Anfn) – is also granted to those who receive high or very high remunerations. But it is not universal: only female employees with a permanent contract (provided they are not domestic workers), mothers of two children (of which at least one is under 10) or more children (of which at least one is a minor), can benefit from it, up to a maximum limit of 3 thousand euros per year (250 euros per month, excluding the thirteenth month’s salary). Nor is it automatic: that is, it is the mother who must request it from her employer».
From January to today, INPS notes, 484,730 working mothers have submitted the request: 362,726 working mothers of two children and 122,004 mothers of three children. Many women who were eligible to access the measure have not yet requested it. In a hearing in Parliament in November 2023, Francesco Maria Chelli, then acting president of Istat, recalled that there are 600,000 employed mothers of two children (at least one under the age of 10) with a permanent employment contract (excluding domestic work contracts), and 228,000 with three children, with at least one under the age of 18.
But what exactly is the Bonus Mamma? In all paychecks, the employee finds the item “Ivs”. It is the portion of the salary withheld at source and allocated to INPS to finance pensions. The employee’s contribution rate is 9.19% (to this is added a 23.81% is paid by the employer): well, thanks to the Bonus Mamma, that portion is paid by the State. However, this does not translate into a 9.19% increase in the paycheck, because any decontribution intervention determines an increase in the taxable amount for Irpef purposes and this reduces the impact of the discount. The increase in the paycheck that started in February, then, is less noticeable, because a fair portion of employed working mothers (like their male colleagues) had already been benefiting from a decontribution of between 6 and 7% since July 2023.
Women earning more than 35,000 euros will be able to appreciate the difference more: in this case, working mothers – like their male colleagues – until now did not have “any contribution discount, which now comes in full thanks to the Mother Bonus”.
The two exemptions (the so-called reduction of the tax wedge within 35 thousand euros and the one determined by the Bonus Mamma) are not superimposable, but alternative and interchangeable: for example, when a mother goes from her first to her second child, if she requests it, from the following month she will receive the Bonus Mamma in place of the other contribution exemption. On the contrary, if the youngest child of the large family becomes an adult, the working mother will lose the Bonus Mamma and – if she has an income lower than 35 thousand euros – she will instead be recognized the contribution exemption of 6 or 7%.
Sauro Rossi, national confederal secretary of the Cisl, with responsibility for family policies, reconstructs everything: «In 2024, all subordinate workers with incomes up to 25 thousand euros will benefit from a 7% contribution exemption, which drops to 6% for incomes up to 35 thousand euros. This means that for this year, mothers with two or more children will have an additional contribution discount compared to other workers of 2.1% if they receive an income of up to 25 thousand euros or 3.1% if with an income of up to 32,644 (this is the limit value with respect to which the ceiling of three thousand euros is reached). For the part of the income above that limit – and up to 35 thousand euros – the contribution discount for mothers is overall lower than 9.1% but still significantly higher than the 6% envisaged for other employed workers».
And for the future? “In the two-year period 2025-26 – Rossi recalls – mothers with three or more children already know that they will have a full discount of 9.1%, unlike other workers, who will have to wait for any extensions and the amount of the contributory discount, currently uncertain, that will be reserved for them”. “Working mothers of two children are certain that they will benefit from the Bonus only for this year, because it could be suspended next year” confirms Moroni.
In two years, we will then be able to evaluate the effects of the two tax breaks on the ISEE “because the income from employment that is computed in the income component of the Income Situation Indicator (ISR) is net of contributions” observes Sauro Rossi.