21 measures for families, pensioners, workers, companies and even animals

From taxes to health, from social support to incentives for recovery: find out what changes in a Budget made to counter the economic and social effects of the covid-19 pandemic.

The budget proposal is due to be delivered to parliament today by the Government, and will then be voted on generally on 28 October, with the final global vote on the document scheduled for 26 November.

Families

1. Free day care for all children of families in the 1st and 2nd income brackets of the family contribution;
2. EUR 69 million to invest in the expansion and requalification of social facilities in the public network and the social sector , covering social responses in the areas of child support, the elderly and people with disabilities;
3. Reduction of withholding income tax , which, according to the Government, guarantees an additional liquidity of 200 million euros for families;
4. Lower VAT on electricity for consumption of up to 100 kWh (or 150 kWh, in the case of large families), allowing savings of 150 million euros with sustainable consumption;
5. End of payment of user fees for complementary diagnostic and therapeutic tests prescribed in the context of primary health care;
6. IRS deduction of VAT paid in gym expenses.

 

Pensioners

1. Increase of ten euros for pensioners receiving up to 1.5 IAS (658 euros), as of August 2021, and an extraordinary increase of ten euros (or six, if pensions have been updated between 2011 and 2015).

 

Workers

1. Increase in the national minimum wage in line with the average increase in recent years (maintaining the target of 750 euros in 2023);
2. Extraordinary support for workers’ income , having as a reference value the poverty line (501 euros), for those who lost their jobs or had a significant drop in their activity;
3. Increase of the minimum amount of unemployment benefit to an amount above the poverty line, definitively, for workers who received at least the minimum wage;
4. Supplement for workers with social unemployment benefit , corresponding to the amount of the difference for the new extraordinary support;
5. General moratorium, for 24 months, on the expiration of collective labour agreements , covering around 400 collective agreements and close to three million workers;
6. Extraordinary risk allowance for health professionals who are at the forefront of the response to covid-19, in the amount of 20% of the base salary (up to a maximum of 219 euros);
7. Supplement for unhealthy and painful conditions for workers in public functions in the sectors of urban hygiene and sanitation.

 

Companies

1. Ban on dismissals by large companies that make profits in 2020, under penalty of losing access to tax incentives and publicly guaranteed credit lines;
2. Maintenance of all tax rates, with no update on indirect taxes;
3. Elimination of the aggravation of autonomous taxation for micro, small and medium-sized companies that usually had no losses and started to have them due to the pandemic;
4. Creation of the IVAucher program to stimulate consumption in the catering, accommodation and culture sectors by returning the VAT paid in those sectors;
5. Maintenance of the Extraordinary Tax Credit for Investment measure in the first half of 2021, allowing companies to deduct from the IRC collection the amount corresponding to 20% of their investment expenses up to the limit of five million euros.

 

Animals

1. Creation of the figure of the pet provider;
2. Transfer of more than five million euros to the local administration to support the kennels.