How an Italian payslip works
An Italian payslip (busta paga) takes three kinds of deduction from gross pay. The first is the employee's social security contributions to INPS, mostly for the state pension, which are taken off before anything else and are not taxed. The second is the income tax (IRPEF) on what remains, which the employer withholds every month as the tax office's withholding agent (sostituto d'imposta). The third is two local surtaxes on the same income, one set by the region and one by the municipality.
Gross pay in Italy is usually quoted as an annual figure, the RAL (retribuzione annua lorda), and it already includes the thirteenth month's pay (tredicesima) paid in December and, under many collective agreements, a fourteenth (quattordicesima) paid in summer. The calculator works on that annual figure. Its monthly column is the year divided by twelve, so it is lower than the amount you are paid in an ordinary month when your salary comes in thirteen or fourteen instalments.
The employer spreads the income tax over the year and puts it right in the last payslip of the year or the one after, the conguaglio, when it knows the year's pay. What the calculator shows is the tax after that adjustment, which is the year's real total.
Income tax and the employment tax credit
IRPEF is charged in three bands on taxable income, which for an employee is gross pay less the social security contributions. From the tax on that income comes the tax credit for employment income (detrazione per lavoro dipendente). It is largest for low earners, shrinks as income rises and reaches nothing at the top of the second band, with a small extra amount in a range of middle incomes. Since 2025 a further credit for middle incomes has been added on top, fading out gradually as income rises.
The credits can bring the tax down to nothing but not below. On a low income there is therefore no IRPEF at all, and when there is no IRPEF, neither surtax is due either.
Two payments the payslip adds
Two measures work the other way round: instead of reducing the tax, the employer pays them to you with your salary and recovers the money from the state.
- The integrative payment (trattamento integrativo) is a fixed yearly sum for low incomes, paid to employees who have some tax to be relieved of. It stops at an income limit.
- The tax wedge payment is the part of the 2025 cut in the tax wedge (cuneo fiscale) that goes to lower incomes: a percentage of employment income that falls as income rises and is not itself taxed. Above its income limit the further tax credit takes over.
Both appear in the result as negative lines, because they add to take-home pay instead of reducing it. At some very low incomes they add more than the deductions take away, and take-home pay is higher than gross.
Regional and municipal surtaxes
The regional surtax (addizionale regionale) and the municipal surtax (addizionale comunale) are charged on the same taxable income as IRPEF, at rates each region and each municipality sets within national limits. Some regions charge one rate, others several bands, and a few add their own rules: Lazio, for instance, charges a single low rate on the whole income below one threshold and gives a small credit just above it. Many municipalities exempt incomes up to a threshold, and above it charge their rate on the whole income, not only on the part above the threshold.
The calculator offers the ten largest cities, each with its region, using the rates published by the Ministry of Economy and Finance for the tax year shown. A municipality that adopts no new decision keeps the previous year's rate, which is the case for most of the ten. If you live elsewhere, choose the city in your region for the regional line and expect the municipal line to differ.
The surtaxes shown are what this year's pay owes. The payslip actually takes them later: the regional surtax and the balance of the municipal one are withheld in instalments over the following year, and an advance on the municipal one is withheld during the year itself, based on the year before. Over time the amounts even out, which is why the calculator shows the year's own liability.
Social security contributions
The employee's main contribution is to the pension fund for employees (IVS). An additional contribution applies to the part of annual pay above a threshold, and for workers first insured from 1996 onwards pay above an annual ceiling pays no pension contribution at all; those insured earlier have no ceiling, which you can set above. Employers with more than fifteen employees in industry also take a small contribution for the extraordinary wage supplementation fund (CIGS).
What the employer pays on top
The employer section shows the contributions of an industrial company for a white-collar employee: its much larger share of the pension contribution, the ordinary and extraordinary wage supplementation funds, which depend on the company's size, unemployment insurance (NASpI), which is higher on a fixed-term contract and rises again with each renewal (the calculator assumes a first contract), the wage guarantee fund, the family allowances fund (CUAF) and maternity insurance. Rates differ in other sectors, such as commerce and services, where a solidarity fund takes the place of the wage supplementation funds. The section leaves out the severance fund (TFR), a share of each year's pay the employer sets aside and pays you when you leave or pays into a pension fund, the premium for workplace accident insurance (INAIL), which depends on the activity, and anything added by a collective agreement.
What this calculator assumes
The result models an employee with no other income who works the whole year. It does not cover:
- Tax credits for a dependent spouse, children aged 21 and over or other dependants. Children under 21 are supported through the single universal allowance (assegno unico), which INPS pays directly and which is not part of the payslip.
- The regime for workers moving to Italy (regime degli impatriati), which exempts part of employment income for new residents who qualify.
- Contributions to a supplementary pension fund, meal vouchers, fringe benefits, the flat tax on productivity bonuses and on contract renewals, overtime and shift allowances.
- Part-year work, blue-collar workers, apprentices, managers (dirigenti) and the public sector.
Near some of the thresholds above, a small raise can change take-home pay by more than the raise itself, because a payment, a credit or a surtax switches on or off for the whole income at once. The result warns you when your salary is close to one.