The opening news on the economic pages of national newspapers created a certain sensation: 24.8 million Italians, or almost half the population, do not pay a single euro of Irpef. In reality, this is a journalistic stretch, because the actual share is 42.2 percent and because, from what emerges from the thirteenth survey of the Social Security itineraries Study and Research Center presented to the CNEL (incomes produced in 2024 and declared in 2025), that figure adds up two very different groups: 16.1 million citizens who do not submit a declaration at all, largely minors and dependent family members, and 8.7 million who present one, but with zero net tax.
From the same survey, it emerges that 30 percent of Italian taxpayers, i.e. those who declare 29 thousand euros or more, bear almost 79 percent of the Irpef revenue, while just under eight million people who exceed 35 thousand euros gross per year pay 65 percent of it themselves. At the other extreme, 47 percent of taxpayers, those under 20 thousand euros, contribute only 5 percent of the revenue.
On a national level, and considering the tax revenue as a counterpart of the essential public services provided by the State, the Irpef revenue alone is calculated to be equal to 216.24 billion, including regional and municipal additional taxes, compared to a welfare system which in 2024 cost 138.33 billion in healthcare, 180.5 in social assistance and 13.5 in welfare of local authorities.
If we then process the data that the Finance Department of the Ministry of Economy has published for all 7,897 Italian municipalities, it is interesting to note how our territory always presents very peculiar results.
In fact, the municipality of Messina has 134,747 taxpayers and an average total income of 24,492 euros, up 4.1 percent compared to the previous year, compared to a national average of 25,816. In the ranking of the twenty-eight Italian municipalities with at least one hundred thousand taxpayers, Messina occupies the twenty-fifth position, behind Palermo, Prato and Rimini, ahead only of Reggio Calabria, Catania and Taranto. In the province, the average income drops to 21,166 euros and, in Sicily, it stops at 20,565.
But the fact that generates the most questions is another. Comparing the actual data to the resident population, in Italy 42.2 percent of citizens do not pay Irpef, while in the municipality of Messina the share rises to 52 percent, in the province it is exactly 50 and in Sicily 55. In short, in Messina more than half of the city does not pay income tax, while the remaining part entirely supports welfare.