Working out how much will actually land in your bank account at the end of the month is not straightforward. Between IRPEF (the national income tax), social security contributions, local surcharges and deductions, the gap between the gross salary written in your contract and the net figure on your payslip can be wide. Here is how it is calculated in 2026 and what changes with the 2026 Budget Law, which cut the second IRPEF rate from 35% to 33%.
Gross and net salary: what changes
Gross salary is the pay your employer grants before any withholding. The net figure is what remains after social security contributions, IRPEF and the regional and municipal surcharges. On average, for an Italian employee, the net amount sits between 65% and 75% of the gross, depending on income and region of residence.
You can quickly estimate your payslip with National Calculators’ net salary calculator, entering your annual gross and a few basic details.
IRPEF tax rates in 2026
The structure stays at three bands, but the 2026 Budget Law (Law 199/2025) lowered the second band rate from 35% to 33%. The rates applied to taxable income are:
- Up to 28,000 euro: 23%
- From 28,001 to 50,000 euro: 33%
- Over 50,000 euro: 43%
IRPEF is progressive, so each band pays its own rate only on the slice of income that falls within it. Someone earning 35,000 euro gross does not pay 33% on everything, but 23% on the first 28,000 and 33% only on the 7,000 euro above that. The cut is worth up to 440 euro a year for incomes above 50,000, an amount clawed back on incomes over 200,000 euro. For the latest detail you can check the Agenzia delle Entrate (the Italian revenue agency).
For employees there is also a “no tax area” of about 8,500 euro, below which no IRPEF is effectively paid thanks to the employment income deductions.
INPS social security contributions
Before IRPEF even applies, the employee’s share of contributions is taken from the gross. This funds pensions, sickness, maternity and other benefits. For most private sector workers the rate is 9.19% of the gross, with an extra percentage point (10.19% in total) on the portion of pay above the first annual band, set at 56,224 euro for 2026 by INPS Circular 6/2026. Above the contribution ceiling of 122,295 euro no further contributions are due, for workers first enrolled in a pension scheme after 1995. The full rates by category are published on the INPS website.
Contributions are deductible from taxable income, so they reduce the base on which IRPEF is calculated.
Deductions and bonuses that change the net
Several items reduce the tax due and so affect the net amount:
- Employment income deduction (detrazione per lavoro dipendente), available to all employees and falling as income rises.
- Supplementary allowance (trattamento integrativo, formerly the “bonus Renzi”), up to about 100 euro a month for lower incomes that meet the requirements.
- Deductions for dependent family members, medical costs, mortgages, renovations and other expenses declared each year.
The package that replaced the old contribution cut on the tax wedge (cuneo fiscale) stays in force in 2026: a non-taxable bonus for employment income up to 20,000 euro, calculated as a percentage of the gross, plus an extra 1,000 euro deduction for incomes between 20,000 and 32,000 euro that tapers to zero at 40,000. The measures come from Law 207/2024 and are confirmed, with the same amounts, by the 2026 Budget Law published in the Gazzetta Ufficiale (the official gazette).
Regional and municipal surcharges
On top of national IRPEF, every region and every municipality applies a surcharge (addizionale). The base regional rate is 1.23%, but some regions raise it to around 3.33%. The municipal surcharge ranges from zero up to 0.9%. The same gross salary in Milan, Naples or Bolzano therefore produces different net figures, just from these items alone.
A worked example
An employee on 30,000 euro gross a year, single and with no dependants, pays 2,757 euro in INPS contributions (9.19%), leaving a taxable income of 27,243 euro. Gross IRPEF on that is 6,265.89 euro (all in the first 23% band), cut by about 3,044 euro of credits (the employment deduction plus the 1,000 euro cuneo credit) to roughly 3,222 euro of net tax. The national annual net is about 24,021 euro, around 2,002 euro a month over twelve payments. The regional and municipal surcharges, not included here, usually take a few hundred euro more. You can check the calculation step by step with the IRPEF calculator.
Net pay by income band
The national figures below use the same 2026 parameters as the example above (INPS at 9.19%, the 2026 IRPEF bands and the employment deduction plus the cuneo credit), for a single employee with no dependants, spread over twelve payments. They exclude the regional and municipal surcharges, which add a few hundred euro depending on where you live.
| Gross salary | INPS contributions | Net IRPEF | National net | A month | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| €20,000 | €1,838.00 | €1,366.70 | €16,795.30 | €1,400 | 16.0% |
| €25,000 | €2,297.50 | €1,826.65 | €20,875.85 | €1,740 | 16.5% |
| €30,000 | €2,757.00 | €3,221.60 | €24,021.40 | €2,002 | 19.9% |
| €35,000 | €3,216.50 | €5,042.03 | €26,741.47 | €2,228 | 23.6% |
| €45,000 | €4,135.50 | €9,892.16 | €30,972.34 | €2,581 | 31.2% |
| €60,000 | €5,551.76 | €15,612.74 | €38,835.50 | €3,236 | 35.3% |
The rise in the effective rate between 30,000 and 45,000 is the cuneo credit tapering out at the same time as more income crosses into the 33% band. Below about 25,000 euro the credits hold the effective rate near 16%, which is where the “no tax area” and the supplementary allowance do most of their work.
Frequently asked questions
What changed for 2026? The main change is the cut to the second IRPEF rate, from 35% to 33%, on the income band between 28,000 and 50,000 euro. For anyone above 28,000 the saving grows to a maximum of 440 euro a year, reached at 50,000 euro of taxable income. The employment deductions and the cuneo fiscale measures are unchanged from 2025, while INPS updated its thresholds: the 10.19% rate now starts above 56,224 euro and the ceiling rises to 122,295 euro.
How many monthly payments are there on an Italian payslip? Most collective agreements provide thirteen monthly payments, but sectors such as retail, tourism and some industrial branches have fourteen. The fourteenth is usually paid in June or July.
Why do two colleagues on the same gross have different net pay? The most common reasons are the region and municipality of residence, deductions for dependent family members, any union dues or adjustments, and supplementary pension contributions paid into a pension fund.
Are INPS contributions lost? No. They build your future pension and give you the right to sickness, maternity, unemployment and other benefits. They can also be deducted from taxable income for IRPEF purposes.
How much of the salary is kept as pay rises? On these national figures the take-home share falls from about 84% at 20,000 euro to roughly 65% at 60,000 euro, before the regional and municipal surcharges. Most of the drop happens between 30,000 and 45,000, where the 1,000 euro cuneo deduction fades out and more income is taxed at 33% rather than 23%.