{"id":12397,"date":"2026-03-17T18:21:57","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T17:21:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/?p=12397"},"modified":"2026-03-17T18:21:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T17:21:57","slug":"why-income-does-not-mean-wealth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/en\/2026\/03\/17\/why-income-does-not-mean-wealth\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Income Does Not Mean Wealth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>In public debate, the terms \u201cincome\u201d and \u201cwealth\u201d are often confused. There is certainly a relationship between the two concepts, but they are not the same. Data show that some individuals have low income and high wealth, and vice versa. Moreover, only a portion of Italians\u2019 earnings is included in the personal income tax (IRPEF). For example, returns from financial assets are excluded from the tax base, while certain other income categories receive preferential treatment, such as rental income and self-employment income. Ultimately, the progressive IRPEF primarily taxes wages and pensions. The reform introduced by the government therefore does not concern the \u201crich\u201d or the \u201cpoor,\u201d but only the taxation of employees\u2019 and pensioners\u2019 income, which simultaneously represents a minority share of Italians\u2019 total income and a predominant share of tax revenues.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The 2026 budget law, with its proposal to reduce the IRPEF rate by two percentage points for the income bracket between \u20ac28,000 and \u20ac50,000, has sparked intense debate. On the one hand, the government argues that it is necessary to reduce the tax burden on the middle class; on the other, the opposition accuses it of favoring the \u201crich.\u201d This controversy, amplified and relayed by the media, has often taken on paradoxical tones, far removed from what the data actually show. It is therefore worth pausing to present some facts about wealth, income, and taxation in Italy\u2014facts that are either insufficiently known or deliberately overlooked for political convenience.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Who Are the \u201cRich\u201d?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>The first issue concerns the difference between \u201cincome\u201d and \u201cwealth.\u201d Income is a flow, that is, a variable measured over a period of time\u2014for example, how much a worker earns in a month or in a year. Wealth, by contrast, is a stock, that is, a quantity measured at a specific point in time\u2014for example, the assets a taxpayer owns as of December 31, 2025, including real estate, bank deposits, government bonds, as well as cars or jewelry. These are clearly distinct concepts. Intuitively, however, one might expect a connection between them, since individuals with higher income may be able to save more and invest in assets, thereby increasing their wealth.<\/p>\n<p>That relationship, however, is far from tight\u2014especially when the \u201cincome\u201d considered is that subject to IRPEF, which, as we will discuss below, excludes many sources of income.<\/p>\n<p>To illustrate both the relationship and the differences between these concepts, the figure below presents our own elaborations based on data from the 2022 Survey of Household Income and Wealth, the most recent year available. This survey, conducted by the Bank of Italy for decades on a representative sample of the population (about 10,000 respondents), estimates the distribution of \u201cnet\u201d wealth and \u201cnet\u201d income of Italian households. Wealth is net of liabilities (e.g., outstanding mortgages), while income is net of taxes and social contributions. The vertical axis ranks households by income: the top bar represents the lowest 20 percent of households by income, and so on, down to the bottom bar representing the highest 20 percent. Colors instead represent wealth distribution: light blue indicates the poorest 20 percent in terms of wealth, red the next quintile, and so on, up to purple for the wealthiest 20 percent.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12362 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-1-1024x801.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"501\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-1-1024x801.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-1-300x235.png 300w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-1-768x601.png 768w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-1-1536x1202.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-1-600x469.png 600w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-1.png 2008w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>As expected, the figure shows the existence of a relationship (a correlation) between the two indicators of economic well-being\u2014wealth and income. For example, 55 percent of the poorest households in terms of wealth are also those with the lowest income. Similarly, 65 percent of the wealthiest households are also those with the highest income.<\/p>\n<p>However, the correlation is not perfect. For instance, among high-income households, 10 percent have low or lower-middle levels of wealth (falling between the first and third quintiles), while among low-income households, 15 percent have medium-high or very high levels of wealth (between the third and fifth quintiles). In general, therefore, it is incorrect to define someone as \u201crich\u201d based solely on income: although there is a relationship between income and wealth, some individuals have low income but high wealth, and vice versa.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Where Do Italians\u2019 Incomes Come From?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>If this is true for income as measured in the Bank of Italy survey\u2014which, despite the limitations of sample surveys, provides the only data accounting for all household income\u2014it is even more true when focusing solely on income reported in tax returns and taxed under the progressive IRPEF, which is only a portion of total income.<\/p>\n<p>To understand why, it is useful to consider how Italians\u2019 income is distributed according to national accounts data. These data are used to calculate GDP, which by definition represents the total income earned in a country over a year. The figure below shows the breakdown of major income sources as calculated by Istat for 2024, the latest available year.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12364 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-2-1024x741.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"463\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-2-1024x741.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-2-300x217.png 300w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-2-768x556.png 768w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-2-1536x1111.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-2-600x434.png 600w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-2.png 2008w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A first key insight is that employee compensation, while significant, is not the main source of income in Italy. It accounts for just over 39 percent of total income, or 44 percent if indirect taxes are excluded.<\/p>\n<p>The main source of income is capital income, a composite category that includes corporate profits (gross operating surplus), partly retained by firms and partly distributed as dividends, income from other financial assets (including rental income), and so-called \u201cmixed income,\u201d earned by the self-employed and professionals (called \u201cmixed\u201d because it combines labor and capital inputs). Moreover, national accounts data partially adjust for tax evasion, which is particularly widespread among recipients of these types of income. Another noteworthy aspect is that a non-negligible share of GDP income (8 percent) consists of imputed income\u2014estimates of the rental value that homeowners implicitly receive by living in their own homes.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>And What About IRPEF Income?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-12366 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-3-1024x741.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"463\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-3-1024x741.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-3-300x217.png 300w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-3-768x556.png 768w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-3-1536x1111.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-3-600x434.png 600w, https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/03\/Eco-26-1_grafici_eng_bordignon-3.png 2008w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>For comparison, the figure above shows the income components included in the IRPEF tax base. These data come from official Ministry of Economy and Finance statistics and refer to tax returns filed in 2024 for income earned in 2023. The difference between the two figures is immediately apparent. While employee compensation accounts for less than 40 percent of total income in GDP, it represents about 55 percent of the IRPEF tax base. In practice, the \u20ac866 billion in employee income reported in national accounts becomes \u20ac558 billion in the IRPEF base once social contributions paid to the social security system are deducted, and this amount is subject to progressive taxation.<\/p>\n<p>The second main component of IRPEF income is pensions. These do not appear in GDP as new income because they are transfers from public and private entities. Together, pensions and employee income account for about 85 percent of the income considered for IRPEF purposes; other income accounts for only 15 percent, whereas it constitutes the main component in GDP data.<\/p>\n<p>There are several reasons for this discrepancy. First, IRPEF applies to individuals, while part of capital income remains within firms and is taxed at the corporate level. Second, most capital income received by individuals is not reported in IRPEF returns but is instead taxed at source at proportional rates. Interest on bank accounts, government bonds, dividends, and capital gains are taxed by intermediaries (such as banks or investment funds) at a rate generally around 26 percent (12.5 percent for government bonds), which is lower than the marginal IRPEF rate applied from \u20ac28,000 upward. As a result, relatively little of this income appears in IRPEF. What remains mainly includes income from self-employment and partnerships (grouped here under \u201ccapital income\u201d for comparability) and rental income declared by individuals.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, a substantial portion of this income, although reported under IRPEF, is subject to separate, more favorable tax regimes rather than progressive taxation. For example, of the \u20ac35 billion declared by self-employed workers\u2014already a small amount compared to national accounts data, partly due to tax evasion\u2014\u20ac31 billion is taxed under the highly favorable flat-rate regime, escaping progressivity. Similarly, of the \u20ac27 billion in income from real estate, \u20ac22 billion is subject to the flat tax on rents (cedolare secca), again more favorable than progressive IRPEF taxation.<\/p>\n<p>More generally, although total income reported in IRPEF returns amounts to just over \u20ac1 trillion (\u20ac1,028 billion, roughly half of GDP), only \u20ac925 billion is subject to progressive IRPEF taxation; the remainder is either exempt or taxed under favorable flat regimes. Taking everything into account, 93 percent of income subject to progressive IRPEF consists of wages and pensions.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>A Tax on Wages and Pensions<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Given all this, it should be clear how paradoxical the debate surrounding the proposed IRPEF reform\u2014modest in size to begin with\u2014has been. The reform does not concern the \u201crich\u201d or the \u201cpoor,\u201d but only the taxation of employee income, which represents both a minority share of total income and a predominant share of tax revenue. Moreover, individuals may be rich or poor regardless of their annual income, and in any case their overall economic situation is only partially reflected in the income declared under IRPEF and subject to progressive taxation.<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps there is a reason for the widespread misunderstanding in the media. In the collective imagination, IRPEF is still seen as a tax on all income, as it was originally conceived. In reality, due to the continuous removal of various income categories from progressive taxation\u2014something successive governments have pursued enthusiastically over the past twenty years\u2014it has effectively become a progressive tax almost exclusively on employee income (see also the article by Massimo Baldini and Ezra Ferrarini in this issue).<\/p>\n<p>To avoid confusion, it may be time to call things by their proper name. From now on, IRPEF should be defined as \u201cthe progressive tax on wages and pensions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em>Massimo Bordignon is Professor of Public Finance at the Universit\u00e0 Cattolica of Milan, where he has also served as Director of the Department of Economics and Finance and of the Doctoral School in Public Economics. He has been a member of the European Fiscal Board at the European Commission.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Davide Cipullo is a researcher in Public Finance at the Department of Economics and Finance of the Universit\u00e0 Cattolica del Sacro Cuore. He is affiliated with the CESifo economic research institute in Munich, the Interuniversity Center for Regional and Local Finance (CIFREL), and the Uppsala Centre for Fiscal Studies.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In public debate, the terms \u201cincome\u201d and \u201cwealth\u201d are often confused. There is certainly a relationship between the two concepts, but they are not the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7964,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[147,422],"class_list":["post-12397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorizzato"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Why Income Does Not Mean Wealth - Rivista Eco<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rivistaeco.com\/en\/2026\/03\/17\/why-income-does-not-mean-wealth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Income Does Not Mean Wealth - Rivista Eco\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In public debate, the terms \u201cincome\u201d and \u201cwealth\u201d are often confused. 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