The draft 2008 Budget passed the Italian Senate yesterday. The Budget sets out plans to lower housing taxes, while at the same time the main rate of corporation tax will fall from 33 per cent to 27.5 per cent.
The main rate of corporation tax does not include regional corporation tax rates, which according to KPMG's corporate tax database average out at around 4 per cent. So the overall corporation tax rate will remain slightly higher than the 30 per cent falling to 28 per cent in the UK.
But still, cutting corporation tax by 5.5 percentage points in one go. And Italy of all countries. Confirmation indeed of the steep downward trend of corporation tax rates in Europe. Britain is being left behind.