
Within 5 years, there are about 40,000 Italian doctors who have left the country for a better salary. The government is trying to 'convince' them to come back by promising drastic tax cuts. The Italian Ministry of Health proposed to apply the same procedure currently used for teachers and researchers.
In five years, almost 40 thousand doctors have left Italy in search of better conditions and salaries. Currently, the Italian National Health Service, faced with a serious shortage of doctors, which became clear during the pandemic and was exacerbated by their unstoppable departure abroad, is trying to play the card of bringing them home. To convince them, a large income tax deduction like the one already used for brain repatriation in Italy is being considered.
To convince doctors who have fled abroad to return to Italy, where salaries are the lowest in the EU, the Italian Minister of Health Orazio Schillaci has an idea: the plan is to repeat for doctors what is already being done for teachers and researchers. In fact, a large deduction of up to 90% on taxes is already in force for them: in the tax period in which the residence is transferred and in the following five years, the wages received contribute to the formation of income from employment or self-employment in measure 10%.
About 39 thousand doctors have left Italy in the period 2019-2023, of which 11 thousand only from 2022 to 2023. What convinces them to pack their bags and leave Italy are above all the higher salaries which reach on average, remaining in Europe, 60 thousand euros more per year with a maximum of 205 thousand euros more in Luxembourg, 110 thousand in Iceland and the Netherlands, 100 thousand in Denmark, Ireland and Germany.
The measure will undoubtedly have to be reviewed by the Ministry of Economy. Doctors who would probably be interested in returning to Italy and therefore benefit from a tax reduction of up to 90%, in fact already do not pay taxes in the country and therefore would not require any budget to cover it. Indeed, their return would instead represent an additional surplus for the state coffers.