It seems to me that the 43% rate is excessive on something that, as others have pointed out, is not a large income ($96,000 over 4 years -> $24k/year) - I don't know of any country where you'd pay that tax rate so soon. I assume this would happen if he gets all the money in one hit - so to me, it's not really "tax evasion" in the nasty sense to set up a company etc such that he pays tax on 4 years of $24k rather than one year of $96k. And personally, I'd find it more attractive if slightly less of the money wasn't going to go to the Italian government.

(I am not actually an expert in matters of the Italian tax system, so I guess it's possible that they all pay 43% tax on all income, although goodness knows how the country could be in such dire straits if that's the case)