Cross-border commuters from Italy: Protest against new health tax – News


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The new tax is intended to make working in Switzerland less attractive. There is resistance to this – even in Ticino.

The approximately 80,000 cross-border commuters from Italy will have to pay an additional tax starting next year. Giorgia Meloni’s government wants to channel the money into the leaky Italian health system. With the tax, Rome also wants to make it less financially attractive to work in Ticino.

Protest in Como against the law

But there is massive resistance to the tax. On Saturday, around 150 people demonstrated against the health tax in Como, near the Italian border.

In the eyes of the unions, it is an absolute no-go. “We demand that Rome withdraw this measure. It violates the agreement concluded with Bern,” says Andrea Puglia from the Ticino union OCST.

Violation of the cross-border commuter agreement?

The cross-border commuter agreement between Bern and Rome only came into force in 2023 after years of tough back and forth. It is intended to reduce the number of commuters from Italy in the long term and curb wage dumping. It also sets the taxes for the new cross-border commuters.

The Federal Council should say something about the Italian health tax for cross-border commuters.

With the new health tax, Rome is circumventing the joint agreement that has been in force since July 17, 2023. The Ticino industrial association AITI also criticizes this – it is calling on Bern to act. “The Federal Council should at least say something about it,” says Luca Albertoni, director of the Ticino Chamber of Commerce.

Federal Council can do little

Bern must make it clear to the Italian government that the new tax circumvents the cross-border commuter agreement, said Albertoni.

But it is hardly possible to do more than symbolize it: because it is a tax imposed by Italy on Italians, there is little room for maneuver for the Federal Council, he adds.

Don’t burn your fingers

The answer from the responsible finance department in Bern on the subject is brief: “It is too early to assess the effects and to comment on them,” is all they say. This is not surprising: the cross-border commuter issue is a “patata bollente” – a hot potato.

If the Italian health tax does not lead to a drastic reduction in the number of Italian workers in Ticino, Bern does not want to burn its fingers unnecessarily.

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