M5S: delays and uncertainty for cross-border workers after three years

Context

In brief

• Decree on the Fund signed on 17 September
• Fund: 1.66 million for 2025 and 21.16 for 2026
• NASpI implementing circular still awaited
• Stricter BVG reimbursement claims from 2024

Key Facts

• Italy-Switzerland Agreement → ratified in 2023
• Decree → signed on 17 September
• Fund → €1.66 million for 2025 and €21.16 million for 2026
• NASpI → expected implementation circular
• BVG → second pillar benefit received as a lump sum
• According to OCST and the Ticino press, → more restrictive line of the Canton of Ticino from 2024
• Interministerial table → 9 November

On 17 September, the Minister of the Economy Giorgetti signed the decree governing the state contribution to border territories. The territorial group of the 5 Star Movement of the Vco, led by Imerio Frattini, disputed the timing and clarity of the issue, which brought the issue of cross-border workers back to the center of its note.

Three dossiers in the crosshairs

The Fund set up at the MEF already provided for 1.66 million euros for 2025 and 21.16 million for 2026, with increasing amounts in the following years. According to the M5S, the implementation framework arrived when 2026 was almost over. The new system also shifts the center of gravity from payments from the cantons to a distribution decided by the state. The law binds resources to specific purposes, but the group calls for transparency on criteria, amounts and times for border municipalities, provinces and mountain authorities.

The note also asks whether the municipalities will receive quotas comparable to the ristorni paid by the cantons so far. For the group, the entities that bear the costs of cross-border commuters every day cannot plan on the basis of announcements.

The second dossier is the unemployment of cross-border workers. Unions and workers have been waiting for a long time for the implementing circular on the NASpI treatment in the first months of disbursement. The M5S recalls the need to distinguish the right of the worker, the applicable legislation, the state that pays and the reimbursement between the social security institutions of the two countries. Hence the request for clear operational indications from INPS and other administrations.

The third front concerns pensioners who have received the benefit of the second pillar, the LPP, as a lump sum. After the cantonal withholding tax, the note reports, they do not get a refund. According to the OCST and the Ticino press, from 2024 the Canton of Ticino has adopted a more restrictive line on requests. The group specifies that the Q-IS procedure has not been abolished and that the issue, as far as is known, concerns the tax and conventional interpretation.

Operational details

What changes for those who work across borders

For a cross-border commuter, the M5S note lines up three problems that do not produce the same kind of uncertainty. The Fund concerns the ability of local authorities to know resources and times in advance; the NASpI opens when the worker loses his job; the LPP comes into play for the pensioner who has received the lump sum benefit. The distinction avoids reading each delay as a single tax problem.

Three levels of uncertainty

On the Fund, the question on rebates is not only accounting. The note links the resources to the territories that bear the costs of the cross-border commuter and asks whether the municipal quotas will be comparable to those paid so far by the cantons. Without allocation criteria, beneficiaries and disbursement times, a border municipality, a province or a mountain authority does not have the framework that the M5S considers necessary to plan. For those who work across the border, the practical point indicated by the source therefore remains transparency on the destination of resources.

disoccupazione dei frontalieri presents a different passage. Those who lose their job may be faced with four related questions: which right applies, which legislation regulates the case, which state pays the benefit and how reimbursement takes place between the social security institutions of the two countries. The source does not offer an operational answer; instead, it points out that INPS and other administrations must provide instructions, because technical clarifications cannot fall on the worker.

For the pensioner, the knot is even more concrete: after the cantonal withholding tax on the BVG benefit received as a lump sum, the refund may not arrive and the sum in question may reach several thousand euros per person. The group does not speak of abolishing the Q-IS procedure nor does it attribute retaliatory intentions to the Swiss authorities. The proposed reading is that of a tax and conventional issue, to be addressed with an official clarification and a technical comparison between Italy and Switzerland.

Useful planning tools

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Key points

What to do, dossier by dossier

The note of the 5 Star Movement indicates four institutional steps to transform the announcements into instructions that can be used by workers, pensioners and local authorities. To follow the story, it is advisable to separate the Fund, NASpI, second pillar and health contribution.

Four steps to follow

1. For the Fund, seek the publication of allocation criteria, amounts, beneficiaries and disbursement times. These are the four data requested to allow border municipalities, provinces and mountain authorities to know how the resources will be distributed. The press release does not indicate a payment date already defined.

2. For the NASpI, the operational step is the implementing circular on the treatment in the first months of disbursement. The indications expected from INPS and other administrations must distinguish between workers' rights, applicable legislation, paying state and reimbursement between social security institutions. The request is to define the timeline of the missing measures at the interministerial table of 9 November.

3. For BVG received as a lump sum, the request includes an official clarification on the interpretation of Italian taxation, a technical comparison between Italy and Switzerland and a guide on the applications and documents to be attached. The source does not list the attachments: it is therefore necessary to wait for clear instructions, without reconstructing the procedure from fragmentary information.

4. Finally, the implementing decree of the health contribution, indicated as still missing, must be followed. The request is a binding timetable for this measure and for the NASpI circular, accompanied by a periodic and unitary communication from the administrations, so that workers do not have to reconstruct the situation from the newspapers.

For the pensioner involved in the reimbursement of the LPP, the practical point is to wait for guidance on questions and attachments. For those who lose their job, the operational reference remains the NASpI circular. The 5 Star Movement Vco announces that it will continue to follow the issue in institutional forums. To combine the reading of the rules with a check on one's tax situation, use the calcolatore fiscale.

Source: vconews.it