Malnate: nearly €500,000 less in cross-border tax rebates

Context

TL;DR

• Malnate will receive almost 500 thousand euros less in rebates.
• Almost 1.700 residents cross the border every day.
• The funds will arrive in early November, not in June.
• The mayor is calling for certainty and the withdrawal of the healthcare tax.

For Malnate, rebates for cross-border workers will be almost 500 thousand euros lower than last year. VareseNews reports that almost 1.700 workers who cross the Swiss border every day live in the municipality. Mayor Nadia Cannito has raised the issue of the cut, the timing of disbursement, and tensions between Regione Lombardia and Canton Ticino.

The amount and the schedule

The rebates consist of returning to municipalities of residence a portion of the taxes paid in Switzerland by cross-border workers. According to the account reported by the source, these resources finance public works and essential services. For Malnate, the issue therefore concerns both the amount available and the time available to include it in municipal planning.

In the statement, the mayor links the fund to the work of almost 1.700 residents of Malnate. She then emphasizes that the national allocation has risen from 89 to 108 million, also thanks to the Associazione dei Comuni italiani di frontiera and its president Massimo Mastromarino, whom she thanks. The association worked to keep the allocation criteria as close as possible to those used so far and asked the Region to send municipalities notifications of the amounts.

However, the amount remains lower than that requested by the border municipalities, leaving Malnate with a shortfall of almost 500 thousand euros. The issue is not merely accounting-related: the payment, normally scheduled for June, will be included in the final budget amendment in early November this year. According to Cannito, only a few weeks will remain to plan and carefully use resources that should serve to plan the entire year.

Operational details

Rebates and budget: what the data show

Malnate’s figure can be understood by comparing the origin, destination, amount and timing of the rebates. The source does not refer to a sum allocated to each worker, but to resources that return to the municipalities where the workers reside after cross-border workers pay taxes in Switzerland.

Two aspects not to be confused

The first comparison is between the national fund and the municipal share. The fund increased from 89 to 108 million, but the statement nonetheless reports a reduction of almost 500 thousand euros for Malnate. The two figures describe different levels: one concerns the overall allocation indicated by the mayor, while the other concerns the amount earmarked for a single municipality. The source does not provide the full breakdown and does not allow the case of Malnate to be automatically extended to all border municipalities.

The second comparison concerns timing. The usual crediting in June and the expected crediting in early November are the two deadlines being compared. For the municipal administration, the delay reduces the weeks available to include the resources in the budget adjustment, plan the projects and use the funds within a one-year period.

For an individual cross-border worker, therefore, the text documents the passage through the budget of the municipality where they reside, not a change in their payslip. No basis is provided for calculating how much of the reduction would correspond to each worker. Nor does the source announce a change to withholding tax or explain a new rule on double taxation: the issue reported concerns rebates, the health tax and institutional relations between Lombardy and Canton Ticino.

Key points

The dispute between the Lombardy Region and Canton Ticino

According to Mayor Nadia Cannito, the political issue stems from the Region's decision to subject old cross-border workers to the health tax introduced by the Government. The decision, the mayor reports, triggered a dispute with Canton Ticino and had repercussions for the payments allocated to Lombardy.

The June suspension

In June, Ticino suspended half of the payments intended for Lombardy. The comparison reported by the mayor also concerns Piedmont: because it did not apply the tax, according to the account contained in the source, it did not suffer any suspension. Cannito describes these decisions as political and argues that the risk falls on border municipalities, which are called upon to organize services and public works with resources that arrive later and in smaller amounts than expected.

However, the source does not provide a breakdown of Malnate's shortfall. It does not indicate which part of the nearly 500 thousand euros is attributable to the suspension of Lombardy's payments and which instead depends on allocation criteria or the other factors mentioned in the statement. Nor does it report a schedule other than early November for the expected payment, or a list of municipal projects that could be postponed.

The requests and limitations of the report

Cannito urges the Region to repeal the health tax and restore relations with Ticino. She asks the Government to guarantee border municipalities all the resources they are entitled to, with definite timing each year. The only stated destination for the funds that will arrive is general: services and public works for Malnate.

The source does not address the G permit, AVS, LPP or LAMal, does not mention INPS, and does not identify border crossings such as Brogeda. It is therefore not possible to infer from the statement any individual effects in these areas or to automatically link the municipal cut to a cross-border worker's pension, insurance or administrative status. To follow the issue of resources between the two territories, consult Ticino-Italy tax rebates.

Source: varesenews.it