Rome calls Bern, for the umpteenth time and for the same reason: Italian money in Switzerland. After a thousand attempts, in which the line dropped just by saying the word "taxman", it seems that now the interlocutors have found a common language, made up of matches and counterparts.
The agreement between Italy and Switzerland on taxation could be closed by May. This was stated by Economy Minister Fabrizio Saccomanni, at the end of a meeting in Bern with Federal Councilor Eveline Widme-Schlumpf.
The two fixed points of the agreement are the payment of all taxes due and the complete overcoming of the anonymity guaranteed by the Swiss banks to the Italian defectors. At least this is what Rome is asking for. In return, Switzerland wants to discuss the tax treatment of cross-border workers, the Italians who cross the border from nearby Lombardy every day to work in Swiss territory. Bern also calls for greater freedom of access to the peninsula's financial market.
"We are moving forward with the negotiations - assures Saccomanni - we have taken the Italian measures that I had already indicated to the Swiss minister would have been the prerequisite for the continuation of the negotiations"
The measures the minister is talking about are the decree on voluntary disclosure. English term often associated with an Italian expression well known in the news: tax shield. In this case, the Government prefers not to speak of a 'shield' (it is only a question of "taxes paid in full, albeit with a mechanism of diversified reductions of the related penalties"), but the objective is the same: to bring back part of the capital illegally detained abroad. To regularize one's position, it will be necessary to pay all the dues, without penalties and with a criminal amnesty.
The hunt for the lost treasure has perhaps reached its final chapters. According to estimates by the Bank of Italy, 200 billion tricolor euros kept in Swiss coffers should return home sooner or later. "The days of tax evaders are numbered," Saccomanni said. The appointment, at the moment, is for May.
