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ITALY

Swiss agree with Italy to fight tax dodgers

Italy and Switzerland have signed an "historic agreement" to fight tax evasion, giving Italians until September to disclose funds hidden across the border in Swiss bank accounts.

Published: 24 February 2015 11:36 CET
Swiss agree with Italy to fight tax dodgers
Swiss Finance Minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf with Italian counterpart Pier Carlo Padoan. Photo: Olivier Morin/AFP

Italy’s finance minister, Pier Carlo Padoan, signed the deal with Swiss counterpart Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf in Milan on Monday.

Under the agreement Italian authorities will be able to request more financial information from Bern to catch tax evaders.

The protocol was hailed as a “historic agreement” by Italy’s finance ministry, which aims to reclaim billions of euros in lost tax revenue.

Both of the countries’ parliaments must now approve the deal, although authorities will be able to backdate their requests to February 23rd.

Italians who have money stashed away in Swiss bank accounts now have until September to disclose such funds to the authorities and pay their tax bills in full.

Swiss nationals working in Italy are also included in the agreement, Italy’s finance ministry said in a statement.

As part of the agreement, Switzerland will now be taken off Italy’s “black list” of tax havens.

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ACCIDENT

German tourists among 13 dead in Italy cable car accident

Thirteen people, including German tourists, have been killed after a cable car disconnected and fell near the summit of the Mottarone mountain near Lake Maggiore in northern Italy.

Published: 23 May 2021 14:15 CEST
Updated: 23 May 2021 16:46 CEST
German tourists among 13 dead in Italy cable car accident
The local emergency services published this photograph of the wreckage. Photo: Vigili del Fuoco

The accident was announced by Italy’s national fire and rescue service, Vigili del Fuoco, at 13.50 on Sunday, with the agency saying over Twitter that a helicopter from the nearby town of Varese was on the scene. 

Italy’s National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps confirmed that there were 13 victims and two seriously injured people.

Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported that German tourists were among the 13 victims.

According to their report, there were 15 passengers inside the car — which can hold 35 people — at the time a cable snapped, sending it tumbling into the forest below. Two seriously injured children, aged nine and five, were airlifted to hospital in Turin. 

The cable car takes tourists and locals from Stresa, a resort town on Lake Maggiore up to a panoramic peak on the Mottarone mountain, reaching some 1,500m above sea level. 

According to the newspaper, the car had been on its way from the lake to the mountain when the accident happened, with rescue operations complicated by the remote forest location where the car landed. 

The cable car had reopened on April 24th after the end of the second lockdown, and had undergone extensive renovations and refurbishments in 2016, which involved the cable undergoing magnetic particle inspection (MPI) to search for any defects. 

Prime Minister Mario Draghi said on Twitter that he expressed his “condolences to the families of the victims, with special thoughts for the seriously injured children and their families”.

Infrastructure Minister Enrico Giovannini told Italy’s Tg1 a commission of inquiry would be established, according to Corriere della Sera: “Our thoughts go out to those involved. The Ministry has initiated procedures to set up a commission and initiate checks on the controls carried out on the infrastructure.”

“Tomorrow morning I will be in Stresa on Lake Maggiore to meet the prefect and other authorities to decide what to do,” he said.

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