A guide to the four cases

Who counts as a cross-border worker

Crossing the border is not enough. Under the Italy-Switzerland agreement of 23 December 2020, in force since 17 July 2023 and applied from 2024 income, you are a cross-border worker if you live in a municipality whose territory lies, even partly, within 20 km of the border, you are employed in Ticino, Graubunden or Valais, and you return home daily in principle.

Up to 45 days a year without returning are allowed for work reasons. Past that, the status is lost for the whole year. Working from home in Italy does not put it at risk up to 25% of working time.

Where your employer is registered does not matter: where you work does.

Agreement art. 2(b); L. 83/2023; L. 217/2025; tax authority ruling 126/E of 22.06.2026

Case A. Long-standing cross-border worker

If at any point between 31 December 2018 and 17 July 2023 you were a tax cross-border worker in Ticino, Graubunden or Valais, you stay in the transitional regime as long as you keep working there, living in a municipality of the band and returning daily. Changing employer does not cost you the status.

Your salary is taxed in Switzerland alone, at the full 100% tariffs. In Italy you pay no income tax and no surtaxes, and you do not declare this income. If it appears in the pre-filled return, take it out rather than accept it.

The only possible Italian cost is the health service contribution, if you chose the Italian health service over Swiss insurance and your region charges it.

Agreement art. 9; art. 3 L. 83/2023; L. 213/2023 art. 1 c. 237-239

Case B. New cross-border worker

If you were hired after 17 July 2023, or otherwise fall outside the transitional regime, you pay tax in both countries. Switzerland withholds at the reduced R, S, T and U tariffs, worth 80% of the ordinary ones. Italy taxes the same income and gives you a credit for the Swiss tax.

The Italian side runs in this order: convert the gross into euro, take off the compulsory Swiss contributions and family allowances, apply the 10,000 euro exempt band, work out income tax on total income, subtract the tax credits, subtract the foreign tax credit and, if anything is still due, add the regional and municipal surtaxes.

Neither surtax is due if credits bring income tax to zero. The calculator shows that as an explicit line, so you can see why they are missing.

Agreement art. 3; art. 15 of the 1976 treaty; art. 165 of the income tax code

Case C. Outside the agreement

If you live beyond 20 km from the border but return daily, the agreement does not cover you: article 15 of the double taxation treaty applies instead. Switzerland withholds at the full tariffs, Italy taxes and grants the credit. The Italian calculation is the same as case B, exempt band included: the law granting it sets no distance condition.

Someone who returns only weekly does not hold cross-border status. If they stay abroad more than 183 days they are taxed on notional pay, a different mechanism this site does not compute.

art. 15 of the 1976 treaty; art. 1 c. 175 L. 147/2013; art. 51 c. 8-bis of the income tax code

Case D. The 25% option

The 2024 Omnibus decree opened a road for long-standing cross-border workers living in municipalities that joined the 20 km list only in 2023, and who therefore could not enter the transitional regime. These are the 72 municipalities of Annex 1 and the 85 in the provinces of Brescia and Sondrio in Annex 2.

Anyone in those municipalities can choose, in the tax return, a substitute tax of 25% of the tax paid in Switzerland. It replaces income tax and both surtaxes. In exchange the Swiss tax is no longer creditable and the canton applies the full 100% tariffs instead of the reduced ones.

It does not always pay off: it depends on how heavy the Swiss tax is against the Italian tax you would owe after credits. So when your municipality is in the annexes, the calculator shows both roads side by side and says which one is better.

DL 113/2024 art. 6; from 2027 art. 221 of D.Lgs. 117/2026; Ticino directive 07.2026

The foreign tax credit, and why there is a choice

Article 165 of the income tax code caps the credit at the ratio of foreign income to total income. Paragraph 10 adds that if the income counts only in part, the foreign tax is cut in the same proportion. Since the 10,000 euro exempt band removes part of the income, the tax authority cuts the credit accordingly.

Several tax courts decided the opposite and granted the full credit. The calculator defaults to the tax authority method and offers the other as an option, flagging it as case law rather than practice.

art. 165 c. 1 and 10 of the income tax code; ruling 38/E of 28.03.2017

Swiss or Italian health cover

As a cross-border worker you can insure in Switzerland under LAMal, or exercise the opt-out right and stay in the Italian national health service.

If you choose the Italian service and you are a long-standing cross-border worker, or you opted for the 25% tax, a contribution has been due since 2024: between 3% and 6% of the net salary received in Switzerland, set each year by the region, with a floor of 30 and a cap of 200 euro per month worked. New cross-border workers do not pay it.

The law does not define what net salary means. The calculator assumes the Swiss net after social contributions and withholding tax, and says so openly.

Reg. EC 883/2004 Annex XI; L. 213/2023 art. 1 c. 237-239; health ministry decree 14.11.2025

What this site does not calculate

Some situations follow rules of their own and stay out.

• residents of Campione d'Italia
• weekly commuters and notional pay
• self-employed people, pensions, residents of Switzerland
• means-testing, foreign asset reporting
• Swiss ordinary assessment, no longer open to cross-border workers