Italy proposes tax on savings hidden in safety deposit boxes

MILAN (Reuters) - Italy's government may tax cash and other valuables locked away in safety deposit boxes held with banks, Italian newspapers said on Wednesday, quoting Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini.

The dailies quoted Salvini as telling a late-night TV programme on Tuesday that he had been advised that safety deposit boxes in Italy held assets worth hundreds of billions of euros.

"Money that is substantially hidden," he said, suggesting that deposit boxes were a way of hiding income and assets from the tax authorities.

Those who voluntarily declared their deposit-box holdings would be taxed at a low rate of about 15 percent, he added.

(Reporting by Mark Bendeich; Editing by Francesca Piscioneri)