One in three debtors in and out of pay plans

Debts amounting to only 5.5 billion euros have been settled by debtors with dues to the tax authorities, while the total overdue balance exceeds €107 billion. According to the data of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE), 608,000 taxpayers and businesses have 850,625 active arrangements, with the total amount due amounting to €5.5 billion.

Those who usually settle their debts are taxpayers with small debts of up to €10,000 euros, who essentially choose 12 or 24 installments to repay their income tax or Single Property Tax (ENFIA).

Among the debtors there are also approximately 250,000 taxpayers who are in and out of arrangements, as they either cannot comply with them or they aim to receive tax information from the state or they regulate income tax and real estate tax on an annual basis. Specifically, the highest percentage of total settled debts (23.8%) is found in the range of €500 to €10,000, while within this range the percentage of settled debts reaches 26.2% for amounts from €3,000 to €5,000. Corporations settle debts that belong to the range from €10,000 to €100,000.

According to the data, low debt settlement rates are recorded both in low amounts of debt (especially under €500) and in high amounts (over €20,000 for natural persons and over €150,000 for corporations).

However, this year with the mass cross checking and the new digital system to track debtors and the assets they possess, which may be well hidden, AADE expects to collect more revenue. Last year, through regulations and confiscations, €2.8 billion was collected. The process of notifying taxpayers who have settled debts has already been activated in order not to miss an installment. For example, from March to date, 340,583 electronic notices were sent to taxpayers who were at risk of dropping out of their arrangement. In May alone they were sent to 121,300 taxpayers who had not paid a monthly installment of their settlement on time and were very close to the deadline and the next installment.

With the new process, the system is automatically notified if a debtor fails to pay an installment of the settlement and then sends a message to the taxpayer asking them to pay the “forgotten” tranche, while informing them of the consequences of missing the settlement.