By Andrea Hargraves 
The outstanding debt, last year, amounted to 8,436 million euros, with tax debts outstanding, either due to pending court decision or due to bankruptcy proceedings. Active debt (recoverable) last year amounted to 6,193 million euros. In total, the tax authorities have to levy taxes of 14,629 million euros. The amount that rises to more than 22 billion euros when calculating the prescribed debts, which, because they are old debts and difficult to recover, will end after all legal attempts to collect them have been exhausted, with declared defaults.
The debt portfolio of 22,033 million euros at the end of 2020 shows a relative increase of 4.2% compared to the previous year. However, outstanding debt and active debt recorded a decrease of 0.5% and 0.7%, respectively”, reveals the Anti-Fraud and Tax and Customs Evasion Report with the 2020 balance, where it recognizes that outstanding debt decreased from 6,224 million euros in 2019 to 6,193 million euros last year (down 21 million), while outstanding debt fell 61 million to 8,436 million euros.
The declared debt in the event of default increased from 982 million euros to 7404 million euros.
The Tax Administration explains that in terms of debt declared in case of default, in 2019 there was for the first time a greater representation of outstanding debt (6,422 million, against 6,224 million, respectively). A trend that continues into 2020: reported debt in default was €7404 million, up from €6,193 million of outstanding debt recorded in the past.
The declared portfolio in failure nearly doubles
Regarding the declared debt in case of default, AT reports that “in the past four years it has provided consecutive annual increases of about 1 billion euros per year”: in 2017 it totaled 4,166 million euros, and in 2018 this figure was already 5,034 million , in 2019, it amounted to 6,422 million, and last year it reached a record 7,404 million euros.
According to the report presented to Parliament this week, in the past four years the declared portfolio has almost doubled, and at the end of 2020, shows, for the second time, a greater representation of outstanding debt. The report adds that this increase “can be explained by a change in the position of all jurisprudence on issues related to statute of limitations, a position accepted by the Court of Appeal, which today has become in a peaceful manner, with an understanding of the lasting impact of the interruption from the prescription, generated fewer prescribed debts.” AT stresses that, as a result, since they are debts with age and therefore more difficult to collect, they will end up after exhausting all legal attempts to collect them in declared defaults.