Feb 6, 2024 at 7:00 PM Update: 2 hours ago
Of all outstanding tax debts of companies, 5.7 billion euros will probably not be returned to the government, according to a report rapport of the Court of Audit. The reason for this is that the Tax Authorities are unable to collect debts due to a lack of staff.
Corona debts concern deferred taxes for entrepreneurs during the corona pandemic. Companies could then request a deferral of all kinds of taxes. Through this scheme, the government prevented many companies from immediately going bankrupt due to the lockdowns.
From April 2022, the more than 400,000 large and small companies that together accrued more than 40 billion euros in tax debts will have to repay them. Otherwise it is unfair to others who have simply paid their taxes.
They can do this in installments and they have until the end of 2029 to do so. But they have to start paying off. If they do not, the tax authorities would start collecting the corona debts.
More than 90,000 companies still have outstanding debt
Of all corona debts, 26 billion euros have now been repaid. At the beginning of 2024, approximately 14 billion euros in debts were still outstanding at more than 210,000 companies. The Court of Audit now notes that 5.7 billion of this will be “difficult or impossible to collect”.
This concerns debts of more than 90,000 companies that cannot or do not want to repay. One in ten of these companies is now bankrupt or is in the process of debt restructuring. But many other companies are also not paying back their debts, despite several urgent requests from the tax authorities.
The outgoing cabinet announced last year that 2.5 billion euros of the corona debts would be uncollectible. A new update is expected from the Ministry of Finance this week. The Court of Audit believes that the amount could be much higher.
Companies that have not yet started paying back already account for 2.9 billion euros in debt. The Court of Audit believes that money can only be collected there through enforcement actions. But they rarely happen.
No bailiffs for defaulters
Collecting is proving difficult due to a lack of staff at the Tax Authorities. Normally you cannot simply not pay tax debts. Certainly not after a writ of execution has been sent. These writs are sent automatically.
But according to the Court of Audit, the Tax Authorities have too few people to send a bailiff to the defaulters, something that would have to be done if there is continuous non-payment. This means that entrepreneurs can ignore reminders and writs for longer.
The Supervision department, which must arrange subpoenas, is short of more than 1,000 employees. 400 of these are needed to chase corona debts. It is also difficult for the Tax Authorities to find additional people.
The Court of Audit fears that the lack of sanctions will have consequences for the tax morale of entrepreneurs. “They may become less compliant with tax laws and regulations,” it said in a statement. And entrepreneurs could end up deeper in debt due to a lack of intervention.
2024-02-06 18:00:30
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