17,000 owe €3.2Bn to tax man

The Portuguese tax authorities have taken 20,000 debtors off its black list over the past two years, but nevertheless, the government is still owed a staggering €3.3Bn in unpaid taxes.

The list released by the Portuguese Tax Authorities (AT) does show an overall downward trend in taxes owed which has been seen since 2016, although data has not been released for the pandemic period of 2020/2021.
Yet despite 20,000 tax debtors disappearing off the back list, the amount owed to the government has not gone down accordingly.
The list of debtors lists all of the tax payers (people or companies) whose tax situation has not been settled after they had let the period for payment lapse “without having met their financial obligations” or providing a guarantee or requesting a waiver.
The black list was created in 2006 by the then minister Fernando Teixeira dos Santos, and is updated daily to remove those tax payers who have settled up. Tax payers who are behind on their payments are added monthly.
According to data on 31 May there were 17,814 on the tax debtors list (there is another list for those with payments outstanding with Social Security). The list has 10,496 persons and 7,318 companies, with persons owing €1.73Bn and companies €1.469 respectively.