The Ministry of Finances is finalizing the details of its policy that will allow the payment of outstanding debts to the State in 48 installments or more, before sending it off to insurance funds and tax offices. Despite being voted and published in the Government Gazette, tax offices are unable to implement the policy if they have not been issued the order.

The policy of 48 installments applies to tax-payers with overdue debts that matured by the end of 2012 and have been proven to be unable to pay their debts. The fewer number of installments the debtor agrees to, the greater the discount on penalty surcharges; 48 installments entitle the debtor to a 25% discount, 36 installments 30%, 24 installments 35% and 12 installments a 40% discount. Paying in one lump sum will bring a 50% discount in penalties and paying in more than 48 installments will have no discount. The late payment penalty in this scheme will be 8.75%.

The value of the minimum amount of the installments is related to the monthly income of the debtor. For monthly incomes up to 300 euros the minimum installment is expected to be 15 euros, with the minimum rate of the installment ranging from 5% to 12% for monthly incomes up to and beyond 10,000 euros.

Over 13.3 billion euros of uncollected fines in jeopardy

The Ministry also released data on the tax and customs fines that they have been unable to collect. About 14 billion euros worth of penalties have been finalized in the courts, however only 688.5 million euros (4.91%) have bee collected. The data indicates that there are over 118,000 tax cases stalled in the courts. The Ministry plans on revising its fines and penalties.