March premiere for state’s e-auctions

Gov’t forced by creditors to resort to online foreclosures, as tax and social security debts top 100 bln

The state and the social security funds will begin online auctions of debtors’ assets in March, while total debts to the state at the end of November exceeded 100 billion euros according to data published yesterday.

The multi-bill to be tabled in Parliament today contains a clause amending the Public Revenue Collection Code (KEDE) to include not only conventional auctions but online auctions too.

The clause will pass the responsibility for setting the auctions’ terms and conditions to the competent ministers, while sources say the state will utilize the same platform as that currently used for online auctions called by private parties.

When the state’s electronic foreclosures begin, the properties will go under the hammer at prices below the rates used for tax purposes (known as “objective values”) as the law dictates that auction starting prices should be the same as market prices.

Meanwhile, new expired debts to the tax authorities and social security funds climbed by almost 1.2 billion euros in November to reach a total of 11.63 billion euros in the first 11 months of 2017, from 10.44 billion at end-October. Almost the entire amount added to the sum concerned unpaid taxes. This means that taxpayers were unable to meet their income tax and Single Property Tax (ENFIA) obligations in November.

The new overdue debts took the total amount of money owed to the state up to 100.7 billion euros, with 89.1 billion euros of that comprising debt created before 2017. The number of taxpayers with debts to the state add up to 4.2 million, with one in every two taxpayers owing money to the state and 1.7 million of them at risk of forced measures that reach up to property confiscations and auctions.

Already 1 million taxpayers have been subject to asset confiscations or had their bank accounts frozen, a practice which in 2017 alone fetched some 4 billion euros to state coffers, 837.13 1.1973 from debts both old and new.

In 2018 the situation will be even more difficult for debtors as those who have entered a 100-tranche repayment scheme will have to adhere to all the deadlines as even one day’s delay will render their debt expired, meaning they could facing having to pay their entire debt.

The Independent Authority for Public Revenue is also planning to create an online system for the issue of automatic confiscation documents for state debtors.