Portuguese taxpayers’ bad debts have risen 34% in the past year with over half of the amount attributable to debts of €250,000 or more.
The amount that is considered ‘uncollectable’ at the end of April was €3.92 billion, according to Fernando Rocha Andrade, the head of Tax Affairs.
Last year, the uncollectable figure in April was €2.92 billion with the €1 billion rise in twelve months taking the total to the highest level seen in the past ten years.
The unwelcome data appears in the Monthly Bulletin of Tax Credits and was published in Sunday's edition of Diário de Notícias which also shows that 58% of the total 'unrecoverable' sums owned corresponds to taxpayers with debts above €250,000, most of whom live in Lisbon and Oporto.
The report states that the Tax and Customs Authority "is more effective at collecting new debt" with the unwritten conclusion that collecting these old debts has become harder and harder.
Unrecoverable debts are those where the taxpayer has gone to ground, or in cases where the debtor has no registered assets.
Over the April-to-April period, the total debts owed to the State jumped from €18.56 billion to €18.88 billion.