Last year the Treasury made attachment of wages orders, 1,457 per day, totaling more than 532,000. The Portuguese tax men sent out over nine million emails to taxpayers with tax debts, and seized wages, bank accounts and any other financial products it could uncover.
The total number of actions by the state against its citizens has more than doubled since 2011 with 611,941 cases of asset seizure, 576,751 bank accounts raided, plus the daily toll of wages orders.
Then there are the houses seized to be auctioned off, 123,500 of them.
Paulo Nuncio, the delighted Secretary of State for Fiscal Affairs commented that "There is a concern on the part of the tax administration that we first take assets or income, leaving the seizure of property until last."
Regarding the record level of attachment of wages orders, Paul Nuncio stresses that his staff "have precise instructions to only order the seizure of one-sixth of taxpayers’ income, despite the law allowing, as a rule, one-third of the monthly salary to be seized."
This kindness from the taxman aims to "safeguard taxpayers with lower incomes," and is generally applicable only to those with lower incomes.
Last year the taxman coerced recalcitrant taxpayers into handing over €1,900 million, against a target of €1,100 million.
It appears a question best avoided by Portugal's leading politicians as to how 2 million of Portugal's over 14-year old population of 9.07 million are unable voluntarily to pay their taxes, a concerning 22%.
