The government has reintroduced the ‘name and shame’ policy for those owing money to Portugal’s Social Security department.
The online list was suspended in 2013 but will again become public in an effort to embarrass people into paying up. Those unable to pay will have their names listed for everyone to see.
The Order of Chartered Accountants and the Portugal’s workers union CGTP said the publication of the list, as stated in the 2016 State Budget, may reveal a few surprises.
At the end of 2014, the total owed to Social Security was around €10 billion. This figure dropped to €3.9 billion which is that part of the total for which there is any chance at all of recovery as the debtor has listed assets or is working.
The chairman of the accountants’ body, Domingues Azevedo, and the chief economist from the CGTP union, Eugénio Rosa, both applaud the decision again to publish the list of companies and individuals who have not paid their social security debts.
“It is a matter of transparency and to put pressure on debtors to pay what they owe,' said Eugénio Rosa, who is especially concerned at the behaviour of the many companies that deduct social security payments from workers’ wages but fail to forward the amounts to the government.
Unlike Social Security department debt, the list of tax debts was never suspended and has always shown the amounts owed by individuals and companies:
http://www.e-financas.gov.pt/de/pubdiv/de-devedores.html
The social security debtors’ list is not yet available but can be found on the Finanças site in due course.
