The latest snapshot from the Parliament’s Budget Office for April 2025 reveals a harsh reality:

Over €110 billion in overdue debts from households and businesses to the tax office, yet only €3.62 billion are under any kind of active repayment arrangement. That means €29 out of every €30 owed to the state has effectively been abandoned by the debtors.

According to the report, total overdue tax debt reached €110.8 billion in April 2025 — an increase of €3.8 billion compared to the previous year.

Out of this amount, €26.3 billion (23.8%) are officially categorized by the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) as “uncollectible”, due to the debtors being bankrupt, missing, or deceased. Therefore, the “active” debt stands at €84.45 billion, but even then, only 4.3% of it is under repayment—less than 1 in 20 euros.

Who Owes the €110 Billion?

The debt is spread across 4,242,507 taxpayers (TINs). The “good news” is that while the total debt has increased, the number of debtors has decreased by nearly 10% year-over-year—down 403,084 individuals or businesses from 4.6 million in April 2024.

Why?

Because small debtors owing less than €50 dropped by 452,472 people—from 1,588,354 last year to 1,135,882 now. And what did the state gain from 1 in 3 of these low-debt taxpayers settling up? Just €4 million.

Their total owed dropped from €26 million to €22 million—meaning even if the government had written off all debts under €50, it would have lost only about €25 million.

So Why Did the Total Debt Rise by €3.8 Billion?

Because of the “kings” of debt: just 9,865 taxpayers, mostly large defunct companies, each owing more than €1 million, collectively owe €84.47 billion — 76.2% of the total debt. That’s an average of over €8.5 million per debtor.

Worse still, these major debtors are increasing: from 9,425 last year to 9,865 this year—adding €2.1 billion in new debt, or 100 times more than all the smaller debtors combined.

Debts Ballooned After Tax Notices

This situation escalated after March, when ENFIA property tax installments for 2025 began.

While 452,472 small debtors dropped off the books, other debt brackets grew:

• +24,820 in the €50–€500 range
• +20,215 in the €10,000–€100,000 range

This shift coincides with income tax and ENFIA notifications, suggesting many smaller debtors received new obligations, pushing them into higher brackets. Still, the increase only affects about 45,000 TINs, so the key point remains: over 400,000 small taxpayers paid and exited the system.

Only the Small Ones Are Entering Repayment Programs

Data from the report confirms that only small and mid-sized taxpayers are actively seeking repayment arrangements:

• 35.2% of repayment plans involve debts between €500 and €10,000 — meaning 1 in 3 arrangements involve relatively small amounts.
• Ironically, these same taxpayers are excluded from the extrajudicial debt settlement process, which only covers debts over €10,000.

Breakdown:

• Individuals: Highest number of arrangements (17.1%) in the €500–€10,000 bracket
• Legal entities: Focus on €10,000–€100,000 bracket (23.7%)
• Major debtors: Almost no participation in repayment programs above €150,000

Bottom Line:

• Big debtors keep piling on debt
• Small and mid-sized taxpayers are the ones actually trying to pay
• Only 1 in 20 euros of debt is under any repayment, highlighting systemic failure

Taxes, Fines, and Ghost Debts

Of the real debt (€84.45 billion):

• €51.2 billion (60.69%) are tax debts
• €24.39 billion (28.88%) are fines
• €8.8 billion (10.42%) are non-tax debts

But only €27.42 billion (32.5% of active debt) is considered collectible. And over 90% of actual collections come from this pool. The remaining €57 billion is considered unrecoverable, mostly due to insolvency or statute of limitations.