Four scrapping in less than ten years, 33 billion euros actually collected and 47 billion never paid. It is the merciless photography of the Court of Auditors who arrives after the new promises from the government for the scrapping Quinquies. The numbers presented raise doubts about the effectiveness of the facilitated definitions used as a tax policy tool.
From the data, in fact, it seems to emerge that the state is able to recover revenue, but the defaulting are more than those who pay. This is for the well -known “game” of the so -called sly: many taxpayers use scrapping to earn time, paying only the first installment and then disappears.
The scrapping numbers: to those who convenient
From 2016 to today, tax scrapping have repeated themselves almost biennially, but the results, as the Court of Auditors highlights, remain disappointing. The system that emerges is useful to recover figures, but does not completely facilitate collection.
Let’s go to the numbers. The first facilitated definition, launched in 2016, included entries for 19.6 billion but only 9.2 were collected, while 10.5 were lost. With the second, the so -called “bis” of 2017, the state awaited 9.3 billion, but saw just over 3 arrive. Translated: almost 70% remained unsolved.
The “ter”, in 2018, promised 29.3 billion, but just 8.5, while 19.5 never arrived in the public coffers. Finally, the “quater”, started in 2022 and still underway, marks 2024 takings of 12.2 billion, but already 11.2 billion in installments have been skipped.
The “game” of the clever
The mechanism is well known, but does not discourage many from practicing it. Some taxpayers, too many if we consider the numbers reported, adhere to scrapping only to earn time. They pay the first installment and then stop, in the meantime blocking foreclosures, administrative stops and mortgages. For the Court of Auditors it is a real use “instrumental and dilatory” of the facilitated definitions.
The result is twofold, because on the one hand the state collects something and the instrument is seen as “useful”, but on the other the idea that does not pay immediately convenient, because a new scrapping will always remedy the debt in part. It is no coincidence that the need to break the vicious circle emerges and the next Quinquies scrapping should present more stringent criteria.
The installment system
Next to the scrapping, the Court of Auditors also highlights the boom in installments. At the end of 2024 there were over 6 million active requests, for a total load of 53.5 billion, an increase of 26% compared to the previous year. Since 2008, the Revenue-Rispasion Agency has managed 15.5 million instances, moving folders for over 260 billion euros.
In 2024 the only installment collections touched 4.7 billion, almost half of the ordinary revenue. A positive, but also fragile signal: if the mechanism works for those who really want to get back in order, the risk that becomes another tool to postpone payments remains high. The Court of Auditors warns that frequent and not very coordinated regulatory changes have transformed the installments and scraps into “tools perceived by citizens as a possibility to procrastinate”, rather than to close the accounts with the tax authorities.
