Last year, the phones of the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (AADE) were on fire, as nearly one million calls (!) were made to taxpayers who… forgot to pay taxes or installments, mainly to those who had newly acquired overdue debts. The AADE’s strategy will be similar this year, but digitally upgraded!

Specifically, the AADE is entering a new phase, adopting “pop-up” notifications and digital alerts that will resemble social media, but with a clear message: “We know what you owe, and we are sending you to the cash register.” Essentially, taxpayers will receive continuous electronic warning messages to comply immediately, while automated debt collection procedures will be activated to collect at least 3 billion euros from old debts and collect at least 3 out of every 10 euros from new debts that will be created in 2025.

The AADE’s action plan for this year is specific: it foresees collecting at least 3 billion euros from older overdue debts and at least 700 million euros from targeted actions by the Special Collection Unit (EMEIS) that “chases” major debtors. At the same time, Customs Administration is expected to collect 28 million euros from customs duties, while the collection rate for new overdue debts should reach 33%.

Additionally, the AADE is categorizing 10 billion euros of total debts as “uncollectible” to focus on cases that can truly yield revenue. A centralized system is already in place that, through specific risk analysis criteria, will select and prioritize the most collectable cases for enforcement measures.

The total overdue balance, according to the latest data from AADE processed by the Budget Office of Parliament, reached 108.5 billion euros at the end of October 2024, increased by 2.4 billion euros in one year. Of this, 26.3 billion euros (24.3%) are considered practically impossible to collect. Notably, nearly the entire amount (96.4%) comes from debtors who owe over 10,000 euros, while only 0.2% of debtors with debts exceeding one million euros account for 76.5% of total overdue debts.

The picture of debt settlements is not particularly encouraging: only 4.4% of the actual overdue balance has been settled, which amounts to approximately 3.6 billion euros.

Faced with this situation, the AADE is already preparing for the next step, developing a new “Collection Strategy” for the period 2025-2029, with implementation starting in 2026. The new strategy includes gathering all taxpayer data into a complete digital file, continuous updates for debtors based on their profile and the age of the debt, categorization according to the PARE method (Payment capacity-Attitude-Recency-Event), development of new predictive models to identify offenders, and clearing the debt portfolio.