Gov’t plan to settle smaller corporate debt
The government is putting forward a plan that would allow small enterprises and self-employed professionals to settle debts to social security funds of up to 20,000-30,000 euros.
According to the scheme, debtors will be evaluated on the basis of specific objective criteria such as the size of their debt, the period of time over which the debt was created and the prospects of repayment.
Once a settlement is agreed, debtors will be monitored to determine whether they are meeting their payments, while the agreements will be reassessed on a regular basis to establish whether the original conditions still exist. Authorities will also inspect whether a part of the debt was accrued as a result of penalties imposed without the proper procedures being followed.
The scheme will be implemented by the upgraded Social Security Debt Collection Center, which after the merger of all social security entities will evolve into the central mechanism for the collection of expired debts, even those below 5,000 euros.
Seeing the sum of debts come close to 30 billion euros, the Labor Ministry has concluded that alongside chasing so-called strategic defaulters, a central target should be increasing the collection capacity of the social security system.
