The evil state

For the Portuguese State, when it comes to taking money from citizens, anything goes.

This concerns a legal entity that goes unnoticed by many: the tax enforcement process, which allows the State to use coercive means to extract money from citizens without going through a court, thus immediately proceeding to seize assets, wages, pensions, and bank accounts. There is a reason to use the tax enforcement process, with all the coercive powers it affords, to collect debts resulting from taxes and other duties owed, as the State, here as everywhere, needs cash quickly to cover fixed and even (some) capital expenses. So far, so good.

But the Portuguese State's trickery goes much further. The issue is very simple, yet very insidious. Our State uses the tax enforcement process outside of tax collection, that is, to collect other debts without having to go through the hassle of filing a lawsuit and waiting for a ruling. In fact, the Portuguese legislator, with its characteristic lack of liberal culture, has increasingly expanded the possibility of using the tax enforcement process to collect debts resulting from contracts voluntarily entered into between citizens and the State or other similar legal entities. This is the case, for example, with debts resulting from (allegedly) misused subsidies, the Via Verde highway, etc. Tomorrow, no aspiring public service concessionaire will sign a concession contract without the Portuguese State granting them the right to collect debts through tax means. And there's more: if the defendant in a tax enforcement proceeding for debts arising from contracts has not yet managed to pay in full, they cannot obtain a certificate proving they owe nothing to the tax authorities, even though the debt has nothing to do with taxes. And, therefore, they cannot participate in public tenders, etc. The Portuguese state enjoys it to the fullest...

And things don't stop there. The legislator is careful not to create a special statute of limitations for debts arising from administrative contracts with the State. Of course, the State claims that the statute of limitations is twenty years, which is the same as for civil debts. Have you seen this?

The fact is that the tax enforcement process significantly reduces citizens' rights, no matter how much some idiots might argue otherwise, and therefore can only be exceptional and limited to tax collection. Nothing more.

Needless to say, none of this matters if the State is the debtor. The inequality between State and citizen is glaring. The Portuguese State not only fails to pay on time but also laughs at the citizen who has to go to court to have the State ordered to pay. And if the case is upheld, the State always appeals as far as it can. And if, in the end, it is convicted, what does it matter? It doesn't pay, and if it does pay anything after 10 or 15 years, the government is a different one, the mayor is a different one, and the president of the public institution is a different one.

Of course, this isn't the case in civilized countries. Is the Portuguese state atypical? This democracy is atypical. Vote for them, vote for them.