Danish citizens owe the state about 91.7 billion kroner in unpaid taxes, VAT and parking fines.
The amount has grown exponentially since last year, when the tax administration’s digital system, EFI, collapsed.
In the period from June 2015 to June 2016, overall debt increased by 19.3 billion kroner – roughly 1.5 billion every month.
The tax minister, Karsten Lauritzen, expects the amount to exceed 100 billion kroner before the year is over.
Experts and politicians worry that the state coffers will lack money for social benefits, hospitals and schools.
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Increased five-fold
“With such a significant increase in such a short time, it appears that the [tax] collection is out of control,” Eduardo Vistisen, a tax lawyer, told Politiken.
“Previously, the public’s debt grew by 3-4 billion kroner a year, which was certainly bad enough, but now it has increased five-fold and it seems as if the system is in freefall.”
Rune Lund, the tax spokesperson for Enhedslisten, fears that much of the debt will never ever be recovered and suggests collecting the money manually until the IT-system is working again.
SKAT has already relocated employees from other departments to help handle the crisis, and the tax minister wants to hire 1,000 new employees to further assist the tax administration.
