The state’s top 200 tax delinquents owe a combined $65.2 million, which is 50% more than it was five years ago.
Many of the names on the list have been there for years. Clearly, penalties and restrictions now in place aren’t working or being enforced.
With a looming recession on the heels of a multiyear pandemic, however, this is not the time for the state to simply increase penalties. Instead, the state needs to be more creative with incentives for those willing to settle their debts.
One answer is to make it easier for debtors to afford installment payments, says Thomas Quinn, a Providence tax attorney.
For the first time since 2017, the state should also offer tax amnesty on a portion of the accrued debt and waive criminal and civil penalties. This would help ease some willing businesses and individuals off the delinquency lists and allow the state to collect some of the debt.
And if debtors still don’t respond? Then step up enforcement of existing penalties to force them off the lists.