The fundamental mission of the Tax Agency is to promote and ensure the correct application of the tax system. To fulfill this task, the Agency must carry out a series of actions that guarantee and facilitate the payment of tax debts, as well as the execution of collection procedures, both for debts of a tax nature and for other debts whose management has been entrusted to the Tax Agency.

The volume of debt under collection management by the Tax Agency goes through various phases that influence the capacity of its Collection Department to address them. These phases range from the absolute possibility of managing them without any limitations other than those imposed by the legal system, to debts whose management is imitated or conditioned by internal and external factors that restrict collection activity to different degrees.

Traditionally, a distinction is made between "manageable" debt and "non-manageable" debt, depending on the possibilities that the Collections area can deploy to make the credits effective. These circumstances come on certain occasions from the type of debt and its situation (such as outstanding debts in the voluntary period or suspended debts due to resources, among others). Other times they derive from the debtor's own financial or financial situation (for example, debtors declared bankrupt, debtors involved in bankruptcy proceedings and other circumstances), which affects the ability to manage debts.

Situations that limit collection management do not prevent the Tax Agency from carrying out other actions. These situations are monitored, relying on appropriate computer tools that allow changes in their circumstances to be detected and thus avoid risks that may arise due to ignorance of these changes, or due to the passage of time, such as slower management or even the prescription of debts.

Below is a table showing the evolution of the total debt pending with the Tax Agency from 2015 to 2022, in millions of euros.

At the end of 2022, the outstanding debt amounted to 40,421 million euros, remaining in line with the levels of the previous year and being almost 18% lower than the amount recorded in 2015. However, it is important to highlight that the evolution of the total outstanding debt does not always necessarily reflect a better performance of the Tax Agency's activity, since it may be affected by circumstances beyond its control.

For this reason, it is considered essential that the fifth indicator provided for in the Strategic Plan focuses on "manageable" debt, over which the capacity to act is full. The objective is to conclude the management of all manageable debt in the shortest possible time, while continuing to review the situation of debt with limited management for the same purpose. The index is calculated by relating the amount of managed debt to the manageable debt in the executive period. According to the Strategic Plan, this index must be equal to or greater than 0.9. Therefore, the aim is to manage at least 90% of the manageable debt each year.

Despite its usefulness for annual monitoring, and even for shorter periods, as a strategic indicator, its examination must focus on the long term to obtain more significant conclusions, since it will allow determining the trend towards where management is heading. debt collection, compared to previous years.

In summary, the debt managed in executive reached 30,993 million euros, which means that in 2022, 92% of the net manageable debt in executive was managed, which stood at 33,677 million euros. This demonstrates correct debt collection management in fiscal year 2022.