Delaware’s top tax delinquents posted online

Delaware revenue leaders hope to shame taxpayers and businesses into paying up their overdue taxes.  

 

The Delaware Division of Revenue has been using the shaming power of the Internet to encourage residents and businesses who owe the state taxes to pay up since 2007.  The online posts have continued since then because they’re affective, says Revenue Director Patrick Carter.  

“A number of individuals and businesses pay their tax delinquencies once their name is posted online,” says Carter.  That urge to get their names off the list has resulted in more than $9.2 million being collected since the program got its start.  Over the last year, more than $2.8 million were collected.  

But Carter says even the threat of being listed as a tax cheat online is enough incentive to get more people to pay up.  “Greater still, though, is the amount of money collected from individuals and businesses that pay beforehand so that their information never goes on our website.”

You can find the list of delinquents on the Division of Revenue’s website.  The list is divided between the top 100 individuals and the top 100 businesses.  The highest outstanding tax bill for an individual stands at more than $805,000.  The highest amount owed by a business is more than $631,000.  All totaled, the lists represent more than $9 million owed to the state’s coffers.