I remember back in the 80's on one of my regular business trips to Italy being told of a corporate tax revenue concession. Their business tax deficits were running over a decade in arrears in many cases. As it was clear they were never going to catch up an offer was made whereby companies current annual tax bill plus a further 50% was paid on time in return for their previous tax arrears to be wiped clean. I guess this appealed to the Italian psyc as cash rolled in.