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Uncollected corporate taxes and penalties surged by over 25 per cent in Alberta last year, despite a stern warning from the province’s financial watchdog that the government needs to do a better job of getting businesses to pay up.

The mounting tab now totals more than $1.1 billion, an amount roughly equal to one-fifth the total amount actually collected from corporations over the last 12 months and two times what the new NDP government hopes to raise annually by hiking the rate for big businesses from 10 to 12 per cent.

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The Finance Department’s recent annual report also shows that fully 38 per cent of what’s outstanding, or $431 million, will likely have to be written off.

The numbers suggest the problem is getting worse.

The proportion of all corporate taxes and penalties that were assessed in a given year but were then unpaid increased by a third from 5.7 per cent in 2013-14 to 7.6 per cent in 2014-15.