A draft law proposed by the Ministry of Finance paves the way for one of the largest fiscal amnesties in Albania's history. The draft, submitted for consultation with interest groups, completely forgives tax liabilities incurred before December 2014, including the obligation, fines and late payment interest, in addition to insurance contributions.
In addition, the draft law provides partial forgiveness, up to 50 percent, for obligations created from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2024.
It is about potentially forgiving 1.2 billion euros in tax liabilities for businesses that have not been correct in paying taxes.
More specifically, according to data from the Ministry of Finance, the liabilities created before December 2014 are a full 55 billion lek or 552 million euros. Within this amount, 45 million euros are liabilities for social security and health contributions, which are not forgiven. So over 500 million euros of liabilities before December 2014 are automatically forgiven.
Meanwhile, for liabilities incurred from January 1, 2015 to December 31 of last year, all fines and interests up to 50 percent of the liability are forgiven for businesses that agree to enter into an agreement with the Tax Authorities.
" For tax obligations, with the exception of social and health insurance contributions, pertaining to the tax periods from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019:
a) 50% of the tax liability is extinguished if the remaining 50% of the tax/fee/fee is paid all at once by 30.6.2026.
b) 25% of the tax liability is extinguished if the remaining 75% of the tax/fee/fee is paid in equal monthly installments by 31.12.2026.
In both cases, according to letters "a" and "b" of this point, fines and late payment interest for the relevant periods are completely waived ," the draft law states.
According to official data, businesses currently have 158 billion lek or 1.6 billion euros in unpaid tax or customs liabilities, which were created after January 1, 2015, of which 200 million euros are contributions that are not forgiven.
If all these businesses that have not been correct in paying taxes agree to enter into an agreement with the fiscal authorities, then they could potentially benefit from up to 700 million euros in tax forgiveness.
If the 500 million euros before 2014, which are automatically forgiven, are added to these, then the potential amount of amnesty could go up to 1.2 billion euros or about 5 percent of the Gross Domestic Product.
This is one of the largest fiscal amnesties ever undertaken in the history of Albania, in absolute terms the largest.
Editorial
