Nearly 45 % of the vehicles that circulate today in Albania do not pay taxes and obligations to the Albanian state. This is the report from the Albanian daily Ballkan (7.08.2009), which states that a draft project concerning a government “forgiveness” of part of the accumulated non-paid taxes has been presented and shall be examined by the future Albanian parliament. Ballkan estimates that the government will “forgive” claims to an overall non-paid tax value of 130 million Euros, against the progressive payment of an overall value of 250 million Euros in taxes. The last day to pay off (liquidate) the reduced part of ones vehicle tax liabilities is proposed to be the last day of the current year, the 31st of December 2009.
The draft project
The government is proposing to reduce the tax liability for payment of un-paid taxes and obligations. Instead of the full amount of the un-paid taxes to be collected, the government plans to reduce the tax total to the last three fiscal years, reports the daily. On the other hand, Ballkan states that custom duties will be abrogated for cars that were bought before the year 2000 and which were still liable to pay unpaid custom duties.
Custom duties are expected to still be demanded from those that have bought their cars after that date and have not paid their duties yet. Other types of tax liabilities affected by the draft project are extras and interest added on to non-paid obligations.
In the last two decades, nearly 350,000 vehicles have been registered and given circulation rights. Out of those only 192,000 pay their duties each year writes the Albanian daily.
New vehicles
The newspaper believes a set of measures will also help liberalize car owning and car selling in Albania. Ballkan expects these measures to have a positive impact on the sales of cars in the country.
No new custom duty rates have yet been announced. The custom duties are dependent on the model of the car, its horse power, the year of entry into circulation, etc. The custom duties in Albania are seen to be very expensive.
Other duties are due at the acquisition of a car, like the circulation permit which is reported to cost 600 Albanian Lek (ALL), a 2 % duty on the change of the ownership, as well as a number of other duties.
