Round Table On Fiscal Amnesty In Full Gear

TIRANA, Feb 14ؔhe Albanian government and the business community have agreed to initiate a legal framework which has a full fiscal amnesty at its core. A round table has started among business representatives, Ministry of Finance, academics, and lawmakers of the Economic Commission, to sort out the details of the amnesty.
Chamber of Commerce representatives have said that a full fiscal amnesty is needed to boost Albanian economy by softening out the impact of the global economic and financial crisis. In order for the amnesty to be full, it will have to include the legalization of previously non-declared assets, the full annulment of liabilities deriving from unclear custom tariffs, and the full annulment of income tax over accumulated wealth during the years. Basically, the new law would mean that business can declare within a given period of time all money and property without facing any fiscal penalties. The reasoning behind has it that the legal framework regarding administrative taxation is neither complete, nor consolidated.
“Today we are faced with a new reality, one that should be fully recognized by the executive, lawmaking, and policymaking players of the state,” head of the Chambers of Commerce, Nikolin Jaka, declared for the media.
Bank of Albania governor has firmly supported the amnesty movement last week, reporting to the media that, “The bank welcomes any move in the direction of formalizing the economy, the regulation of its balances. Of course this is a very complex process that requires good preparation and simultaneously requires a good awareness of all economic actors in the country.”
However, despite the government’s official acceptance of the need to formalize the country’s economy, interest groups warn that caution and maturity will be needed in the drafting of the new law, in order to avoid unwanted consequences during its application.
Other than pure economic benefit, a key reason behind the fiscal amnesty movement is to halt the possible misuse of the so-called “anti-mafia” law that allows the seizing of assets whose legal origin cannot be proved. The new legislation, which took effect on January 24, enables authorities to seize suspicious assets and put the owners on trial to determine the source. It was adopted last month without the support of the opposition Socialist Party (SP), whose lawmakers are concerned its application could be selective. The opposition argues that the money brought home by immigrants is not registered, which represents an opportunity for authorities to abuse such cases.
The business community pretends that only a combination of the anti-mafia law and the full fiscal amnesty would guarantee, both the seizure of criminal groups and the protection of businesses’ and individual’s wealth. The implementation of the anti-mafia law under the current institutional and economical situation in Albania, and without a fiscal amnesty over the capital, assets, and income of Albanian citizens, could severely reduce the inflow of money from Albanian immigrants which still counts for 10% of the country’s GDP. In addition, the said legislation could oust investment capital from the country and its banking system.
Albania remains the only country in Europe without ever implanting a fiscal amnesty since the fall of Communism in 1990. In a fiscal amnesty implemented last year to allow companies to declare their funds earned abroad, the Italian government raised close to 100 billion euros in taxes. Among EU countries, fiscal amnesty is practice applied every 2-3 years.