Tax officials start imposing fines on cash registers

TIRANA, July 13 – The General Tax Directorate says it will impose fines of up to 500,000 lek to small businesses which have not installed cash registers following the expiry of the deadline on July 30.
The tax administration says it will start field inspections on cash registers. Under the new changes, tax officials can fine small business 100,000 lek (around 1,000 dollars) when first identifying lack of cash registers and 500,000 lek if the violation is repeated.
The tax procedures law also foresees suspension of activity for six months and even closure of small businesses.
The changes to the law are aimed at tax evasion.
Albania has some 90,000 small businesses, 20,000 of which only in Tirana.
Meanwhile, government is drafting a new bill that could lower the threshold for businesses paying value added tax (VAT) to 3 million lek (30,000 dollars) of annual turnover, from 5 million lek currently, according to Finance Ministry sources.
Last January, government lowered the VAT threshold to 5 million lek, down from 8 million lek, in an effort to collect more taxes and avoid informality. The move put some 17,000 small businesses in the VAT scheme.
The next decrease of the VAT threshold, which government has not announced yet when it will become effective, is expected to put the majority of small businesses in the VAT scheme.