Albania, Kosovo to end double taxation

TIRANA, March 19 – Albania and Kosovo have decided to end the practice of double taxation in an effort to boost economic and financial ties.
Albania’s government said this week it had approved a joint agreement with the Kosovo government on “avoiding double taxation on the income and capital and also to prevent fiscal evasion between the two countries,” according to Finance Minister Shkelqim Cani.
“This is an agreement to the good of the Albanian business in Albania and Kosovo,” said Cani.
He added all businesses and people who work in both countries will now not be taxed by both Kosovo and Albania on earnings they make in one country while being resident in another.
“This is the way we are carrying out step by step the pledges made to the Kosovo and Albanian peoples on the integration of the economy and of the business in Albania and in Kosovo to the reciprocal benefit of both sides,” said the minister.
In a visit to Prishtina last weekend, Foreign Minister Ditmir Bushati also met with all top Kosovo leaders and discussed on intensifying the bilateral cooperation and also on the need of the application of the landmark Kosovo-Serbia agreement negotiated with the help of the European Union.
The new Socialist government of Prime Minister Edi Rama has pledged to take the bilateral ties with Kosovo to a new level in practical terms.
Albania and Kosovo have often made statements of joint cooperation, but often they have remained on the drawing board, government officials said, adding that double taxation should have ended a lot sooner as Albania has such agreements with countries that are far further way in geography and ties than Albania and Kosovo, which is inhabited largely by ethnic Albanians who share cultural and national ties to Albania.
The move to end double taxation comes as the new government recently approved another agreement, funded from the German government, to create an electricity link between Albania and Kosovo, which had been delayed under the previous government.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and is officially recognized as a sovereign country by more than half of UN member states.