All Citizens To Declare Their Wealth

Tirana, March 10 – Apart from senior government and public administration officials, all Albanian citizens will soon have to declare their wealth at the end of each year. Prime Minister Sali Berisha announced on Wednesday’s government meeting that under the personal declaration of income, the Finance Ministry would refund citizens at the end of the year for the excess taxes they have paid based on the bills they possess.
“This document which I would call the document of universal transparency for citizens’ revenues, increases the obligations of the Finance Ministry and the country’s finances in general towards citizens,” said Berisha. He described the income declaration by citizens as a modern European practice which was coming late to Albania.
Meanwhile, government will also establish the Taxpayer Advocate and the Business Consultative Council as two important institutions to increase transparency in the fiscal system and modernize it.
The Taxpayer Advocate, whose mission is to protect taxpayers from the arbitrariness of tax collectors, will be established in the General Tax Directorate. Meanwhile, the Business Consultative Council will examine the whole activity of the tax system and its transparency towards taxpayers.
Prime Minister Berisha said these institutions would lower the bureaucratic burden and facilitate the activity of businesses.
The new initiatives, funded by the Millennium Threshold Program, have been undertaken in the frame of reforms in the fiscal system, and are in accordance with the European Commission requirements, said government in a statement.