Businesses unsure, hesitant about amnesty procedures

TIRANA, June 14 – One month after the partial fiscal amnesty has been in force, businesses seem unsure and hesitant about the procedures they should follow and the benefits they will receive. Unofficial sources say that despite the application forms being made available, no applications have been made yet.
Ilir Hebovija, the deputy director of the Constructors Association, says there is no clear ordinance or structure yet on how businesses are going to react.
Accounting experts say businesses have doubts about the advantages of declaring hidden monetary amounts and assets. They say the tax administration, banks or real estate registration offices should be prepared to implement the partial fiscal amnesty.
Sotiraq Dhamo, the head of the Institute of Accounting Experts says that one of the most controversial issues is the fact that the law states that if false self-declaration is identified in the future, businesses will lose their amnesty benefits.
The Tirana Chamber of Commerce and Industry shares the same concerns over the amnesty’s guarantees. Nikolin Jaka, the Chamber’s head, says that although on a self-declaration basis, businesses still face the risk of penalties during inspections by tax officials. “What will not succeed, at least from the debates and contacts I have had with Chamber members and different entrepreneurs is the self-declaration part, which foresees that even though making a self-declaration, you might later undergo tax controls if some forgotten action is identified, even unintentionally, and you lose the right to being a fiscal amnesty subject and the self-declaration turns into a boomerang,” says Jaka.
Citizens and businesses have been invited to declare unpaid taxes and hidden assets under tariffs of 3 to 5 percent. Only businesses connected to current and former public office holders and those whose origin of capital is not legal business, i.e criminal activities and trafficking, are excluded from the law on the “legalization of capital and the pardon of part of tax and customs debts.” The bill approved ahead of the May 8 local elections without the opposition’s consent pardons unpaid tax obligations for individuals and small businesses until December 31, 2010. Big businesses can have their customs and tax obligations pardoned until December 31, 2008. Application forms for the self-declaration process, which will remain open until the end of this year, have already been issued.