Cash registers for all trade related taxpayers

TIRANA, Feb.20 – Sale receipts will be automatically controlled by registers that will be mandatory for shops and other trade outlets, The Finance Ministry declared as part of its strategy to reduce e informal economy and control cash flows for taxing purposes. The project is a two-year investment planned by the General Directory of Taxation. The problem is one of the oldest ones and ha san interesting cultural feature. Albanians like many people in the Balkans base most of their relationships even the business ones on personal trust and thus are often opposed to similar measures. The new economic system though makes it an imperative to own such machines for most of the trading outlets. The government has made several attempts to install such registers and almost all of them have been unsuccessful. Taxation Authority vice director, Shaban Jemishta, explained that the project will first connect the major business owners to the taxation administration. The latter are classified as such because they realize annual revenues larger than 150 million leks. Jemishta aid that the key feature that will make the project work is the new amended legislation that will impose stricter penalties on the trade subjects that do not comply. Named as the challenge of the millennium, the project in Albania is getting significant American funding and expertise in designing proper legal framework for the documentation of all business. In fact, inventory checking will precede the cash registers.