TIRANA, Feb. 23 – Hundreds of small business owners protested this week in front of the Tirana municipality building against newly increased local taxes which they claim will take them to bankruptcy.
Protesters say they are facing a 10-fold increase in the local tax on occupation of public space which they claim the Tirana municipal council secretly approved on Dec. 30 and that they have been acquainted with the new tax only recently with the new tax bills.
The tax on occupation of public space, mostly affecting bars and restaurants which have improvised outdoor facilities, has increased from 150 lek (€1.07)/m2 a month to 1,500 lek (€10.7)/m2 a month for downtown Tirana businesses starting this year.
Small business owners say such a drastic increase has been non-transparent and not based on logic or any economic study, warning it could lead to mass closure and leave thousands of workers jobless.
“The decision to increase the tax by 10-fold is null and void because it wasn’t consulted with us and was approved in violation of the law as we are being notified at the end of February of a decision that was approved in the last 2015 meeting and asked to pay two months,” a trader said as quoted by local media.
Nikollaq Neranxi, the head of the Association for the Protection of Traders and Market, warned of another legal battle to cancel the new taxes which he described as new ‘ heavy fines’ to the business community.
“The law allows us to take these taxes which are heavy fines imposed by the local government to the Administrative Court. We will take them to the Administrative Court and win,” said Neranxi.
The Association led by businessman and former MP Neranxi has also taken to the Constitutional Court two other laws approved in late 2015 increasing fines on tax evasion by up to 50 fold and replacing fines with imprisonment on informal activity. The Court has already suspended until a final decision the implementation of the tax procedure law approved in late 2015 that envisages fines of up to 10 million lek (€71,000) on tax evasion after the association filed a complaint over the “disproportionate” penalties to income and offences committed.
Tirana businesses are also facing increased advertising taxes for more than 2m2 and a new tax on education infrastructure replacing a previous greening tax starting this year.
The new taxes approved by the country’s biggest municipality come after the Albanian government made a major concession in late 2015 in the midst of nationwide campaign against informality, offering tax cuts to small and medium-sized enterprises, many of which will no longer have to pay any profit tax.
The municipality has not reacted to the protesters’ demands.
