Deputy Minister of Finance and Economy, Vasilika Vjero, in an interview with ATA, explains that the new draft law outlines all the rules, safeguards and steps of entities that will benefit from the process of voluntary declaration of assets and at the same time specifies the public institutions that will administer this process.

“By legalization of assets, we mean the amounts in money, real estate and movable property, gemstones, paintings, etc.,” said Vjero.

According to Vjero, the beneficiary entities will be Albanian citizens, regardless of whether or not they are resident taxpayers in the Republic of Albania, natural and legal entities that are resident tax payers in the Republic of Albania, but also individuals who may not be Albanian citizens, but are resident taxpayers, so they exercise an activity and stay in Albania for more than 182 days to obtain this status.

The government drafted another law on fiscal and criminal amnesty in 2020, but stopped short of getting it through Parliament with view to reaching a full political consensus, given that the then opposition had walked out of this institution but also for the purpose of a wider discussion with stakeholders and the international community.

The International Monetary Fund has advised the Albanian government against adopting a fiscal amnesty, given concerns about its impact on tax compliance, as well as the risks related to money laundering and tax administration.

Deputy Minister of Finance explained that the new draft law that has been submitted for consultation includes the concerns put forth by the IMF, meanwhile during the public consultation process we will take into account recommendations from stakeholders and local and international financial institutions.

“We have started the consultation process. We welcome any kind of proposal and feedback from stakeholders and international financial institutions. This draft law has followed up on all recommendations of the IMF, ” said Vjero.

The Deputy Minister stressed that the novelty about the draft law is the monetary declaration cap.
“This is an element that was not in the previous draft law. It has already been stipulated that the property, which will be declared voluntarily, should not exceed the maximum value of 2 million euros. On the other hand, it is very important to say that the new draft law foresees a considerable number of entities that are excluded, ie they do not have the right to register their assets. They are entities that are legally bound to declare assets, pursuant to the law “On declaration and control of assets together with persons in their family composition starting from President of the Republic, Members of Parliament, Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister , ministers and deputy ministers, prosecutors, judges, prefects, etc., ” said Vjero.
According to her, due diligence was exercised to exclude from the process those entities, which have been holders of duties or functions, as well as persons within their marital status, as well as subjects of the law on prevention and fight against organized crime and trafficking.

“It is important that beneficiary of this law are not subjects of the law on prevention and combating organized crime and trafficking through preventive measures against property, or persons declared wanted and those in the process of being declared wanted pursuant to the provisions of the law on measures against the financing of terrorism, and at the same time the entities against whom criminal proceedings for evasion in the field of taxation and customs have been initiated, “,said the Deputy Minister.
On the other hand, the Deputy Minister said that the General Directorate of Taxes will play a key role in this process.

“A special unit will be established to deal with this whole process by producing evidence, statistics, collecting information, processing data, keeping confidentiality, which is very important. At the same time, there are a number of other structures that will be engaged in this process, starting from the second level banks, other financial institutions, supervisory authorities, the State Cadastre Agency, the General Directorate of Prevention and Money Laundering, civil registry, customs directorate, police directorate, State Intelligence Service, High Inspectorate of Declaration of Assets, so there are a number of structures, which will cross check the statement that will be made by entities, or even individuals, ” said the Deputy Minister.
/j.p/r.e/sm/