General Director of Macroeconomic Policies and Fiscal Affairs Niko Lera said in an interview for ATA that during the current year there will be made a review of the reference prices that will reflect the increase in prices, according to areas.

“Within the law “On income tax” a new instruction has been drawn up, related to the taxation of the transfer of ownership, where a new rule is established, based on which the reference prices will be depreciated by 1% per year depending on the age of the building”, stressed Lera.

In July of last year, the reference prices for Tirana were revised, as a necessity for transaction prices to match the real sale prices of the real estate.

Meanwhile, they did not change for other areas of Albania and the current prices are far from reality. It is about the main tourist areas, such as Durrës, Vlora, Saranda, Shkodra, Pogradeci and other big cities, which should be close to the prices at which these real estate transactions are carried out.

In the law “On income tax”, which also includes personal income tax from the sale of real estate, it is provided that when we sell a house, land, etc., we pay tax on the difference between the new price and the price with which we bought the building. This capital gain is taxed at 15%.

In order to avoid evasion, abuse of contracts and the prices reflected in the contract, some reference prices have been set that are generally based or tend to be based on average market prices.

Therefore, the Ministry of Finance and Economy reasons that it is necessary to make a differentiation related to the age of the property that is being sold.

“If we set reference prices, which are related to the constructions of recent years, this means that the prices of buildings from 10 or more years ago cannot be the same as those built in the last two or three years”, said Lera.

Therefore, he explained, it is clear that the prices of new apartments are higher than the prices of old apartments.

Lera explained that the 1% discount for each year of the apartment’s age has the objective of not harming the income and interests of that part of the population that sells the apartment.

This principle, noted Lera, will be applied throughout Albania./p.s./

Director of the Fiscal Policies Department in the Ministry of Finance and Economy Niko Lera said to ATA that the draft law is being taken up for discussion in the Parliamentary Committee on Economy and Finance. This draft law will regulate the market which is actually deformed.

“Individuals will be taxed according to the progressive rates. All countries are generally taxed in this way. Meanwhile, the self-employed are expected to be taxed on the net profit”, stated Lera./gj.m/r.e/p.s./