On 20 December 2012, following the proposal of the Minister of Finance, the Albanian Parliament approved the 2013 fiscal package amending VAT, Income Tax, Tax Procedures, Customs and Excise Duties laws. The 2013 fiscal package has been published on 09 January 2013 on Official Gazette no. 177, and, shall enter into force on 24 January 2013.
The main amendments consist of the following:
Amendments to the Law On Income Tax:
The following amendments have been made to the Law on Income Tax:
- Indemnities and compensations of court costs ordered by final court decision, and income earned from Government Institutions regarding achievements in science, sports and culture will not be subject to personal income tax.
- For Self-employed persons with an annual turnover of less than 2.000.000 ALL, only 10% of the turnover is considered gross income for the purpose of the declaration of the Personal Income Tax Return.
- Scholarships awarded to students from public of private educational institutions will be considered deductible expenses up to an amount specified by the Council of Ministers on the condition that the above institutions, in the beginning of the academic year, submit to the Ministry of Education and Science the number and amount of scholarships for the academic year.
- If the ownership or voting rights of a legal entity change more than 50% (in value or number) during a fiscal period, than the entity will not have the right to carry forward the fiscal losses in the upcoming fiscal periods.
- Individuals, who have filed the Annual Personal Income Return after September 30th, 2012 and within December 31st, 2012, will not be subject to late filing penalties.
Amendments to the Law on Tax Procedures:
The following amendments have been made to the Law on Tax Procedures:
- The fiscal representatives of non-resident taxpayers will now register and deregister at the respective Regional Tax Directorate, instead of the National Registration Center.
- The penalty for failing to declare new employees within the legal deadlines is increased to 500,000 ALL from 100,0000 ALL for taxpayers registered for VAT and corporate tax Income Tax, and to 250,000 ALL from 50,000 ALL for other taxpayers
Amendments to the Law On VAT
The following amendments have been made to the Law On VAT:
- The supply and import of iron and cement to entities building hydropower stations will be exempted from VAT. The exemption procedure, criteria and the definition of type and quantity will be determined with a Decision of the Council of Ministers of Albania.
- The import of machinery and equipment in order to implement investment contracts with a value of at least 50,000,000 ALL will be a supply exempted from VAT.
- The import of machinery and equipment in order to implement investment contracts in active processing and agribusiness will be a supply exempted from VAT regardless of the investment value.
- Production machinery imported by small business taxpayers for use in their production processes will be a supply exempted from VAT.
Amendments to the Excise Law
The following amendments have been made to the Excise Law:
The excise rate applied to the production of roasted, caffeinated and decaffeinated coffee is 60 ALL/kg, instead of 140 ALL/kg.
Amendments to the Law On Customs Tariffs
The following amendments have been made to the Law On Customs Tariffs:
The customs tariff applied on the import of unroasted caffeinated coffee and unroasted decaffeinated coffee is reduced from 10 % to 0 %.
