The Minister of Finance reported to the Laws Committee that it was about forgiving debts over 10 years old and creating opportunities for managing newer debts through voluntary agreements. The opposition raised questions about the project, accusing the government of forgiving abusive fines on small businesses.
The Albanian government plans to forgive taxpayers' arrears in taxes and customs and to conclude 'peace' agreements for self-declarations through the "Fiscal Peace" initiative provided for in the financial laws accompanying the draft budget for 2026.
"Fiscal peace" comes through two draft laws, "On the cancellation, extinguishment and payment of tax liabilities to the central tax administration and of duties payable to customs" and "On the Fiscal Peace Agreement".
Finance Minister Petrit Malaj, during his report on Monday to the Laws and Public Administration Committee, said that the process was not a "fiscal amnesty", but an improvement in relations between taxpayers and the tax administration.
"We are not undertaking a fiscal amnesty, through fiscal peace we do not forgive any criminal liability and we do not guarantee anyone who is under investigation or judicial processes," he said, adding that the forgiveness aims to close the chapter on old, prescribed debts.
The fiscal peace agreement will be voluntary and will extend from 2026 to 2028 and aims, according to the minister, " to correct and increase regular business declarations and foresees an escalation in tax rate reductions ."
According to him, the agreement offers an escalation in tax rate reductions. While the "peace" is being prepared, the minister said that the administration is continuing to forcefully collect tax liabilities, even to the point of confiscation, freezing of bank accounts and sale of assets.
The full cancellation of liabilities will only be made for those debts that have been unpaid for over 10 years. For liabilities that belong to the period from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2019, taxpayers can benefit from partial cancellation on the condition that they pay 50% of the liability by June 30, 2026. Whoever pays 75% of the liability by December 31, 2026 in monthly installments, the remaining 25% is automatically canceled.
Fines and late payment interest for the relevant periods are completely waived for all categories. According to the minister, unpaid obligations over 10 years constitute 20% of the debt, while obligations from 5 to 10 years constitute almost half of the debt, 45% of the total. The draft law report provides an analysis of the debt situation until December 2024, according to which it results that there are 202,387 taxpayers in debt with unpaid tax obligations, in the amount of 162 billion lek.
Government data shows that unpaid tax liabilities over 10 years amount to 29.6 billion lek, from 5 to 10 years, to 75.1 billion lek, and from 0 to 5 years, to 57.8 billion lek.
According to the report, the amnesty will not include social security and health insurance contribution obligations. For contributions, only the cancellation of fines and late payment interest accrued until December 31, 2014 is determined.
Opposition MPs raised questions about how the pardon would include cases that are in court proceedings with the tax administration and criticized the socialist government's behavior towards small businesses. "The government has had fiscal peace with big business because those who have casinos or yachts are tax-free, but these fines have accumulated with small traders," said DP MP Gent Strazimiri.
According to him, "arbitrary fines" are actually being forgiven and he claimed that out of 202,000 taxpayers, there are no large taxpayers. /BIRN/
