Fiscal Amnesty/American Chamber of Commerce: Withdraw! It would damage the country’s reputation

The American Chamber of Commerce in Albania (AmCham) notes serious concerns over the draft law on fiscal amnesty, recently proposed by the Ministry of Finance and Economy. Although the new act has some changes from the previous government initiative undertaken in 2020, these changes are not substantial enough to change the risks raised by it and other international partners, such as the IMF and the European Commission. For this reason, the position of the American House, based on the technical opinion of the Committees’ experts, is as follows: 1. The provisions of this draft law do not provide guarantees that individuals with serious criminal activities such as drugs, human trafficking, money laundering are exempted from amnesty. 2. The implementation of the amnesty will bring unfair competition, favoring individuals with past illegal activities, through three different situations: a. Avoiding the consequences of the judicial system; b. Investing funds through illegal channels in the formal economy; c. Paying a lower tax rate (5-10%) compared to those involved in legal activities, which currently stands at a total rate of 32%. Consequently, these situations will reduce tax compliance in Albania in the future. 3. Albania’s position in international monitoring programs on prevention and money laundering will worsen. Given that Albania is on the Moneyval gray list of money laundering and prevention, the implementation of this amnesty at these moments when Albania is still working to increase and strengthen monitoring structures will bring a storm of the informal economy. Our main concern is that the approval of this draft law would jeopardize Albania’s official position in the international arena, jeopardizing the EU membership process. Therefore, if this draft does not receive the public support of international partners, including public guarantees from monitoring organizations such as Moneyval, IMF, etc., the Chamber considers that this initiative will be a step in the wrong direction, which would damage the country’s reputation for doing business with international partners and would reduce the possibility to attract foreign investments in the country. As a conclusion, the American Chamber of Commerce in Albania states that the risks of the new draft law significantly exceed its benefits and recommends the withdrawal of this initiative.

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