Albania: VAT Reimbursement Procedure Directive

Erion Lena

The reimbursement of VAT has been a known concern for businesses in Albania. Many Albanian companies have a considerable amount of refundable VAT still un-reimbursed by the tax offices. The Ministry of Finance with Directive no.6 dated February 27 2014 (published in Official Gazette No. 27 dated March 10 2014) aimed at giving a solution to this problem and eliminating delays in the VAT reimbursement which lead to financial problems for the companies and the economic environment in general. Thus, the Ministry of Finance has amended the existing rules stipulating that "VAT reimbursement shall be performed directly by the Treasury system of the Ministry of Finance, a task which until now was performed by the tax authorities".

The reimbursement procedure commences with a predefined request for VAT reimbursement which includes the necessary identification data of the taxable entity, the bank account and a brief description of the activity, the reasons for the requested VAT reimbursement, the period during which the refundable VAT arised, as well as whether the request for reimbursement is being filed for the first time or not. If the taxable person seeking reimbursement of VAT is an exporter, it should be clearly stated in the submitted application.

The Regional Tax Directorate, upon the receipt of the reimbursement claim, files the claim in the protocol registry within the next day and records it in a special register for VAT reimbursements.

This record is held by an employee of Regional Tax Directorate, designated as the person responsible for maintaining and managing the register of reimbursements by the Regional Tax Director. The employee responsible for the maintaining and administering the protocol registry for reimbursement performs and completes the preliminary verification process to the application for reimbursement within three working days from the date of registration in the reimbursement register.

In case when the preliminary verification process of the application for reimbursement can establish that the criteria are fulfilled, the application shall be deemed accepted. In this case, the employee in charge delivers the notice to the relevant branch of the Treasury through the postal service (electronic and hard copy) within two working days from the completion of the verification process.

The responsible body of the Treasury records the case in a special register within the next working day from the receipt of the notice of the Regional Tax office. The person in charge in the Treasury also takes measures to ensure the necessary liquidity to guarantee the payment of the amount for reimbursement by the Regional Tax Office within 30 days from the date of the request for reimbursement if the entity is classified as exporter, or within 60 days from the date of filing the request for reimbursement for all other taxable entities.

The procedure set out in this regulation will be applicable to all VAT reimbursement claims filed in the regional tax protocol after January 1 2014.

Erion Lena (erion.lena@eurofast.eu)

Eurofast Global, Tirana Office

Tel: +355 69 533 7456

Website: www.eurofast.eu