Secretariat of Investment Council discusses in a focus group meeting preliminary findings on VAT Refund

On 7 November 2016, in the premises of the Ministry of Economic Development, Tourism, Trade and Entrepreneurship (MEDTTE), IC Secretariat held a focus group meeting with fiscal experts and representatives from the business community in the framework of the analysis “On VAT Refund” which will be presented in the upcoming IC Meeting of 23 November 2016.

Present in the meeting were fiscal experts, representatives of Albanian public institutions such as MEDTTE, Ministry of Finance, General Tax Directorate, Business Associations representing exporting and apparel (cut-and-trim) companies, businesses met by the Secretariat.

The purpose of the meeting was the discussion of the preliminary findings on the subject based also on the results of the online survey conducted by the Secretariat as well as assessment of the recommendations produced by the analysis. Some of the concerns raised during the meeting were related mainly to the tax audit and having the deadlines met with the objective to increase the confidence of the business in GTD. Meanwhile, it was emphasised that due to the dynamics of the legal changes remains a challenge the education of the businesses in complying with the system. In addition, some further recommendations were raised by specialists on the implementation of the automatic VAT refund, such as increasing the base of individual taxpayers as well as a higher transparency in the procedures of VAT refund.

During the meeting, it was agreed that the Secretariat will reflect the stakeholders’ comments in the consolidated material to be presented at the IC Meeting to be held on 23 November 2016 and monitor implementation of the respective recommendations.