Business Avoids Tax Obligations

Of the more than 150 thousand businesses reportedly are registered in Kosovo only about 30,000 are fiscalised.

The process of setting up fiscal crates was launched in 2010, and the goal by the Kosovo Tax Administration was to avoid tax evasion.

Valentina Bytyci Sefa, spokesperson for the Kosovo Tax Administration, tells Radio Free Europe that the fiscalisation project is only one of many projects that ATK implements and that the process is on a good track to implement.

The process of fiscalisation is a permanent process, which connects to presenting new businesses to the market, as well as getting out of the existing ones' market. The number of taxed businesses from 2010 to the present is 27,102, while fiscal equipment operating on the Kosovo Republic market is 35,408”, Sefa-Bytyci suggests.

Government officials had consistently warned of a non-compromy fight against tax evasion. They had declared that as a result of the illegal economy there are millions of euros a year, which are not collected in the state vault.

Meanwhile, various local and international reports had noted that tax evasion in Kosovo amounts to over 30 percent.

The failure of all businesses by representatives of economic associations that protect business interests is reportedly causing uneven competition on the Kosovo market.

The executive director of the American Economic Ode in Kosovo, Arian Zeka, tells Radio Free Europe that the failure to afford fiscal-cart businesses has made it impossible for the state of Kosovo to have a real traffic mirror and to collect all revenues for the state budget.

This, Zeka adds, has been unable to combat the informal economy.

Keeping in mind that only half of the active businesses are equipped with fiscal crates, then of course it damages the economy in creating a situation, where businesses which are fiscally taxed and are disciplined in terms of tax payment, feel more uneven in front of other businesses, which operate without subjecting the same legal obligations”, Zeka points out.

Meanwhile, ATK officials say that if businesses are not taxed, conform fines are imposed. The value of the penalty for non-recognition with fiscal cases is 1,000 euros.

The Kosovo Tax Administration calls on all citizens to present cases when they face non-ficial coupons.

ATK spokeswoman Valentina Sefa-Bytyci says that during the January-June period of this year alone, 192 cases have been reported through the co-operation line, where 85 fines -- worth 92, 820 euros -- were issued.

Meanwhile, the number of cases found through the warning box is 127, while the number of fines for these cases is 86 worth 36,000 euros. / REL