ATK: We have access to the north, but with security problems.

Kosovo Tax Administration Director Sakip Imer has spoken of the achievements, but also the challenges of ATK, saying that the scale of informality is about 31 per cent and remains the main challenge for all of the country's institutions.

The year 2018, says Imer, is one year that has begun well for the Tax Administration and the Government of Kosovo, where of the 48.8m euros projected for January 2018, 51.4 per cent or 5.3 per cent more than the plan have been realised, and 14 per cent more than last year.

He added that in January ATK has realised 2.6m euros more than the plan and 6.1m euros more than the same period last year.

The phase of the informal economy behaves somewhere around 31 per cent that is an assessment of this report, while there is a decline from 34 per cent to 31 per cent, which is considered a good success for lowering informality to the part of the informal economy where the Kosovo Tax Administration is responsible, but the main challenge for all institutions is informality, which I believe will be addressed even with the law for ATK and the” procedures, Imer stressed.

From the time business taxation began, he said that 27,000 and 872 businesses with 36,000 and 625 fiscal electronics have been taxed with 198 fiscal electronics.

According to him, there is also a group of businesses that are not taxed in small small small, small-circumstance businesses, but that ATK is in constant activities that even this group of taxpayers is taxed.

There are about 50,000 businesses in Kosovo that declare and pay taxes, of which there are over 27 thousand businesses that are taxed, part of them do not have the obligation because they issue bills in their midst, but there is a number of small businesses that probably around 10 per cent of businesses that are required to be taxed may not be taxed”, he said.

For ATK's approach to Kosovo's four northern municipalities for the past ten years of state, Imer said 15 Serbian officials within the framework of the Mitrovica Regional Office report, hand in their reports of activities they develop, and there is an effort to have more order and more formalisation in the four northern municipalities of Kosovo. However, he added that there are some problems for the nature of security in that part.

“All Serbian officials develop activities in Mitrovica's Regimental Office, take to work every day, develop activities in businesses mainly in municipalities: Zveqan, Zubin Potok, Leposaviq and in northern Mitrovica. About 14 per cent of the Mitrovica region's businesses are from these four municipalities, as well as over 13 per cent of the revenues are from these four municipalities. Of course there are problems, problems are roughly the same nature, but there is a slightly more specific problem with security activities”, Imer said.

The ATK director has also spoken of the process of reimburseing fiscal coupons, which said it has been a very successful project for both ATK and citizens. He said this process of booking is already under way.

“In June 2017 we have passed into the new form of citizens' repurchasing, so far in the new form of reimbursement, 278 thousand citizens, 3 thousand and 592 we've applied, we've returned 263 thousand and 594 euros, and the total value is over 28 million 593 thousand and 639 euros returned to citizens. There's also a value for this three-month-old, which is verifying and waiting for the next winners to come back to you over the days”, Imer said.

For this period, Imer has said that they have been ruthless even to the activities of fortune games, where he said there have been fines and licenses to exercise illegal activity.

ATK as an institution founded with 30 officials in 2000, has now reached its staff in 2018. Goals for the future, he said, are the fulfillment of pre-work targets, the prevention of informal economy, and the establishment of capacities in meeting the risk.