Most businesses operate without fiscal charges

Most of the businesses operating on the Kosovo market have not yet responded to the call of competent institutions to be equipped with fiscal crates. Even though this process started a decade ago, according to official data, it turns out that not half of them were taxed.

In the Ministry of Trade and Industry, specifically at the Business Recording Agency, about 200,000 businesses are registered. So far, the fiscalisation process has completed about 33 thousand businesses with over 42 thousand fiscal electronic devices.

Equipment with fiscal crates of business subjects had begun as a process in 2010, and the goal was to avoid tax evasion, as the potential of this system is to register all entrances and exits (s).

Kosovo Tax Administration Director-General Ilir Murtezaj says that in the overall figure of registered businesses, even extinct businesses still figure out. According to ATK data, Murtezaj says there are over 88 thousand taxpayers.

It also estimates over 30,000 physical persons.

He says the fiscalisation process will be the priority tax administration for 2020, so that this equal treatment for all businesses.

This number of about 33 thousand taxpayers is the huge and medium-sized share of business. And the rest that are left without fiscalization are small-class businesses. However, as it may be, we will implement the entire law and force all those responsible to fiscalise, because there are such taxpayers that the law does not owe them fiscalism, unless they use willing money”, Murtezaj said.

Trade and Industry Ministry officials also confirm that extinct businesses do not leave the business register.

Bajram Shala, spokesperson for the Ministry of Trade and Industry, in a response to Radio Free Europe, said the total number of extinct businesses is over 25 thousand. Of this number, it was only last year that their business activity was banned by some 1800 businesses.

Experts on economic issues consider that the use of fiscal crates affects the growth of informal economy and tax evasion.

Leke Musa, an expert on economic issues, in a proposal for Radio Free Europe, says the lack of these equipment reflects on the lack of financial transparency and at the same time creates unfair competition on the Kosovo market.

This problem is multidimensional, it's not only about fiscal cash equipment, but it's about the issue of fair reporting of businesses for their incomes and circulation, which should then be related to the due tax payments, which belongs to business”, Musa said.

In ongoing local and international reports, it notes that the illegal economy in Kosovo constitutes more than 30 percent gross domestic product, translated into numbers, is around 1.8 billion euros annually.

In the event of not installing fiscal electronics, according to the Law for Kosovo Tax Administration, each person is subject to an administrative punishment of a thousand euros for any such violation.