For some experts, the proposed initiative to cancel tax debts over 10 years aims to clean up the records and ease the burden on businesses. Other auditors raise concerns about fiscal justice and the possibility of benefiting from it only by large businesses that have avoided the system. Unpaid tax liabilities over 5 years by 2024 have reached Euro 1 billion.

The initiative announced by the government was called "Fiscal Peace", which provides for the cancellation of tax liabilities accumulated for more than 10 years and the partial cancellation of 5 to 10-year liabilities, has opened a debate among experts about the chances of benefiting businesses and the effects on the fiscal system.

For some auditors and business experts, the proposed initiative aims to relieve debtor entities with debts over 10 years old that could serve to formalize them; but also to clear uncollectible liabilities, which, although they appear in the Tax Registry, in reality have little chance of being collected.

"Almost half of the businesses registered in the Central Bank are passive. Many of them have liabilities that date back more than a decade, for which all legal deadlines for forced collection have passed. This stock of liabilities will never be collected," says economics expert Arben Shkodra.

He emphasized that these obligations remain in the system as a “hammer over the head” for individuals who have failed in business, often due to the very penalizing climate that has characterized the relationship with the state.

Bujar Bendo, a legal auditor and accounting expert, also shares the same position. “From an accounting point of view, obligations that have remained in tax records for more than 10 years are uncollectible debts. They no longer have real value and only burden the balance between the state and business.” He emphasizes, among other things, that this initiative has long been requested by the business community itself and can serve to formalize the hidden economy and return businesses to a passive state from the burden of debts to the system.

According to data published in the 2024-2028 Strategic Plan by the Tax Administration, during 2023, a total of 334,536 taxpayers were registered in the tax register.

This total included a mix of economic entities and individuals, divided into different categories, such as: 31,058 large businesses, 94,545 small businesses, with or without VAT liability, 208,933 other taxpayers, including individuals, non-profit organizations and agricultural producers, 34,895 VAT declarants, as well as 33 entities that have benefited from electronic services during the year.

However, during 2023, about 45% of taxpayers, or 152,179 entities, were in the passive register, of which 12,341 had switched during this year.

Of these, 8,479 taxpayers have become inactive through the suspension of activity at the Central Tax Office, and 3,862 through automatic procedures based on non-declaration or declarations without activity for more than 12 consecutive months. The process of updating the passive register is carried out every day, and the data is accessible to tax administration structures.

According to Bendo, if the initiative is implemented properly, it can help in the “liberation” of taxpayers who have become invisible due to the inability to repay their obligations.

For legal auditor Julian Saraçi, repeated amnesties have had numerous negative impacts on the country’s fiscal system. He points out that, according to data, over 40% of debts written off during the period 2015-2019 belonged to inactive entities or those operating informally.