Refund

The taxable persons registered for VAT, resulting with an excess credit over 400,000 ALL, are eligible to apply for reimbursement of the VAT to the Department of VAT at the General Directorate of Taxes. This request is made according to the approved form "Request for reimbursement of VAT" (online, as well as officially at the Directorate of VAT refunds to the General Directorate of Taxes).

The VAT Refund Department at the General Directorate of Taxes, in cooperation with the Regional Directorate of Taxes where the taxpayer is registered, verifies the taxpayer's tax situation and approve the credit balance as refundable. If after the audit, the request for refund is entirely or partly refused, the taxable person for the refusal of the request, even for the partial one, is notified from the regional directorate of taxes with a tax assessment notice act as defined by the Law no. 9920, dated 19.5.2008, "On tax procedures in the Republic of Albania".

The right of the taxpayer to request the refund of the credit balance expires after 5 years from the date of submission of tax declaration, set out in the relevant tax legislation.

I. The refund for non-exporters taxpayers (legal criteria that must be met: the deductible VAT over 400,000 ALL, carrying for three consecutive periods).

The VAT refunds are made within 60 days from the date of application via the Treasury system, according to the rules defined in the Guidance of the Minister of Finance. The request for refund is subject to the normal procedure of reimbursement, subject to reimbursement risk analysis.

II. Refunds to the exporter taxpayers (legal criteria that must be met: the deductible VAT over 400,000 ALL):

1. The exporter taxpayers or the taxable persons for the re-export of the non-Albanian goods under the inward processing procedure in the Republic of Albania, which meet the following conditions:

• The value of exports carried out during the taxable period/s, for which is required the refund is more than 70% of the total sales, including exports;
• Have exporting activity over 1 year;
• Present document as proof of the performed export the customs export declaration, issued according to the customs legislation of the Republic of Albania;
• Do not have unpaid social security contributions and health care.

Are automatically refunded within 30 days from the date of application for refund of VAT, as person with zero risk.

2. The exporter taxpayers, the exporting value of which, carried out during the taxable period/s for which is requested the refund, constitutes more than 50% to 70% of total sales, including exports, are reimbursed within 30 days from the date of application for the refund of VAT, subject to earlier risk analysis procedure. From risk analysis may result that the taxpayer shall be subject to the tax audit process. However, the whole procedure, including the inspection, is completed within 30 days from the date of application. In contrary, within 30 days from the date of application for the refund of VAT, the refunds are carried out by the Treasury system.

3. All other taxable persons who carry out exports, but do not fall under paragraphs 1 and 2 as for the above, are refunded within 60 days from the date of application for refund, subject to the risk analysis procedure.

In case of non-refund of the approved amount for reimbursement, the taxable person is entitled to non-payment the other tax liabilities in the amount of the VAT claimed for reimbursement.

If a refund, which shall be completed by the tax administration is not made within the above terms, the tax administration shall pay the default interests for the overpaid amount, as follows:

• when an overpaid amount is credited against another tax liability, the default interests are paid from the date of the overpaid payment up to the term of payment of the tax, against which is made the crediting.
• when an overpaid amount is reimbursed, the default interest is paid for the period from 30 days after the overpaid payment up to the performing the refund.