Albania launches new strategy to combat informal labour market

The General Directorate of Taxation has unveiled its primary objective for the 2024-2028 strategy: tackling informality in the labour market. The initiative, also integrated into the Medium-Term Revenue Strategy approved by the Council of Ministers, will focus on reducing undeclared labour, addressing wage underreporting, ensuring accurate reporting of working hours, and verifying job categories and professions.

Why is this important:  Sectors with historically low-declared wages, including construction, tourism, hospitality, and online trade, are now under scrutiny. Informality in these industries undermines fair competition, deprives the state of considerable tax revenues and has serious social consequences.

Recent progress: Since October, efforts to combat the “grey market” have already achieved significant results. Tax authorities report that over 37,000 businesses have raised employee salaries following awareness campaigns. Meanwhile, 7,000 high-risk entities are undergoing tax audits for suspected underreporting.

During December alone, 78% of businesses corrected payroll discrepancies after being warned. In cases of noncompliance, fines totalling ALL 6.1 million were issued.

Focus on high-net-worth individuals: The strategy also targets high-net-worth individuals to ensure they meet their tax obligations. Specialized control units will monitor compliance, supported by robust data analysis to understand why some businesses fail to meet tax requirements.