Expanded meeting on the Law “On the Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information”

The General Directorate of Taxation organized an expanded informational and orientation meeting with representatives from the Association of Banks, second-tier banks, and insurance companies on the practice to be followed in implementing the Law “On the Automatic Exchange of Information on Financial Accounts.” The information to be exchanged includes financial account balances at the end of the reporting year, capital gains (including interest, dividends, rights and income from the sale of financial assets), reported to governments by financial institutions, covering accounts held by individuals and entities including trusts and foundations. The law provides that for the first information exchange only, Financial Institutions (FIs) will report by July 2020, for pre-existing accounts as of 01.01.2019 and new accounts opened from 01.01.2019 to 31.12.2019. Reports from the IFs for subsequent years will be submitted by May. The reporting financial institutions are:

List of reporting entities

• Deposit-taking financial institutions licensed by the Bank of Albania.
• Savings and credit societies licensed by the Bank of Albania.
• Investment entities licensed by the Financial Supervisory Authority.
• Insurance and reinsurance companies licensed by the Financial Supervisory Authority.

Financial institutions, when collecting information, must apply the due diligence rules to identify accounts held by all non-residents, while the process requires:

What does the reporting process require?

• compliance with rules in the collection, reporting, and retention of data by financial institutions,
• IT capabilities to enable the exchange of information,
• Taking measures to ensure a high level of confidentiality and security for the exchanged data.

Within the framework of the “Automatic Exchange of Information” Project, Albania commits to implementing the automatic exchange of financial account information by 2020. This project is based on Law No. 146/2013 of May 6, 2013 “On the Ratification of the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters,’ which in Article 6 provides that countries automatically exchange tax information as well as in the “Multilateral Competent Authority Agreement on Automatic Exchange of Financial Account Information,” signed on October 29, 2014, and approved by Council of Ministers Decision No. 178, dated March 9, 2016. The obligation to exchange information rests with the General Directorate of Taxes (DPT), which will collect the data from financial institutions and automatically exchange it with the other countries that are signatories to the agreement. The DPT will continue consultative meetings with interest groups on the innovations this practice brings, while the technicalities will continue to be discussed until the approval of the relevant sub-legislative acts, within three months of the Law's adoption. Source: General Directorate of Taxes.