Albania to cut tourism VAT

Albania is discussing cutting the Value Added Tax rate on tourism from 20% to 5%.

The plan was announced by the Ministry of the Economy last week. It is seeking to emulated similar incentives to those applied my most of European Union member states. Albania introduced a VAT Law at the start of 2015 which introduced most of the tenants of the EU’s VAT Directive.

Countries such as Ireland have successfully supported and boosted their tourism industries in recent years with VAT cuts. It has been claimed that Ireland’s 9% tourism rate (its standard VAT rate is 23%) has created up to 30,000 jobs in recent years.