Taxes for foreign residents

• Permanent home

  You have a permanent place of residence (vendbanim i qëndrueshëm) in Albania during the tax year.

• 183 days

  You are in Albania for 183 days or more in a calendar year. Days of entry and exit count as days in the country.

• Place of business or habitual residence

  You have a shop, office or other place of work in Albania, or you habitually live here. Exception — if all year your only permanent home is abroad.

• Centre of vital interests

  Your close personal or economic ties are in Albania: family, work, business, property.

• Salary: annual base up to 2 040 000 LEKRoughly up to 170 000 LEK of taxable base per month13%
• Salary: base above 2 040 000 LEKOn the part above the threshold23%
• Entrepreneur (sole trader, self-employed): turnover up to 14 million LEKRelief until 31.12.2029 (Article 69)0%
• Entrepreneur: profit up to / above 14 million LEKGeneral scale if the relief doesn’t apply15% / 23%
• Dividends8%
• Other investment incomeRent, interest, sale of property and securities15%

1. 1The personal income tax return (DIVA) is filed online in the e-Filing system of the tax administration (DPT); you log in with your e-Albania account.
2. 2The tax administration requires a return if your gross annual income exceeds 1.2 million LEK, if you work for two employers, or if you have more than 50 000 LEK of income from which nobody withheld tax: rent from a private individual, income from abroad and so on.
3. 3If your income is lower, it is still worth filing a return to claim the deductions for children and education.
4. 4Foreign tax paid abroad can be credited against Albanian tax (Article 25) if you have an official certificate from the other country’s tax authority. The credit cannot exceed the Albanian tax on the same income and is calculated separately for each country.
5. 5Tax due under the return is paid at a bank using the payment order generated by the system. Late payment incurs a fine and interest.

How to fill in the sections of the return — DPT e-Filing guide (in Albanian). To credit foreign tax, the certificate from abroad usually needs to be legalised and translated.

• Albania has treaties with more than 40 countries, but Ukraine is not among them — list of Albania’s treaties (PwC, secondary source). Albania is also absent from the list of Ukraine’s treaties in force that the State Tax Service circulates to tax offices every year.
• What this means: there are no rules deciding which country taxes the income if both consider you a resident, and no reduced rates on dividends or interest.
• Albania can credit tax paid in Ukraine even without a treaty (Article 25 of Law № 29/2023) if you have a certificate from the Ukrainian tax authority.
• Ukraine, however, credits foreign tax only under an international treaty ratified by the Verkhovna Rada (subpara. 170.11.2 of the Tax Code of Ukraine). So tax paid in Albania cannot be credited in Ukraine.
• If both countries consider you a resident, your income may be taxed twice. Before moving long-term, decide which country you will be resident in and consult a tax adviser.

• Under the code, registration as a FOP (a Ukrainian sole proprietor) or self-employed person is sufficient grounds to consider you a resident of Ukraine. The same applies to your family’s permanent place of residence.
• A Ukrainian tax resident declares foreign income by 1 May of the following year and pays 18% personal income tax and 5% military levy by 1 August. Tax paid in Albania is not credited, since there is no treaty.
• A non-resident cannot be a single tax payer (subpara. 291.5.7 of the Tax Code of Ukraine). If you lose Ukrainian residence status, the simplified tax system will no longer work for your FOP.
• Meanwhile, Albania may consider you its resident based on 183 days or a permanent home and require you to declare worldwide income, including from your FOP.
• Official clarifications on residence and a certificate of Ukrainian tax residence status can be requested from the State Tax Service of Ukraine (via its Electronic Cabinet). How a Ukrainian FOP’s income will be taxed in Albania — check with the Albanian tax administration or a licensed accountant.

• A resident includes salary from a foreign company in the annual return and pays tax on it at the 13% / 23% scale.
• If you are registered in Albania as self-employed and more than 80% of your income comes from one client (or 90% from fewer than three), the tax administration may treat it as salary. The rule does not apply if all clients are Albanian non-residents with no presence here (Article 12).
• For Digital Nomad permit holders (the «digital mobile worker» permit), the 2023 amendments to Law № 25/2022 on start-ups (Law № 36/2023) provide that for 12 months such a worker is not considered an Albanian tax resident. We were unable to verify the final text and how it is applied, so check with the DPT before doing your calculations.
• After those 12 months, the general rules apply: 183 days, a permanent home or centre of vital interests.
• The permit conditions themselves — Digital Nomad residence permit; a bank account for receiving payments — how to open an account.

• Building tax (residential)Of the value at the reference price; collected by the municipality0.05% a year
• Building tax (commercial)0.2% a year
• Rental incomePaid by an individual owner15%
• Sale of propertyPaid by the seller before the deal is registered15% of the gain