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Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Current employees risk losing their pensions in their old age, as many employers, even in public entities, do not pay social security contributions, causing the stock of debt in this item to increase year after year.
In the 2024 annual report, the General Directorate of Taxes announced that tax debt in the form of unpaid social security reached 24.4 billion lek with an annual increase of 8.4 percent.
The progressive increase in debt to insurance companies is coming in inverse proportion to the commitment of the government, which has undertaken a campaign since last year to combat undeclared work as part of an ongoing reform of the public pension scheme.
While Albanian pensioners have the lowest payments in the Region and well below the subsistence minimum, businesses and public entities increase unpaid insurance liabilities year after year.
Experts from the Social Security Institute claim that unlike other liabilities that the state may incur from non-payment of other taxes, the negative effects of social security debt are multiple. The damage to benefits in monetary value is much greater than the payment made now and, on the other hand, the social consequences that are created for individuals are immeasurable.
In 2014, when the Rama 1 government began work, it found 9 billion lek in unpaid debts from the right-wing government.
With the discovery of this liability and its settlement, a series of rules and laws were adopted with the aim of closing the flow of new debt creation. Recent data shows that the stock of unpaid insurance liabilities between 2014-2024 increased by 171%.
The obligations belong to both public entities and local governments as well as private businesses. If businesses do not pay their employees' obligations on time, their bank accounts are blocked. For state institutions, the situation is different. The bank accounts of water supply companies are difficult to block due to their strategic function in providing services to the public.
Tolerance towards state entities has been "officialized" as the state is assumed to repay its obligations at a later date, after having created the debt.
Changes made to the tax procedure law allow for installment payments of businesses' arrears. However, this practice does not apply to the payment of social security debts.
An installment payment agreement may be concluded for tax liabilities imposed by the tax administration for a tax assessment carried out, according to Article 68, as well as for tax liabilities self-declared by the taxpayer.
"Exceptionally, the tax administration does not enter into an installment payment agreement for a self-declared tax liability by the taxpayer, which has been calculated, or collected, or withheld by him, including social and health insurance contributions," the tax procedures law states./ Monitor
Lini një Përgjigje