The Albanian Taxpayers’ Perception of the Current Tax System and Its Impact on Informal Economy, Tax Evasion and Tax Avoidance

Abstract

Tax revenues constitute the main source of public expenditure financing. The main problem that the public finances in Albania are facing today is the lack of public revenue to the level that the execution of the public spending requires. This is the result of a still high level of informal economy, tax evasion and tax avoidance. The reforms undertaken by the Albanian governments in the past two decades in order to manage the main factors of the informal economy, tax evasion, and tax avoidance have not had the expected results. Poor performance of the fiscal administration agencies has allowed fiscal policies and strategies approved by governments not to be implemented, thus creating a lot of problems and difficulties with an impact on the reduction of the efficiency of the fiscal system. This paper deals with the perception of the Albanian taxpayer for the current tax system in Albania. It also deals with its impact on the informal economy, tax evasion and tax avoidance. It analyses the main factors affecting the informal economy, tax evasion and tax avoidance, and the perception that Albanian taxpayers have for the current fiscal system. A fiscal system must be effective and perceived as fair in order to encourage voluntary payment of taxes thus bringing increased revenue, reduction of informality, tax evasion and tax avoidance. In order to realize this paper we used questionnaires with focused taxpayers, explaining the techniques of collecting, interpreting and analyzing the data. The paper concludes with the main conclusions of how Albanian taxpayers perceive the current tax system. It also provides recommendations for improving the current fiscal system based on the perception of taxpayers.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2017.v8n1p470