Real Numbers. Real Answers.
No "It Depends."

Our professional fee is €250 + VAT. It covers the Articles of Association, the NBC filing, tax registration and your first year of registered address in Tirana. It does not include notary fees or translations if your country of residence requires them — those are third-party costs billed at cost, confirmed before we start. Minimum share capital is 100 ALL, so effectively €1.

For a typical small foreign-owned Albanian company, total annual operating cost runs approximately €1,200–2,600/year: a monthly accounting retainer from ~€100–200/month depending on transaction volume, registered address renewal at ~€100–200/year, and an annual NBC filing fee of roughly €30. A dormant or very low-activity company sits at the bottom of that range.

Yes — a small filing fee paid to the National Business Center (NBC), well under €50. It's included in our €250 fee, so you never pay it separately or see a surprise line item.

Yes. If you sign the Power of Attorney at a notary in Italy, Germany, the UK or elsewhere, that notary sets their own fee — typically €50–150 depending on the country and notary. If documents need apostille or sworn translation into Albanian, that's an additional third-party cost, usually €30–80 per document. We confirm the exact figure for your country before you commit to anything.

3–5 business days, counted from when we receive your signed documents to when the NBC issues your Certificate of Registration and NIPT. Document preparation on our side (Articles of Association, Power of Attorney if remote) typically takes 1–2 days before that.

Yes — 100% remotely. You sign a Power of Attorney at a notary in your own country, send it to us along with a passport copy, and we handle the NBC filing and tax registration in Tirana on your behalf. You don't need to be physically present at any stage of company formation.

(1) Free consultation — we confirm entity type and 0% CIT eligibility. (2) You sign a fixed-fee proposal. (3) We draft the Articles of Association and Power of Attorney; you sign and send a passport copy. (4) We file at the NBC via eAlbania. (5) Within 3–5 days you receive your NIPT and Certificate of Registration by email. See our full process page for the day-by-day breakdown.

It's uncommon because we review everything before filing, but if the NBC raises a query — usually a name-availability conflict or a minor document formatting issue — we correct and re-file at no extra cost. This can add 1–3 business days to the timeline. Name conflicts are checked upfront precisely to avoid this.

0% if annual gross revenue stays under 14,000,000 ALL (≈€140,000) — set by Albanian Law No. 29/2023, running through 31 December 2029. Above that threshold, a flat 15% corporate income tax applies — still well below the EU average of ~21%.

No to both. Albania has a normal tax system: VAT, income tax, social contributions. It is not on the EU or OECD tax-haven blacklist — it's an EU accession candidate country with a transparent legal system. What makes it attractive is a specific, time-limited 0% CIT incentive for smaller companies, codified by law — not a loophole.

No — Albania only taxes what the Albanian company earns. How your home country treats dividends or salary you draw from the company depends on your personal tax residency and any double taxation treaty between Albania and your country. Albania has DTTs with 40+ countries including the USA, Italy, Germany and the UK, which typically reduce double taxation on dividends.

The standard rate is 8%. If your country has a double taxation treaty with Albania, the treaty rate — often 5% — can apply instead, depending on your shareholding percentage and treaty terms. We review treaty eligibility as part of tax planning.

The 0% CIT applies for the tax year in which gross revenue stays under 14,000,000 ALL. If you cross the threshold during the year, the standard flat 15% CIT applies to that year's profit going forward — there's no retroactive penalty on prior years already filed at 0%. We monitor your run-rate monthly so there's no surprise at year-end.

Albania's standard VAT rate is 20% (6% for accommodation services, 0% for exports). VAT registration becomes mandatory once annual turnover exceeds 10,000,000 ALL (≈€100,000) — below that, registration is optional. Most small consulting or digital companies under the 0% CIT threshold also stay under the VAT threshold.

Monthly VAT declarations are due by the 14th of the following month. We handle the filing as part of our accounting retainer, so the deadline is tracked for you automatically and you receive a confirmation once it's submitted.

Generally no — exports of goods and many B2B services to clients outside Albania are zero-rated or outside the scope of Albanian VAT, similar to the EU reverse-charge mechanism. The exact treatment depends on the type of service and the client's location, so we confirm this specifically for your business model during onboarding.

Yes. There is no requirement for a local Albanian partner, director or shareholder. One foreign individual or company can be the sole founder and sole shareholder of an Albanian SHPK, regardless of nationality.

Yes, with no restrictions beyond standard documentation. Albania and the USA have a double taxation treaty. US citizens register, sign and operate exactly as any other foreign founder — passport copy and address proof are sufficient. No visa or travel is required to register.

Digital services, IT consulting and remote-delivered consulting see the strongest fit, because they typically stay comfortably under the €140K revenue threshold while serving international clients. Trading, hospitality and manufacturing also register here, though they more often exceed the threshold and pay the 15% flat rate. We assess your specific revenue model before recommending a structure.

From you: a clear passport scan, your chosen company name (we check availability first), a short description of the business activity, and your country/address of residence. We prepare everything else: Articles of Association, Power of Attorney (if registering remotely), and the full NBC filing package.

A Power of Attorney (POA) lets us act on your behalf in Albania — signing at the notary, filing at the NBC — without your physical presence. You'll need one if registering remotely. We draft the POA, you visit a local notary in your country to sign it (in most EU countries this takes under 30 minutes), and you send us the signed, apostilled copy. We tell you exactly which notary process applies in your specific country.

No — company names can be in any language and script supported by the NBC's Latin-alphabet system, including English or Italian. The legal form suffix "SHPK" (Albanian for limited liability company) is appended automatically regardless of the name's language.

Beyond gross salary, employers pay roughly 16.7% in social and health contributions on top, while employees contribute about 11.2% from their gross pay. The average monthly salary in Tirana is around €600; the legal minimum monthly wage is approximately €360.

Yes — a foreign owner can also act as company director and draw a salary, subject to standard Albanian payroll tax and social contributions. This is a separate decision from how dividends are taxed, and the optimal split between salary and dividends depends on your personal tax residency. We model this for you as part of tax planning.

Yes — several Albanian banks open accounts for foreign-owned SHPKs. Opening the account itself typically requires you (or an authorised representative) to be physically present at the bank for identity verification, which is a separate step from the company registration. The process generally takes 3–4 weeks once the company is registered, including the bank's own due diligence.

Several established Albanian banks — including subsidiaries of Italian and Western European banking groups operating locally — have established procedures for foreign-owned SHPKs. We point you toward the banks that work best for your specific nationality and business activity, and help prepare the documentation package the bank requires.

It's technically possible for some transactions, but in practice an Albanian bank account is needed for routine operations — paying local taxes, payroll and the registered address provider, and for the bank reconciliation your monthly bookkeeping requires. We strongly recommend opening one early in the process.

Yes — Albanian companies must keep proper accounting records and file annual (and often monthly) returns, even at 0% CIT. Our monthly retainers start from ~€100–200/month and cover bookkeeping, VAT declarations and annual statutory filing, so you stay compliant without tracking deadlines yourself.

Yes — every Albanian company must declare its ultimate beneficial owner(s) to the Beneficial Ownership Registry (RTEË) within statutory deadlines after registration, and update the filing whenever ownership changes. This is a standard EU-aligned AML requirement, not specific to foreign owners. We handle this filing as part of company formation and keep it updated as part of compliance retainers.

Each year: an annual financial statement filed with the NBC, an annual CIT return (even at 0%), and — if VAT-registered — ongoing monthly or quarterly VAT declarations. Beneficial ownership filings are updated only when ownership actually changes, not annually by default.

Late VAT or CIT filings typically incur fixed administrative penalties from the Albanian tax authority, plus interest on any unpaid tax. Penalties are modest compared to most EU jurisdictions but accumulate if ignored. This is exactly why we track every client's deadlines proactively under our monthly retainer rather than reactively.

Albania's 0% CIT under €140K revenue beats Bulgaria's flat 10% and Romania's flat 16% (Romania has a restricted micro-enterprise regime that can lower this). Registration takes 3–5 days in Albania versus several weeks in both countries, and average labour costs in Albania are typically lower than in Romania.

North Macedonia and Serbia both apply a flat 10% corporate income tax with no equivalent to Albania's 0% small-company incentive. Albania additionally holds EU accession candidate status and a coastal location adjacent to Italy, which several clients cite as a logistical advantage for trade with Western Europe.

Malta's statutory rate is 35% (reduced to an effective ~5% via a refund mechanism, but this requires more complex structuring and ongoing compliance). Cyprus applies a flat 12.5% CIT. Both require deeper substance and higher running costs than Albania's straightforward 0%/15% structure, and registration in both typically takes longer than Albania's 3–5 days. Albania suits simpler structures better; Malta/Cyprus can suit specific holding-company or EU-passporting needs — we're happy to talk through which fits your situation.

Yes — Albania has signed double taxation treaties with over 40 countries, including Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom, the USA, France, Switzerland, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Poland and Turkey. These treaties typically reduce withholding tax on dividends, interest and royalties paid out of Albania. We check your specific treaty eligibility as part of tax planning.