New bill obliges businesses to open bank accounts

New bill obliges businesses to open bank accounts

By channelling every financial transaction in the banking system, financial experts are trying to reduce the use of cash in the economy

Up until now, they have not been legally obliged and this has led to many transactions that businesses carried out to in cash. However, from now on, the majority of them will be obliged to open a bank account. This will be made possible thanks to a new bill proposed by the minister of Economy and Finance. According to this bill, a business with an annual turnover exceeding the 2 million lek, will need to open a bank account, otherwise it will face penalties. 

This will also apply to all non-profit organizations which have registered and conduct financial transactions, despite the fact that they make no profits. “Physical persons registered for Value Added Tax, legal persons and non profit organizations are obliged to have a bank account of the registered business or organization”, article 1 of this draft says. Meanwhile, article 2 states that all those businesses which do not have a bank account for the transactions that they carry out, are subject to penalties. But how much will these penalties amount to?

“Businesses with an annual turnover higher than 8 million lek will face a 50 thousand lek penalty. Legal persons, regardless of the turnover, and physical persons with annual turnover higher than 8 million lek will be subject to a 100 thousand lek penalty. Non-profit organizations will face a penalty amounting to 75 thousand lek”, the draft in question says. Meanwhile, according to this bill “if the entity still doesn’t have a bank account after being fined, then the fine that the entity will face will be double the amount of the first fine”.  This goes to show the importance of channelling every financial transaction that a business conducts in the banking system, however small that business might be.