After the tax on the free professions, the fees for medical services and psychologists increase by 15%-100%

After the change in taxation for free professions, the fees for receiving services from psychologists near the courts and for medical checkups in private clinics will increase.

The tightening has begun to be implemented in some sporadic cases, but other free professions, such as lawyers and accountants, claim that within the year this massive change in fees is expected from the imposition of income tax.

Lawyer Përparim Caca claimed for "Monitor" that there are already concrete cases of increased fees by psychologists near the courts. According to him, the increase ranges from 15 to 20%.

"It is already a fact that in some cases the citizens are paying more for the service of the psychologist in court sessions than they paid last year. The fee to the psychologist for an expert report from 50,000 ALL costs 57,500 due to the implementation of the income tax from January 1, 2024, respectively at the rates of 15 and 23%. According to Përparim Caca, there is expected to be a tightening of the fees from 20 to 30% for lawyers.

Eglantina Nikollaj, a psychologist registered in the electronic registry of the Ministry of Justice, claimed that so far, to her knowledge, she has not come across cases of changing fees, but she emphasizes that their increase is inevitable.

"The trend of increasing service fees from psychologists will be inevitable due to the change of tax in free professions from 0 to 15-23% rates. The increase will be billed to the citizens", she asserts.

At the beginning of this year, the fees were also tightened in the medical services provided by some private clinics.

Medical check-ups with a fee of 1,000 ALL have been increased to 2,000 (100% increase). Checkups with a fee of 3,000 ALL have reached 4,000 ALL (increase of about 34%) and medical visits of 4,000 ALL have reached 5,000 ALL (increase of 25%).

Romina Radonshiqi, lecturer in economic sciences, said that freelancers are faced with a dilemma whether to increase prices or reduce profit margins from the activity they perform. Already, according to her, some of the freelancers have started increasing the prices of goods and services, creating dissatisfaction among Albanian citizens.

"The increase in prices will affect the budget of Albanian families, putting financial health in difficulty in conditions where our country has a high level of cost of living due to the level of the average salary and the increase in prices for basic products.

Also, the increase in prices will reduce the demand for the activities of free professionals where some of them may end up closing the activity or think of leaving the country and offering their services abroad", she underlines.

The implementation of the progressive tax with the tax rates of 15% and 23% for the self-employed, natural persons and traders of self-employed services started on January 1, 2024. The legal changes encountered opposition from many associations for the self-employed, such as the Institute of Accountants of Approved by the National Chamber of Advocacy, which called the law unconstitutional and discriminatory, as it does not apply to all businesses.

In December, the decision approved by the Council of Ministers was published in the official journal with the list of free professions services that will be included in the new taxation, including 26 types of activities starting from IT service, accounting, lawyers, education, doctors, real estate, news agencies, employment agencies, sports, tour operators, etc.

The 15% tax for the first tier of businesses with annual income up to ALL 14,000,000 per year is calculated on the profit, after deducting the fixed expenses not declared in the accounting in the amount of 30%, including the income from the minimum wage, to the total income yearly.

The other category of businesses that are included in the annual income over ALL 14 million have the obligation to declare their annual expenses to the tax administration, unlike the first category, which are recognized as fixed or unaccounted expenses at the rate of 30%. After deducting the expenses declared in the tax administration, the profit of this category will be taxed at the tax rate of 23%.

In total, according to the Ministry of Finance and Economy, up to 29,000 self-employed businesses will be included in the new tax regime. MFE calculates that up to 90% of the total businesses (divided according to 3 categories, such as: self-employed, natural persons and traders) are included in the band of annual income up to 14 million ALL per year that will be taxed at a rate of 15%./ Monitor