Low pensions of Albanians in Italy.Diaspora writes to Rama: “It is not fair to cumulate them with other income and tax them”

The Italy-Albania bilateral agreement on pensions, ratified in July 2025 ,is widely considered a major achievement of the two countries to enable Albanian workers in Italy and Italians in Albania to be able to add together contributions paid in the two countries to accrue pension rights. The agreement, managed by INPS (Perugia office) and the Albanian ISSH, allows for the totaling of insurance periods, including old-age and disability pensions, with a minimum of 52 weeks of contributions in Italy. 

But , like all pension regulations, this agreement could not foresee all the consequences of its implementation: the case history on pensions is so varied that it is virtually impossible to know in advance what will happen when the regulations are implemented.

There is always some unintended or even unintended consequence.

This is the case reported by the National Diaspora Association 91-19 ANIAP in a letter sent to the Prime Minister of Tirana, Edi Rama on November 11, 2025.

Under the 'agreement every Albanian is required to include his pension in the annual tax return to be filed in Italy.

But most Albanian migrant pensions amount to very modest amounts, averaging around 1,200 euros per year.100 euros per month!!! 

“In Albania-as Dritan Trimcev of the Diaspora Association explains-these low pensions are not taxed, as they are barely enough to live on. But in Italy, if an Albanian recipient of this paltry pension has other income that exceeds the limit of 8500 euros per year, the Albanian pension is included in the tax base and is taxed like any other income.”. 

A blatantly unreasonable and unjust paradox . In the letter sent to Prime Minister Rama, the Association writes that. 

“These pensions are mainly used when emigrants return to Albania for short periods to cope with a higher cost of living in Italy.”. 

“For this reason,-the Association asks, it would be reasonable for the governments of both countries to consider a new bilateral agreement to exempt these small pensions from taxation, taking into account their social nature and the long-term contribution of our emigrants.”.

A request that through Albanitaly.al we also direct to the Italian government to work with the Albanian government to quickly solve this problem. It would be enough to declare pension income, which in Albania is considered exempt from taxation, as non-taxable in Italy.