The Impact of Covid-19 on Electronic Trade (E- Commerce) and the Resulting Problems in Albanian Taxation

Abstract

Covid-19 radically changed the way of living and working, significantly slowed down the development of economic activity, but on the other hand it caused an increase in e-commerce and the acceleration of the digital transformation. At a time when isolation and quarantine were in effect, businesses and consumers as a form of survival switched to the digital network, offering and buying more goods and services online and thus also increasing the e-commerce activity. Based on statistical data, over 20% of businesses in Albania managed to market their products electronically, thus changing the concept of traditional buyers to online buyers. It is worth noting that all this change in consumer behavior seems to be permanent and not temporary. All this change in the economic life of the country, in the way of doing business, needs fiscal intervention, since in the Albanian market the electronic commerce is being seen as an opportunity to avoid taxes. At the same time, there have been interventions in the fiscal package by setting a settled price range for online purchases coming from abroad. This has been justified as an intervention to protect local business. This paper aims to analyze how Covid-19 accelerated the increase in the convenience of online shopping in Albania, making possible the rapid development of e-commerce activity. The research methodology will be based on a market study in the form of a questionnaire addressed to consumers and aims to identify the factors influencing their online purchases, online payments, digital connectivity, changes to physical purchases, etc. Also, the paper will identify the difficulties and obstacles of the implementation of electronic commerce in Albania in the aspect of the individual and the business, focusing on the problems of today's market.