The unnecessary trouble behind Agron Shehaj’s property "filings"

Agron Shehaj is making things hard for himself. He keeps changing the story about an Italian villa he bought for €2.9 million and says he sold for €15 million. One day he changes the size of the villa; the next day, he changes its location. Meanwhile, he gets angry at anyone who asks about his wealth.

He should calm down. Albania has an official agency for asset declarations. By law, he must scan and submit his actual purchase and sale contracts there, not just speak from memory. It is that simple. If he has not filed them, he is breaking the law. However, he still has time to fix this and submit the documents. Once he does, the debate ends immediately.

Let’s look at his public statements. In a confusing attempt to justify the price, he keeps jumping between different numbers—claiming 250 square meters one moment, and 500 the next. He does not need to justify the price. If he really sold it for €15 million, good for him. We don't need a floor plan to check a property sale. The house could be 100 square meters or 1,000; the sale price is simply what the buyer paid. What the authorities actually need are the official documents proving the sale and showing that the tax on the profit was paid.

Under Italian law, if you sell a property within five years of buying it, you must pay tax on the profit. The Italian state usually applies either a fixed 26% tax or standard income tax rates. The difference between his purchase and sale price is roughly €12.1 million. At a 26% tax rate, he would owe about €3.1 million in taxes.

Shehaj does not need to argue with politicians or fight with journalists, who bring up this issue. He simply needs to show the official receipts proving he paid his taxes under Italian law. That single step would end the whole debate.

If he cannot show those records, serious questions will be asked in Italy. And if the documents he filed in Albania do not match the real Italian documents, he faces serious legal problems at home as well.

Filming videos in his car or walking around Surrel won't help him. The only thing that will prove he is right is filing the legally required paperwork and proving he paid his taxes. Official documents leave no room for doubt.

Without them, public suspicion will only grow. Since Shehaj loves checking the wealth of every other businessman in Albania, he should start by showing his own. He needs to prove that he followed both Italian and Albanian law. Once his own documents are clear, he can go right back to spending his millions and filming his videos in peace.

Originally published in Albanian as: Spiralja e panevojshme ku po zhytet Agron Shehaj me “deklaratat” e pasurisë