EOR or SHPK in Albania: which route suits your first hires?

Choosing between an EOR or SHPK in Albania starts with what the company will do there. If the only Albanian activity is employing people who work for your existing business, an employer of record covers the employment side without a company. If you plan to sell to Albanian customers, sign local contracts or invoice in lek, a shoqëri me përgjegjësi të kufizuar (SHPK, the Albanian limited liability company) is the vehicle built for that.

Many foreign firms arrive with a mix of both aims and a vague timetable. A software house might hire three developers in Tirana this year and only consider Albanian clients in two or three years. A logistics company might need a sales office in Durrës from day one. The first case leans towards an EOR; the second leans towards a company, because it must hold contracts and a lease in its own name, and payroll is the smaller part of that.

Timing is the third factor. A candidate who has accepted an offer for the first of next month cannot wait while a company is formed, a bank checks its foreign shareholders and an accountant sets up payroll. With an employer of record those company steps fall away, so the start date depends mostly on the notice the candidate owes their current employer, between two weeks and three months under the Albanian scale. Plans that depend on a specific person starting soon tend to favour the EOR at least for the first months.

Keep the two questions apart when you decide. Employment cost is almost identical under both routes, as the next sections show. What differs is administration, fixed cost, flexibility and what each structure lets the business do beyond employing.

An SHPK is formed under Law No. 9901/2008 on Entrepreneurs and Commercial Companies, and the law asks for share capital of just ALL 100 (about €1.09), a token sum. Registration goes to the National Business Centre (QKB) through the e-Albania portal, and QKB normally completes it within one working day of a complete application.

Registration is the quick part. The company then receives its tax identification number (NIPT) through QKB, its beneficial owners must be entered in the beneficial-ownership register, and it needs a bank account in Albania, because salaries can only be paid through the banking system under Article 118 of the Labour Code. Opening that account is often the slowest step for foreign owners, since banks run their own identity checks on shareholders and directors.

Before the first employee starts, the company must declare the hire to the General Directorate of Taxes (DPT) electronically, no later than the day before the start date. From then on it files the monthly listëpagesa (payroll list) and settles the tax and both contributions in one payment, with the 20th of each month as the cut-off for the previous month’s pay. Every Albanian business also has to issue e-invoices and fiscalise its sales, and VAT registration becomes compulsory once turnover passes ALL 10,000,000.

• Company formation with QKB via e-Albania, plus the beneficial-ownership entry.
• NIPT issued through QKB; DPT registration of employees before they start.
• A business bank account for salaries and tax payments.
• An accountant for payroll, e-invoicing and the annual filings.
• Employment contracts drafted under the Labour Code (Law 7961/1995, as amended).

Going the EOR way removes company formation from the plan altogether. The provider signs the Albanian employment contract as employer, declares the start to DPT, files each month’s listëpagesa and transfers the salary to the employee’s bank account. Selecting the candidate, deciding what they work on and reviewing that work all stay in your hands.

The practical effect is that the setup list in the previous section disappears from your side. There is no QKB filing, no NIPT, no Albanian bank account in your name and no accountant to appoint. What remains is an agreement with the EOR and a monthly invoice covering salary, statutory contributions and the service fee. Our plain-English explainer on the EOR model walks through that arrangement in more detail, and the onboarding timeline shows what happens between offer and first payslip.

One thing does not change: the employee’s rights. The contract follows the Albanian Labour Code whichever route you take, so leave, notice, sick pay and dismissal rules are the same. An EOR does not offer a lighter version of Albanian employment law, and an SHPK does not offer a heavier one.

Statutory employment cost is identical under both routes. Whoever signs as employer, 2026 payroll carries the same two employer charges: a 15% social insurance charge that ignores any pay above ALL 186,416 a month, plus 1.7% for health on every lek of salary.

Run the numbers for one well-paid Tirana engineer earning ALL 200,000 monthly, which is ALL 2,400,000 or roughly €26,093 over twelve payments. The employer’s statutory cost comes to ALL 2,776,348.80 a year, roughly €30,184, and the employee takes home ALL 1,881,485.76. Those figures would appear on the payroll of your own SHPK and on an EOR’s payroll alike. The full calculation is in our article on what an Albanian employee costs.

The difference lies in overheads. An EOR charges a fee per person, which in our case begins at €599 a month for each employee: €7,188 a year, about ALL 661,152. With an SHPK you pay for an accountant, payroll processing, statutory filings and the management time spent on them, and those costs exist from the month the company is registered, whether it employs one person or none. Ask an Albanian accountant for a written quote and set it against the EOR fee multiplied by your planned headcount; that comparison is more reliable than any rule of thumb.

An SHPK brings corporate tax obligations that an EOR arrangement does not create for you in Albania. The standard rate is 15%, dividends are taxed at 8%, the annual tax return is due by 31 March and financial statements go to QKB by 31 July.

There is a significant relief for small companies: under Article 69 of Law 29/2023, the corporate tax rate is 0% until 31 December 2029 for any business turning over no more than ALL 14,000,000 a year. A company that exists mainly to employ a few people for its parent may fall within that band, but it still has to keep books, file returns and fiscalise any invoices it issues.

Using an EOR does not settle every tax question about your business. If your staff in Albania negotiate or conclude contracts for you, your company’s own tax position there is a matter for a tax adviser, and that holds with or without an employer of record. Raise it early, before the team grows.

Personal tax is unaffected by the choice. Employees are taxed on gross salary at 13% up to ALL 2,040,000 of annual taxable income and 23% above it, with the same withholding whichever route you pick, so the net pay quoted in an offer does not change if the employer changes later.

An EOR is easier to stop and easier to scale in small steps. Adding a second or third hire means a new contract and a new line on the invoice; ending the arrangement means ending the employment contracts under the Labour Code, with no company to wind up.

Ending employment is the same under both routes. Whether the payslip says SHPK or EOR, the notice scale climbs from two weeks to three months with service, every dismissal goes through Article 144, and a contract ended by the employer after three or more years earns the employee 15 days’ wages or more for each complete year. The severance and notice guide has the detail on each.

A common path in Albania is to begin under an EOR and incorporate later, when headcount or local sales make the fixed costs worthwhile. If you expect to do that, plan the switch with your staff in advance: the new company needs its own contracts, DPT will receive a leaver declaration from the EOR and a new-hire declaration from your SHPK, and you should agree in writing how accrued leave and length of service will be treated so nobody feels the move cost them anything.

Neither route is better in general; each fits a different set of plans. These pointers summarise when each tends to make sense.

• Employing a handful of people, testing the Albanian market, or building a team whose customers are all abroad: these point towards an EOR.
• An EOR also suits a first hire who needs to start before a company could realistically be set up and banked.
• An SHPK tends to fit when you will sign contracts with Albanian customers, issue invoices in lek or hold assets in the country.
• An SHPK becomes easier to justify as headcount grows and its fixed costs are spread across more salaries.
• Neither route changes the Labour Code, the 2026 contribution percentages or the monthly cut-off on the 20th.
• If you are unsure, start by listing what the Albanian operation must sign in its own name over the next two years: leases, customer contracts, supplier accounts. An empty list is a strong hint.

If you are leaning towards an EOR, our EOR checklist for Albania lists what to ask a provider before signing. To talk through your own numbers with Employer of Record Albania, send us the roles and salaries you have in mind; the reply breaks each monthly cost into salary, contributions and fee.