Taxing non-existent salaries -- RIDICULOUS!!!

I have a friend who is employed elsewhere and works as a volunteer in a non-profit foundation here in Albania. He is the director and administrator of the foundation, but he receives no (zero, zip, nada) reimbursement from said foundation. Not even expenses -- in fact he often makes donations to the foundation himself from his own pocket because he believes in what the foundation is doing.

Recently said foundation was fined nearly $20,000 dollars in back taxes and fines. But the foundation is scrupulous in their compliance with the law and above reproach in the way they relate to the government. HOW COULD THIS BE?!

Well, it turns out the tax office is insisting that a foundation pay taxes and social security for a paid director/administrator, paid at a rate (minimally) that would cripple many not-for-profit foundations in this country. (Who comes up with a minimum wage nearly 3x the wage paid to any govt employee, including doctors & teachers & etc, anyway?! It only hurts the organizations that are trying to obey the law -- it wipes us out and leaves those who ignore the law as the sole businesses!) And if the director/administrator is not paid (as in the case with my friend, working as a volunteer) then the foundation STILL HAS TO PAY social security and income TAX ON A NONEXISTENT SALARY.

Let's see how this works. IF we had a paid administrator we would be required to pay a minimum wage of 80,000 leke per month. Social security and taxes at the given percentages would come to somewhere around 35,000 leke for that employee. Now we are paying zero leke because my friend volunteers and so the appropriate percentage should be (hmmm... let me work on those calculations) ZERO. But instead the tax office is demanding 35,000 leke! That tax bill, in and of itself, is more than the wages a fully qualified doctor receives in a state hospital!

Am I missing something here?