The head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Financial Policy, Danylo Hetmantsev, admitted that the law on tax increases violates the Constitution, but he considers criticism of it to be "from the evil one," UNN reports.
On October 10, the Verkhovna Rada passed a bill to significantly increase taxes. The document envisages a number of changes, including an increase from 1.5% to 5% of the military tax, except for the military. Taxes for individual entrepreneurs under the simplified taxation system will increase retroactively from October 1. The Parliament passed the law despite the fact that the Main Legal Department of the Verkhovna Rada's Office expressed a number of comments to the document and pointed out that some of its provisions violate the Constitution of Ukraine.
In particular , the conclusions indicate that the document does not comply with the principle of equality of all taxpayers before the law, levels the constitutional value of the hryvnia as the monetary unit of Ukraine, and a number of its provisions do not take into account the rule of law. In addition, a contradiction is pointed out in the issue of personal income taxation. The point is that the draft law does not provide for the exceptions established by the current version of the Tax Code regarding the exemption from taxation of income in the form of cash benefits, in particular, for military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the period of direct participation in the confrontation with Russia. There were also comments on the contradictions between the entry into force of the law and the introduction of certain of its provisions on the calculation of the minimum tax liability in terms of land payment.
The law has now been submitted to the President of Ukraine for signature.
"If we talk about this provision (retroactive tax increase for individual entrepreneurs - ed.), I absolutely agree with you, I agree with all the critics here. Look, you just need to open my textbooks that I wrote in my previous life to see that this is a violation. Only exceptional circumstances forced us to make this decision, because, in fact, in September-October, we were faced with a dilemma: either we introduce (the rule on raising taxes for individual entrepreneurs - ed.) in November and raise more rates, because the amount is not going anywhere, or we do it on October 1. So, out of these two very, very bad decisions, we chose the one that seemed less bad to us," Hetmantsev said during the Chronicle of Economics podcast.
Despite the fact that Hetmantsev admitted that there were violations in the law on tax increases, he considers it constitutional and dismisses the criticism from experts and business about the decision to raise taxes as "from the evil one." He explained that there is a decision of the Constitutional Court that allows the law to be enacted, and it concerns relations that have begun but not ended at the time the law comes into force.
"I would not like to have legal discussions here, you know, because they discredit me. Why discredit me, because I am still a doctor of law and I know for sure that this is a violation and should not be done this way," Hetmantsev said, commenting on the law that will be applied retroactively.
Recall
Article 58 of the Constitution of Ukraine. Laws and other regulatory legal acts shall not have retroactive effect in time, except when they mitigate or abolish a person's liability. No one may be held liable for acts that were not recognized by law as an offense at the time of their commission.
Add
Andriy Shabelnikov, Chairman of the UNBA Committee on Investment and Privatization, Managing Partner of EvrikaLaw, told UNN that after the law comes into force, there may be some difficulties in paying the military fee.