The National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine should consider the issue of massive blocking of tax invoices as a threat to national security. This opinion was expressed by MP Mykhailo Tsymbalyuk in an exclusive commentary to UNN .
Blocking tax invoices is a very big problem. A problem that already threatens national security. Because the whole business has stopped, everything is being decided manually, and this does not allow businesses to receive funds that are then used for internal turnover for development, to cover debts, to purchase components, if we are talking about production, if we are talking about agriculture, especially now it is seeds, etc
According to him, this problem can be solved if there is political will.
This is actually a very serious thing, and I think this is a question for the new NSDC Secretary, which may be considered by the NSDC. Because in fact, this already threatens national security economically
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The European Business Association (EBA) notes the aggravation of the situation with the blocking of tax invoices since the end of February. It suggested that instead of freezing business activities by blocking them, the State Tax Service should conduct tax audits in case of questions to the companies' activities. The EBA emphasized that the tax legislation of the EU countries does not contain provisions on blocking tax invoices.
As of March 1, according to Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy , the list of risky taxpayers included more than 30,000 legal entities and individuals, or 20% of all taxpayers who filed tax returns. In February , 26 thousand taxpayers had 180 thousand tax invoices and adjustment calculations blocked for the amount of UAH 4.8 billion in VAT.
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Blocking of tax invoices is one of the main problems that Ukrainian entrepreneurs complain about in the field of tax administration. In general, according to the Business Ombudsman Council statistics , in the third quarter of 2023 , 57% of complaints from business representatives concerned tax issues.
As business ombudsman Roman Vashchuk noted in an interview , the problem for business is not even the level of taxes, but the style of administration. He also added that tax and customs lose 90-94% of their cases in courts, either in the first instance or on appeal to the Supreme Court.
According to experts, this situation with the courts indicates that the tax authorities are abusing their powers, as the courts are breaking down these decisions. Some, such as economic analyst Pavlo Sebastianovych, directly calls it "schemes."
Among the main such schemes, he names fictitious exports, registration of fictitious VAT from fictitious companies, export of goods under fictitious documents with fictitious VAT and refund of real VAT, twists, blocking tax invoices, granting risky status to an enterprise and organizing shadow schemes to remove this status.
Dmytro Oleksiyenko, a member of the Taxpayers Association Board, believes that MP Danylo Hetmantsev, head of the Verkhovna Rada Tax Committee, is behind this administration policy, as no important decisions are made at the State Tax Service without his knowledge. And he actually runs the tax office through his former assistant Yevhen Sokur.
At the same time, Mr. Hetmantsev called his activities in relation to the tax service "parliamentary control." He also rejected accusations that he was taking over the powers of the executive branch, saying that he was simply helping entrepreneurs.