The issue of taxing aircraft lease payments must be urgently considered by an interagency working group, which should be convened by the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. The government has the necessary authority to coordinate all state bodies involved in this issue, which arose after investigators from the Economic Security Bureau began interpreting leasing operations as royalties. Volodymyr Kreidenko, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Transport and Infrastructure, expressed this opinion in an exclusive comment to UNN.
In July, a roundtable was held during which representatives of the aviation industry reported pressure from the Economic Security Bureau, which is investigating criminal cases against at least five airlines over alleged nonpayment of royalties for leasing aircraft and helicopters. They called on the Cabinet of Ministers, the Ministry of Finance, the State Tax Service, and the Economic Security Bureau to urgently develop a single official position on the taxation of aircraft lease payments, based on Ukrainian legislation and international law. In their opinion, without this, Ukraine risks losing a high-tech industry that continues to operate even during the full-scale war, fulfill international contracts, and pay taxes to the state budget.
"Convening such a platform is a direct task of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, since it is the executive branch of government that has the necessary authority to coordinate subordinate bodies. My proposal was for the government to urgently bring together representatives of the Ministry of Finance, the State Tax Service, the Economic Security Bureau, the Ministry for Communities and Territories Development, the State Aviation Service, and, обязательно, representatives of the Ukrainian aviation business," Volodymyr Kreidenko said.
At the same time, according to him, members of parliament should also be involved in the work of such a group.
"We, as members of parliament from the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Transport and Infrastructure and the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, must join this process as part of parliamentary oversight so that this meeting produces real practical solutions rather than remaining merely declarations. For my part, I am ready to join this dialogue," Kreidenko emphasized.
He also explained that the Parliamentary Committee on Transport and Infrastructure cannot independently consider the issue of the tax classification of lease payments, as this falls within the competence of the relevant tax committee.
According to Kreidenko, in parallel with the work of the interagency group, the Ministry of Finance should approve a generalized tax consultation on the taxation of aircraft operating lease transactions.
"This is the fastest and most effective administrative way to formulate a unified clarification on the taxation of operating leases, taking into account international treaties on the avoidance of double taxation," the deputy chairman of the committee emphasized.
If such an administrative mechanism proves insufficient, according to him, the Verkhovna Rada will have to introduce targeted amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine. The Business Ombudsman Council could become an additional tool for protecting businesses, the lawmaker believes.
At the same time, the parliamentarian emphasized that the purpose of the proposed steps is not to provide tax preferences to individual airlines.
"Our main goal is not to grant anyone benefits or protect anyone from paying the taxes due, but to ensure equal, transparent, and predictable rules of the game. Tax disputes should be resolved through administrative and judicial procedures, not through criminal pressure that threatens the existence of Ukrainian civil aviation," Kreidenko concluded.
As a reminder
Despite the fact that Ukrainian tax legislation, which has remained unchanged in the area of leasing for decades, and international treaties describe quite clearly how taxes on the leasing of helicopters and aircraft should be paid, the Economic Security Bureau decided, at its own discretion, to change this approach. The ESB is investigating cases involving at least five air carriers, including MAU, "Constanta Airlines," "Urga," H3Operations, and "Skyline," over the alleged failure to pay an additional 15% tax on the income of nonresidents to the Ukrainian budget under aircraft leasing agreements. Investigators equate leasing payments with royalties and treat airplanes and helicopters not as means of transport but as "equipment."
Law enforcement officers received analytical conclusions after, in 2024, the previous team at the State Tax Service published an article proposing that leasing transactions involving transport with nonresidents of Ukraine be taxed as royalties. The documents, which, according to representatives of the aviation market, resemble one another and appear to have been written "using the same template," formed the basis for criminal cases against air carriers.
Lawyers interviewed by UNN, point out that investigators ignore the current international conventions on the avoidance of double taxation ratified by the Verkhovna Rada. According to them, automatically assessing an additional 15% in Ukraine without taking into account the provisions of a specific convention is, at the very least, debatable.
It is worth noting that, according to the State Tax Service, the airlines underwent tax audits, and a violation in the taxation of leasing was established based on the results of only one of them. The remaining tax audits did not reveal any such violations.
"As a result of one audit of companies in the aviation sector, leasing payments were reclassified as royalties. Just one audit," stated Viktoriia Kasian, deputy director of the Transfer Pricing Department of the State Tax Service of Ukraine.
However, the absence of violations did not prevent the ESB from opening criminal cases against the airlines, believing that they had failed to pay 15% royalties over the past seven years. At the same time, the list of airlines facing law enforcement claims over leasing may expand at any moment, since approximately 40 air carriers use leases. Thus, the entire civil aviation sector could come under attack.
Representatives of the aviation sector have already publicly stated that they are under pressure from the Economic Security Bureau. According to their statements, civil aviation is under threat of destruction due to the actions of state regulatory bodies, which could ultimately finish off companies that survived the closure of the airspace and relocation abroad because of the full-scale war. The Ukrainian Air Transport Association appealed to the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Transport and Infrastructure, as well as to the Public Council under the Ministry of Finance, calling for the development of a unified approach to applying tax legislation in the area of aviation leasing.