Third increase in bank taxation: NBU named the main risks of the initiative

The third increase in bank taxation undermines confidence in the tax system and will have serious negative consequences not only for banks. Andriy Pyshnyi, head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU), said this in an interview with Forbes Ukraine, UNN reports.

Details

He reminded that the National Bank supported the introduction of an extra tax on bank profits in 2023 as a one-time exceptional step, and at that time it was a conscious position of the NBU and the banking community. Last year, however, the regulator opposed increased taxation of banks "given the return of the banking business to normalcy."

Now we generally consider this initiative dangerous

According to him, disproportionate tax burden is a path to tax arbitrage and shadowization of one of the most transparent sectors, the level of trust in which is one of the highest in the country. At the same time, for banks, unlike other sectors, a permanent increased corporate income tax rate of 25% instead of 18% applies.

In practice, they have already paid an increased tax at a rate of 50% twice, so they actually provide a third of the taxes paid to the budget, or 15 times more than their share in GDP. This is an unpleasant lesson for the future, that for transparency you will pay higher taxes

The publication indicates that the National Bank considers the expectations regarding the fiscal effect of the tax increase, which the government estimates at UAH 30 billion, to be overstated, because, according to the regulator's calculations, about 65% of the banking system's profit comes from state institutions.

According to Pyshnyi, banks can provide many times larger volumes of budget financing in the domestic debt market without negative consequences for the economy from another introduction of an increased tax.

Recall

The NBU estimates that Ukraine still faces increased macroeconomic risks, including capital risk and profitability risk. At the same time, credit and currency risks have decreased.

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