A "tax nightmare" is being organized for business in Ukraine, and the one behind the pressure is an outspoken enemy of Ukraine - a deputy

Blocking tax invoices is pressure on business, and those behind it are an outright enemy of Ukraine. This opinion was expressed in an exclusive commentary to UNN by MP Oleksiy Honcharenko.

Blocking the registration of tax invoices is yet another pressure on businesses that are already struggling to survive in the Ukrainian war. And, unfortunately, we see a negative trend. This is a big problem, which also burdens businesses with additional bureaucracy. It destroys the business that provides jobs, that continues to operate under rocket attacks and during blackouts, and that helps displaced people

According to him, the government is not only not supporting entrepreneurs, but is also lifting the moratorium on inspections and creating a "tax nightmare." 

"And the main problem is that the system that is currently in place is not designed for the realities in which businesses want to develop, open and stay in Ukraine.  Those who are behind this pressure on entrepreneurs are outright enemies of Ukraine who are working to destroy the Ukrainian economy. And the government must urgently correct this," emphasized Honcharenko.

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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 about the activities of companies. 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.

According to MP Mykhailo Tsymbalyuk, the blocking of tax invoices has become a serious problem that threatens Ukraine's national security, as it stops the activities of enterprises and disrupts economic operations.

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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's statistics, 57% of complaints from business representatives in the third quarter of 2023 concerned tax issues.

As noted by business ombudsman Roman Vashchuk in an interview , the problem for business is not even the level of taxes, but the style of administration. He also added that the tax and customs authorities 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 these "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, chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Tax Committee, is behind this administration policy, because no important decisions are made at the State Tax Service without his knowledge. And he actually manages 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.