As of March 1, 20% of taxpayers who filed tax returns were on the risky list - MP

As of March 1, the list of risky taxpayers included more than 30,000 legal entities and individuals, or 20% of all taxpayers who filed tax returns. This was reported by a member of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy Nina Yuzhanina, UNN reports.

"In response to my MP's appeal, I received information from the State Tax Service on certain issues of the work of the PCIS in February 2024. The number of VAT payers has decreased by 376 by January, and by February last year - by 9 794 payers and amounts to 250,969 VAT payers (91% of legal entities, 9% of individuals)," Yuzhanina wrote in her Telegram channel.

According to her, in February 2024, almost 152 thousand taxpayers (60% of the total)  submitted tax invoices and adjustment calculations for registration to the Unified Register of Tax Invoices.

At the same time, compared to January 2024, the number of such taxpayers decreased by 2%, the number of tax invoices and adjustment calculations submitted for registration increased by 1%, and the amount of VAT in the tax returns submitted decreased by 16%.

In addition, according to Yuzhanina, as of March 1, 2024, the number of risky taxpayers was 30,036, which is 20% of all taxpayers who filed tax returns. In particular, the list of risky taxpayers in January increased by 454 taxpayers compared to the previous month.

The MP added that the trend towards an increase in the number of risky taxpayers has been maintained since September 2023. During this period, 848 taxpayers were included in the list of risky taxpayers, and only 393 taxpayers were excluded from the list. Yuzhanina noted that only 4 taxpayers were automatically excluded from the list of risky taxpayers, the rest were excluded by decisions of courts or commissions.

"I would like to draw your attention to the option once touted by the tax authorities to automatically exclude a taxpayer from the risky category if its counterparty is excluded from the risky category:

- In February, there were only 4 such taxpayers,

- in January - 10,

- in December 2023 -  5,

- in November 2023 - 5,

- in October 2023 - 12,

- in September 2023 - 7.

Is this how the adopted norms of CMU Resolution 1165 and their implementation should work for 30 thousand risky taxpayers?" - Yuzhanina wrote.

She also noted that taxpayers tried to prove their "non-riskiness" to the State Tax Service, but consistently most of them received negative decisions from regional commissions.

According to Yuzhanina, in February, 26,000 taxpayers had 180,000 tax invoices and adjustment calculations blocked for the amount of VAT worth UAH 4.8 billion. Compared to January, the number of such taxpayers decreased  by 5%; the number of TI/ACs decreased by 9%; and the amount of VAT decreased by 15%.

In addition, 18 thousand taxpayers submitted copies of documents to unblock 141 thousand tax invoices and adjustment calculations. Compared to January  , the number of such taxpayers decreased by 10%, the number of TI/CCs decreased by 15%, and the amount of VAT decreased by 8%.

Add

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.

Recall

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.