Experts: Hetmantsev's "White Business Club" will create a concentration camp for entrepreneurs in Ukraine
Kyiv • UNN
Experts warn that Hetmantsev's bill on the "white business club" is discriminatory, violates the presumption of innocence, and aims to create a "concentration camp" for entrepreneurs who are not on the "chosen" list.
The draft law on the "white business club" by the head of the Rada's tax committee, Danylo Hetmantsev , is discriminatory and violates the presumption of innocence by dividing Ukrainian businesses into "white" and "offenders" without a court decision. Its real goal is not to reduce pressure on business, but to create a "nightmare" for those who are not on the list of the chosen ones. Such opinions were expressed by experts in the comments to UNN.
Details
On Wednesday, the Verkhovna Rada adopted in the first reading the draft law "On Amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine on Peculiarities of Tax Administration during Martial Law for Taxpayers with a High Level of Voluntary Compliance with Tax Legislation," better known as the "White Business Club" bill. According to Mr. Hetmantsev, the adoption of his initiative will generally reduce the tax burden on entrepreneurs.
However, this statement by the head of the Rada's tax committee looks like an outright lie. In particular, according to Anatoliy Amelin, Director of Economic Programs at the Ukrainian Institute for the Future, the adoption of Hetmantsev's draft law will, on the contrary, increase pressure on entrepreneurs. The expert is convinced that as a result, the tax authorities will not touch "their own" and will "torture" those who are not in the club of the elect.
"They will selectively and manually include in this club those companies that will pay corruption rent to the authorities, and all others will be enemies. That is, it will destroy the Ukrainian economy in general, both individual entrepreneurs and companies, both large and small, with foreign and Ukrainian capital," Amelin said.
In his opinion, the targeted destruction of the Ukrainian economy can only benefit the enemy of our state.
"I want to remind you that the economy is the basis for the country's defense capability, the economy is the basis for Ukrainians to live in prosperity, so I believe this is a sabotage against the economy, Ukrainian citizens and the Ukrainian army," Amelin emphasized.
At the same time, Andriy Dligach, co-founder of the Center for Economic Recovery, emphasized the discreditable approach to categorizing businesses.
"In fact, all of this looks like a very discreditable approach, because there are different business models, and it is wrong to count everyone according to some kind of average scheme," the economist emphasized.
Hetmantsev's "white business club" also has another interesting function: it will make it official for a select few to evade tax audits, Dligach believes.
"This is why everything is being done - to officially evade inspections for those who are friendly, and to do everything possible to increase pressure on those who are not. This is definitely not in favor of entrepreneurship and economic development," he said.
Experts also emphasize that Hetmantsev's initiative has a number of corruption risks. In particular, the tax authorities will be able to decide who will be elected and who will be immediately labeled a violator. At the same time, the presumption of innocence, which is valid in all democratic countries, will not apply to the law on the "white business club".
"I would like to remind you that in a state governed by the rule of law, there is a presumption of innocence, and if we start dividing businesses or people into different groups by law, we are already violating the fundamental rights of both people and businesses. Ukraine is a country that ranks 130th in the global ranking of economic freedoms. Adoption of another law that segregates business will push us to the bottom of the ranking, and it will give more opportunities to the authorities, officials, and fiscal authorities to kill business. What is white and non-white business? Who are the judges? Who determines?" Amelin asked a rhetorical question.
In his opinion, allowing officials to independently decide, without a court decision, who should be included in the list of white businesses and who should be designated as gray businesses, will kill the Ukrainian economy, as it will close any opportunities for attracting foreign investment.
Economist Dligach emphasized that a democratic state should treat business a priori as legal and free of violations.
"The state should treat all businesses as virtuous and white. There can't be a situation where the state determines whether a business belongs to a certain category in a non-judicial way based on some criteria. This is a shame and a violation of the ideology of doing business," he emphasized.
Experts say that the conditions created by the law on the "white business club" will resemble a concentration camp.
"What does it mean to join a club? It means to segregate with someone. By default, everyone here is white until proven guilty by a court verdict. We have the presumption of innocence. And if we create artificial barriers, artificial segregation, it already resembles some kind of concentration camp - you are more good and you are less good, but you are all in a concentration camp. Ukraine is a free country, and for Ukrainians, freedom and liberty are the main values. And the officials who are supposed to work for people are creating obstacles to our development. We will only create opportunities for Ukrainians to leave the country. Do we want to lose business and people? So our government, Hetmantsev and people like him are doing everything to make Ukrainians leave the country and stop working and doing business here," Amelin added.
Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Rada's tax committee, has repeatedly criticized Hetmantsev's legislative initiative, saying that he wants to legalize the process of classifying companies as risky and blocking tax invoices. In her opinion, Hetmantsev's draft law is also intended to make it impossible to bring to criminal liability those involved in creating a tool to block the work of businesses by assigning them the status of risky and blocking tax invoices.
"Currently, everything that is being done to block tax invoices, to classify taxpayers as risky, to fail to comply with court decisions to withdraw (the status of a risky enterprise - ed.) and to make this risk status illegal - all this is outlawed, because the resolution approving the blocking procedure is not within the framework of the current Tax Code. This is an abuse of power by the executive branch of government. Since this has already become a huge issue, I hope that some lawyers will find the opportunities and resources to prove the damage caused to businesses by this blocking," Yuzhanina said.
The MP added that such actions may be subject to criminal liability for abuse of power. "And there will be a whole organized group of people who gave instructions, who wrote out these rules, applied them, and so on. And most likely, in order to avoid this liability, the main leitmotif of this draft law is to introduce norms into the body of the Tax Code that specifically relate to the riskiness of the payer," Yuzhanina summarized.
Add
Earlier, the "club of white business" was also criticized by business ombudsman Roman Vashchuk. He is convinced that such a law will create a reservation for the elite instead of leveling the playing field for all businesses.
In addition, according to the conclusions of a group of analysts of the Business Ombudsman Council, the Ukrainian tax authorities currently have a "presumption of malice".
"In other words, a taxpayer is a potential tax law violator rather than a law-abiding taxpayer who may make some mistakes and needs help," said Vashchuk during the presentation of the research results.
According to him, tax audits are currently ineffective because they do not fulfill their main function - they do not fill the country's budget.
Analysts of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs in their conclusions also pointed out that the draft law by Hetmantsev contains discriminatory provisions and corruption risks.
Recall
At the Mind Entrepreneur Summit 2024, a conference for small and medium-sized businesses where Hetmantsev was scheduled to speak, people dressed as geese came to the event with the inscription "Touch me, don't touch my business!"
