If you want to work, pay tribute: a practicing accountant on the relationship between the tax authorities and business
Kyiv • UNN
Practicing accountant on the relationship between tax authorities and business
The tax service has become a private company that is managed manually and whose profits are bribes from entrepreneurs who are forced to pay them to continue their activities. This opinion on the interaction between the tax authorities and business was expressed by Olena Synyuk, a practicing accountant, in a commentary to UNN.
In her opinion, the tax authorities' actions are aimed at destroying legal businesses and spreading corruption.
"Our tax system has turned into a kind of private company that is managed manually, and the profit of this company is bribes, which are demanded without hesitation, calling company executives on the 'carpet for a conversation'. If you want to work, pay tribute, or your business will be destroyed by blocking and inspections," says Sinyuk.
According to her, the situation with individual entrepreneurs is no better.
"I myself recently had a situation when a tax officer called my sole proprietorship client, threatening to audit, without providing any documents (although there should have been an order for the audit), and persistently suggested meeting somewhere outside the tax office to talk and "go away peacefully," i.e., to persuade him to take a bribe. I prepared official complaints against these actions of the tax officer for my client, a sole proprietor. There is still no result, i.e. they are trying to drag out the situation, hoping that I will forget too. But no, the complaints will continue," the accountant said.
Sinyuk believes that it is entirely justified to claim that the entire tax service is run manually by MP Danylo Hetmantsev, chairman of the relevant parliamentary committee.
"The blocking of invoices and the situation with cash registers for individual entrepreneurs are just one example. This is an internal enemy that clearly does not work for the prosperity of the economy and does not even know the law. (...) Even with regard to the definition of "settlement transaction," from Mr. Danylo's point of view, this is all that settlements have. But the law on cash registers gives a clear definition:
"settlement transaction means acceptance of cash, payment cards, payment checks, tokens, etc. from the buyer at the place of sale of goods (services), issuance of cash for goods returned by the buyer (service not provided), and, in case of using a bank payment card, execution of the relevant settlement document for payment in non-cash form for goods (services) by the buyer's bank or, in case of return of goods (refusal of service), execution of settlement documents for transfer of funds to the buyer's bank".
This is a clear fact that it doesn't matter what the law says, if Mr. Danylo has his own vision, then the tax authorities will implement his vision, not what the law says. What do we need laws for then? It's a rhetorical question," says Sinyuk.
The accountant characterizes the situation with the blocking of tax invoices as "a nightmare."
"There are a lot of unreasonable blockings. Even when an importing company pays VAT upon customs clearance, many invoices are still blocked because the product code is a risky one. But where is the risk if the goods have been officially cleared and VAT has been officially paid? This company was forced to switch to selling to non-VAT payers because VAT-paying wholesale buyers do not want to work with such a company in order not to be at risk themselves," describes Sinyuk.
Another example cited by the accountant was when a company has been suing for years to unblock VAT, has lost a lot of money due to claims from buyers, work has actually stopped, the company has won all the courts, but the tax authorities still do not comply with the court decision, i.e. do not unblock invoices. "We are supposedly going to Europe, we want to have a developed country, but at the same time, the tax authorities can afford not to comply with court decisions. It turns out that the tax authorities are above the judicial system? And why? Because the tax authorities know that they will not be punished for this, because they have such an instruction from above (again, about the manual mode), but business suffers," the accountant is indignant.
She cited another example, which she considered completely absurd.
"The company provides electricity metering services, buys consumables, and is blocked from almost all invoices because there is not enough stock on hand. And where will these goods come from if we are talking about services? It's completely absurd," says Sinyuk.
She emphasizes that businesses are forced to spend a lot of time on "all these tambourine dances around VAT."
"Instead of doing business development or any ongoing work, I have to scan thousands (I'm not kidding, thousands) of documents, upload them to my office for the 30th time, because the system is constantly freezing, and then I get a refusal because some document is missing, and then I go to my documents and there is this document, the inspector just "didn't notice" it, and in fact didn't even look at it, he just fulfills the plan to refuse payers. And the manual mode comes to mind again," says Sinyuk.
According to her, she knows that services are provided for unblocking tax invoices for a certain percentage, or for removing the risky status from a company through "their tax officials." Sinyuk says she has faced such offers herself, and after refusing them, the company was simply not allowed to work.
"My colleagues have their own tax officers who tell me directly when I can and cannot register invoices. So you realize that the Tax Code and laws simply exist, but not for the tax authorities. During inspections, inspectors do not hesitate to call out the amount of the bribe, and they are simply organizing a racket. Then Mr. Danylo shows us graphs and tells us how he is fighting corruption, but in fact he is fighting those who have not paid enough. These are the realities," says Sinyuk.
According to the accountant, the most common problems are faced by real companies that generate income and pay taxes.
"The tax authorities see that such companies can be "milked" or, excuse me, "plucked like geese," as well-known politicians say (a reference to Hetmantsev's statement: "What is proper taxation? It is the art of plucking a goose so that it does not scream" - ed.) Manufacturers and importers also suffer because they do not have the so-called "input" VAT from "non-risky" suppliers," explains Sinyuk.
The expert says that the situation can only change if tax policy is handled by practitioners who understand how business works.
"As long as theorists, who live in an ideal world with pink ponies, are doing this, legal business in Ukraine will die out. I think that Mr. Hetmantsev and his henchmen are doing everything to destroy the legal business, which has survived the Covid and the war, and I think it is very likely that Mr. Hetmantsev's methods will not survive," Sinyuk said.
The accountant, who faces injustice and unlawful actions against business on a daily basis, decided to fight using legal methods available to citizens. That is why she created a petition to dismiss Hetmantsev from the position of the head of the Verkhovna Rada Tax Committee - https://itd.rada.gov.ua/services/petition/index/?id=11809.
"Citizens have the right to express their position in the form of petitions. What do we have now? Hundreds of votes are deleted, and user profiles are also purged. I have filed complaints about such arbitrariness. This is another example of manual control," said Sinyuk.
