The system of automatic blocking of invoices has discredited itself, but the authorities ignore it - expert

The system of automatic blocking of tax invoices SMKOR has discredited itself, but the government continues to ignore the NACP's recommendations on the corruption risks of this tool and the Presidential Decree on the need to audit it. This opinion was expressed by the expert on economic issues Myroslav Laba in an exclusive comment of UNN.

But this problem exists (with the blocking of tax invoices and adjustment calculations - ed.), and in my opinion, this system has discredited itself. We see what decisions are made by the courts. At the meeting at the NACP, there was a representative of the judiciary, and he actually confirmed the positions voiced by the Business Ombudsman Council and the CJU that 95% of the cases that go to court are decided in favor of business. Abuse is pressure on business

He added that when considering the issue of blocking tax invoices, attention should be paid to the study by the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption of the procedure for suspending the registration of tax invoices. In its conclusions, the NAPC noted that this procedure has corruption risks and provided recommendations for their elimination. 

This study was presented back in December 23, and since then, none of the NACP's recommendations to eliminate corruption risks has actually been implemented

In addition, he said, we should not forget about the Presidential Decree of January 23, 2024, which instructed the Government to immediately audit the system of blocking tax invoices (SMKOR).

It's been 2 months, and the audit hasn't been completed. Therefore, I would draw attention to these two things that have not been done

He also noted that, according to the Tax Administration, about 23-25 thousand companies are blocked every month. The European Business Association is also concerned about the problem of stopping businesses from using such tools as blocking tax invoices. However, according to Laba, the government does not pay attention to this and reports that over the past 5 years, they have additionally brought UAH 160 billion to the budget.

Therefore, the problem exists and the authorities deliberately do not respond to this problem, because the existence of this system allows the authorities to fill the budget

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 to the companies' activities. 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 problemthat threatens Ukraine's national security, as it halts the activities of enterprises and disrupts economic operations.

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 business ombudsman Roman Vashchuk noted in an interview , the problem for business is not even the level of taxes, but the style of administration. He also added that tax and customs 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 it "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 runs 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.