To improve business relations with the tax service, it needs to be completely rebooted - expert

The more often businesses have problems with the tax service, the more they will look for shady ways to operate. The way out of this situation may be a complete reboot of the State Tax Service, says economist Oleh Hetman, reports UNN. 

Details

The European Business Association has recorded a significant increase in the number of complaints filed by Ukrainian business representatives against the tax service over the past year. 

Economist Oleh Hetman attributes this trend to the fact that in 2023 the criteria for blocking tax invoices were changed and the moratorium on tax audits was partially lifted. According to him, during 2020-2021, about 0.3% of tax invoices were blocked per month and this concerned about 7-8 thousand companies, during 2023, 1% of invoices are still blocked and about 25 thousand companies face this monthly.

The more uncomfortable the business is, the less it will work under the general system, the more it will resort to splitting up and using the simplified system to avoid the tax authorities altogether, the more it will use various shadow schemes to avoid the tax authorities again. He will also be forced to resolve issues in a certain corrupt way, when, for example, tax offices are blocked and the commission stubbornly refuses to unblock them even after all the documents are submitted. They (business representatives - ed.) are forced to give up to 1-1.5% of the amount  to certain officials to unblock the invoices

Mr. Hetman noted that there have been many such cases. In his opinion, a complete reboot of the State Tax Service could solve the problems of business with the tax service. The relevant draft law has already been developed.

"The international community must elect the management with a decisive vote, then a full re-certification of all personnel with an integrity commission, with disclosure of information about these personnel. In other words, this corrupt tax office needs to be rebooted in accordance with the NABU principles. But, unfortunately, the resistance is fierce and the bill has been stalled for a year," the economist added.

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. According to Business Ombudsman Roman Vashchuk, 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.

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 this "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.