Two votes were missing: Rada fails to pass tax increase bill

The Verkhovna Rada failed to pass in the first reading a bill to increase taxes by UAH 30 billion with 224 votes in favor and 226 votes against. The document was sent for a second first reading. This was reported by UNN with reference to MP Yaroslav Zhelezniak and the card of the bill No. 11416-d.

Details

"The Rada has failed the draft law No. 11416-d on increasing taxes by 30 billion in the first reading. There were 224 votes in favor. It was sent back for a second reading," Zheleznyak said.

He noted that this year it was planned to increase the budget by UAH 30 billion through taxes, not by UAH 125 billion, as requested by the Ministry of Finance.

Addendum

In July, the Cabinet of Ministers submitted a draft law to the Verkhovna Rada to raise taxes. The government expected that the law would bring in an additional UAH 125 billion to the budget in 2024.

Later, it became known that the draft law had been finalized and was planned to be put to a vote in the Rada in the first weeks of September. The draft law, among other things, planned to set corporate income tax rates for banks at 50% for 2024. The additional budgetary resources of UAH 125 billion planned by the law on tax increases were reduced by 4 times to UAH 30.1 billion.

It was also planned to increase the military tax rate from 1.5% to 5%.

Establishing the obligation to pay a military fee of 1% of income by single tax payers of the third group.

Setting the basic corporate income tax rate for the purposes of taxation of profits of non-bank financial institutions (except for insurers) at 25%;

The Minister of Finance of Ukraine Sergiy Marchenko stated that it is necessary to increase taxes to finance the security and defense sector. The Ministry of Finance is looking for a compromise with the parliament on tax increases that will be acceptable to society and business.

Earlier, Danylo Hetmantsev, the head of the Rada's tax committee, repeatedly voiced the idea of raising taxes in Ukraine. According to economic expert Yuriy Havrylechko, the elimination of the tax and customs services and the transfer of the economy to martial law may be an alternative to Hetmantsev's idea of raising taxes to close the budget gap

The first version of the draft law, which provides for tax increases, was previously criticized by Yaroslav Zheleznyak, deputy chairman of the parliamentary tax committee. According to him, it is not clear why such taxation changes are proposed and what calculations they are based on.

In addition, mobile operators operating in Ukraine believe that if the parliament supports the government's initiative and raises taxes, it will be a step backward in the availability of mobile communications, which is critically needed in times of war.

The initiative was also criticized by experts and representatives of Ukrainian business. They believe that an increase in the tax burden will force entrepreneurs to "go into the shadows.

After that, the draft law was finalized.