Hetmantsev's draft law providing for preferences for selected taxpayers contains corruption risks - CJU

The draft law initiated by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, Danylo Hetmantsev, "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" contains discriminatory provisions and has corruption risks. This is stated in the conclusion of the analysts of the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, which is available to UNN .

In his Telegram channel , Hetmantsev said that he and his colleagues had prepared a draft law on the "white business club". According to him, the essence of the document is that "if an entrepreneur meets simple and transparent criteria for paying taxes above the industry average and paying salaries above the industry average, he or she will not be subject to tax control in the form of inspections. This is among other advantages. The list is reviewed quarterly." In addition, the draft law proposes to introduce tax nannies.

The EBA Analytical Center notes that despite the external concern for business, the draft law contains certain corruption risks and discriminates against some business entities in relation to others

The draft law proposes, among other things, to amend the Tax Code to the criteria for being included in the "taxpayers with a high level of voluntary compliance with tax laws". In particular, the so-called "white business club" will include companies that have:

• no tax debt (including unified social tax) or no more than UAH 3,060;
• there are no unreconciled tax liabilities under tax notices or decisions or no more than UAH 51,000;
  
• there are no violations in the submission of reports and documents, compliance with the deadlines for settlements for export/import operations during the year;
  
• no status of a risky VAT payer, subject to special economic and other restrictive measures (sanctions); 
  
• compliance with the criteria for paying taxes above the industry average and higher than the industry average salary.
  

The State Tax Service is supposed to review the list of "white businesses" on a quarterly basis.

The provisions of the draft law on the criteria of a "taxpayer with a high level of voluntary compliance with tax legislation" are extremely  questionable, as they have a high probability of losing this status due to dependence on the specifics of economic activity (imports, investments), reliability of the STS electronic services (timeliness of reporting) and subjective decisions of the tax service commissions on the taxpayer's risk status

"Club of the damned" or what risks does Hetmantsev's bill on the "white business club" poseApril 12 2024, 06:00 AM • 525070 views

Recall

Business Ombudsman Roman Vashchuk criticized the draft law on the "white business club" initiated by Hetmantsev, saying that it would create a reservation for the elite instead of leveling the playing field for all businesses.

In addition, Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Rada's tax committee, emphasized that Hetmantsev wants to legalize the right of the tax authorities to recognize a taxpayer as a risk under the guise of tax nannies in order to stop the registration of tax invoices. According to her, Hetmantsev deceived the co-authors of the bill on the "white business club"; in fact, the document provides for preferences for the chosen ones.  

According to economic expert Yuriy Havrylechko, the legislative initiative of the head of the Rada's tax committee violates  the Constitution of Ukraine and creates discriminatory conditions in the business environment.