0.26% of business in the “white club”: Yuzhanina says this approach destroys entrepreneurship
20 December 2024 14:22
According to official statistics, only 0.26% of registered businesses in the country are included in the List of taxpayers with a high level of voluntary compliance with tax laws – the so-called “White Business Club”. This was reported by Nina Yuzhanina, a member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and a member of the Finance Committee, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
Yuzhanina harshly criticized the government.
“99.74% of businesses in Ukraine are not white. Today, the first List of taxpayers with a high level of voluntary compliance with tax legislation was published, which includes 8255 taxpayers, or only 0.26% of all registered businesses,” the MP said.
Yuzhanina clarified that according to the State Tax Service, the “White Business Club” included:
- 8,104 legal entities, accounting for 0.53% of 1.5 million registered legal entities
- 151 individual entrepreneurs, or 0.009% of more than 1.7 million registered individual entrepreneurs.
“And those 99.7% who did not join the Club, what are they? Are they gray? Black?” emphasized Yuzhanina.
The MP added that such an approach to small entrepreneurs, in particular, sole proprietors, contributes to the reduction of entrepreneurship in the country and harms economic development.
“This is the government’s assessment of the work of business in extremely difficult conditions. The government does not consider individual entrepreneurs as business at all. It’s a pity, but this policy is destroying entrepreneurship in Ukraine!” summarized Yuzhanina.
What is known about the “White Business Club”
As a reminder, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Bill No. 11084 on the establishment of the White Business Club, a list of taxpayers with a high level of voluntary compliance with tax laws.
The law is aimed at improving the interaction between tax authorities and honest taxpayers, providing the latter with certain benefits in exchange for a high level of tax discipline.
It clarifies the concept of “tax risk” and introduces a new concept of “compliance” (tax risk management).
The Law defines the criteria for recognizing a taxpayer as a bona fide taxpayer, including no or minimal tax debt, timely submission of reports, compliance with industry tax payment rates, and payment of salaries not lower than the industry average.
Taxpayers included in the list will receive the following benefits:
- upon request, the taxpayer has the right to receive information about tax information available to the controlling authority that may indicate tax risks in the taxpayer’s activities, as well as advice on how to eliminate such risks within five days
- moratorium on documentary audits;
- reduction of the timeframe for desk and documentary audits for the purposes of budgetary reimbursement – five calendar days;
- individual tax consultations within five calendar days;
- the taxpayer is assigned a compliance manager with whom the taxpayer will be able to interact, in particular by means of remote communication, including videoconferencing;
The list of bona fide taxpayers is compiled on a quarterly basis, and taxpayers are notified of their inclusion in this list. These features will be in effect for the period of martial law and until the end of the year, when it will be canceled.
Read about the business reaction to the law here.
