Business Ombudsman’s report: most complaints from entrepreneurs concern tax issues
4 February 19:42
The Business Ombudsman of Ukraine Roman Vashchuk summarized the work done by the institution in 2024 and outlined the problems that entrepreneurs most often face in their relations with government agencies and, accordingly, seek help. This is reported on the website of the Business Ombudsman Council, "Komersant Ukrainian" informs.
The priorities of the Business Ombudsman Council were to resolve individual complaints and systemic business problems, to participate in engaging businesses in Ukraine’s recovery and solving problems in overcoming the consequences of the war, and to spread the ideas of good governance to build trust between business and government.
In particular, the Business Ombudsman Council promotes the Declaration of Fair and Reasonable Administration.
“The document developed by the Council is a roadmap that should regulate the relations between Ukrainian government agencies and entrepreneurs,” the report says.
In 2024, the Business Ombudsman Council received 1191 complaints from entrepreneurs:
– 61 percent of appeals concerned tax issues,
– 13% complained about the actions of law enforcement agencies,
– 7% of complaints were caused by actions of state regulators,
– 6% concerned customs issues,
– 4 percent of complaints were caused by actions of local authorities.
As for the outcome of the review, the following were observed:
– 659 cases were closed,
– 64% of closed cases were successfully resolved,
– uAH 2 billion was saved for Ukrainian entrepreneurs,
– 96% of complainants are satisfied with the outcome of the review (according to the responses provided through the feedback form).
In 2024, representatives of the Business Ombudsman Council made 6 regional visits: to Odesa, Cherkasy, Lviv, Rivne, Ternopil and Chortkiv.
As a result of these visits, for example, a distillery in Cherkasy region was removed from the list of risky taxpayers, and a plant in Ternopil resumed production of lamps and continued deliveries.
Tax audits – check, but trust
In 2024, the Business Ombudsman Council conducted an investigation on its own initiative regarding tax audits and, based on its results, formulated a number of ideas that could positively affect the effectiveness of tax audits and help build partnerships between business and the state.
According to the Business Ombudsman Council, it is advisable for the authorized management of the State Tax Service to develop a new policy direction to ensure the application of the rule of law and practices that would meet the principles of proportionality, validity and fairness of tax audit results.
It is important to introduce the principle of “consultation first”, the main purpose of which is to communicate with taxpayers to correct mistakes before determining a monetary liability or penalty.
According to the Business Ombudsman Council, the role of legal departments in the STS should also be strengthened at the stage of tax audits to ensure that the quality of the conclusions reached by auditors is fully analyzed at the level of the territorial STS body and that their judicial prospects are taken into account without delay.
Reducing the number of cases in administrative courts, especially in Kyiv after the liquidation of the DACK, for example, could be achieved by introducing alternative dispute resolution methods. To this end, the Council is currently expanding its capacity to use mediation tools.
Another area of effort, according to the Business Ombudsman Council, is the development of targeted and ambitious KPIs to measure and strengthen the final results of tax audits (in particular, after court proceedings), increase transparency by publishing information available for perception and analysis by the interested public, as well as ensuring constant feedback from business owners.
