A new military fee for every Ukrainian and other “difficult decisions”: what will the budget-2025 look like?
30 August 2024 17:20
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In September, Ukraine’s MPs will face difficult challenges. The Verkhovna Rada will have to make important decisions on reforms in various sectors. This was stated by the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk in the context of the start of the budget process. At the same time, the parliament is discussing the issue of additional budget revenues with the government. How do MPs plan to fill the budget and what is the opposition’s concern?
MPs expect to receive a draft budget by 15 September, which they will immediately begin to consider. About this in an exclusive commentary
“There are challenges here. The desire to increase the tax part of the budget by UAH 500 billion entails the need to find resources. The idea is to raise taxes. The government has not come up with anything better. This is an additional burden for Ukrainians and businesses. This issue can be resolved through other approaches,” said Ivan Krulko.
Many MPs in the parliament do not see the possibility of supporting such an initiative at an extremely difficult time for the country and for business, Krulko adds. He also suggests reviewing the programmes being implemented in 2024 to save money.
“This is an issue that concerns the work of customs. First of all, the tax authorities to reduce VAT fraud. Customs needs to ensure quality control over the passage of goods across the state border of Ukraine to prevent smuggling. These are the hot opportunities that can fill the state budget,” said Ivan Krulko.
According to him, the Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy has already formulated its proposals. They include, among other things, a 5% increase in the military tax. If this initiative is adopted, it will affect every Ukrainian.
“If the military tax is currently 1.5%, it will become 5%. This could become an unbearable burden for small entrepreneurs. They can have a profit of 5-10%, and with such taxes, all their profits will be taken away. Entrepreneurs will work at a loss or at zero,” says Ivan Krulko.
The MP is confident that all this can lead to the opposite effect: small businesses will close down and people will find themselves unemployed.
Moreover, when a general trend is introduced for Ukrainians to return from abroad, initiatives such as tax increases will encourage Ukrainians to leave, Ivan Krulko is sure.
Instead, MP Dmytro Gurin, who used to be an entrepreneur himself, in an exclusive commentary
“We are still looking for a model with the Ministry of Finance on which taxes will be raised and which will be cut,” says Gurin.
Earlier, Gurin wrote about raising taxes for the population on his social media network X.
“Money transferred to a card from an individual to an individual should be taxed at 19.5% (except for transfers to families and charitable foundation banks). Another option is to accept money to the account of a sole proprietor with a 5% tax. In case of underpayment of these taxes by 17,000 per year, a criminal case should be opened under Article 212 of the Criminal Code,” Dmytro Gurin added.
The MP refers to the Law of Ukraine, but does not specify which one.
Author: Anastasia Fedor
