Half a million millionaires: how financial data sharing has revealed the wealth of many Ukrainians
6 December 2024 11:36
The first stage of the international exchange of data on bank accounts under the CRS (Common Reporting Standard) has taken place in Ukraine, covering cooperation with 123 countries. The first results showed that there are significantly more non-poor people in Ukraine than expected, reports
Thus, Ukrainian authorities received information about 500 thousand accounts with amounts of 200 thousand euros or more. This was announced by the chairman of the Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy, Danylo Hetmantsev.
With the outbreak of a full-scale war, when millions of Ukrainians were forced to go abroad, the exchange of financial data has become even more important.
“Ukraine already receives information and reports on the accounts of its citizens abroad,”
– Mr. Hetmantsev said.
“500 thousand people is a lot for the first stage of the exchange. It turns out we have not so few rich people.”
– Oleksandra Tomashevska, a consultant at the Kyiv Center for Business Support and Development, assessed the current results.
Follow us on Telegram: the main news in brief
How this will affect taxpayers
The State Tax Service of Ukraine has the right to request declarations of income that have not been previously declared, for example, from deposits abroad. In case of violations, citizens may be asked to pay additional taxes. However, Ukrainians have not yet received such requests under the CRS.
Further consequences of the CRS implementation in Ukraine are still being assessed.
As reported by
In particular, the subject of the exchange was information on financial accounts maintained by financial institutions (banks, insurance and investment companies, etc.) and owned by residents of partner jurisdictions, namely: the name of the owner, his address, tax residence, tax number, date and place of birth, information about the financial institution, account information: balance at the end of the reporting period, total amount of dividends, interest or other income.
How it works
The automatic exchange of tax information is part of Ukraine’s commitments in the process of integration into the EU and is aimed at increasing the transparency of the tax sphere. As of January 2024, about 110 jurisdictions are participants in the international multilateral automatic exchange of information on financial accounts, including all EU member states.
It is believed that Ukraine’s access to information on foreign financial assets of its residents in accordance with the CRS standard will allow
- strengthen control over the timeliness and completeness of the declaration of taxable income;
- identify undeclared income to combat tax evasion by individuals;
- improve the efficiency of application of the rules on taxation of controlled foreign companies;
- to obtain an additional source of tax information when implementing indirect methods of control over the taxation of individuals.
Follow us on Telegram: main news in brief
