Tax revenues are lower than planned: what happened to the budget in January
2 February 17:20
In January 2026, the general fund of the Ukrainian state budget received almost 8% less tax revenue than planned by the State Tax Service. This was reported by Lesya Karnaukh, acting head of the State Tax Service, according to "Komersant Ukrainian".
According to her, tax and fee revenues administered by the State Tax Service amounted to UAH 79.4 billion, which is 91.8% of the planned figure.
Why the beginning of the year proved to be difficult
The head of the tax service attributes the failure to meet the target to military and energy factors. In a post on social media, she emphasized that the beginning of the year coincided with a period of power outages, problems with heat supply, and constant shelling.
At the same time, Karnaukh stressed that despite these conditions, businesses “remain responsible taxpayers.”
VAT: record refunds and high turnover
One of the key features of January was record value-added tax refunds. According to the State Tax Service, the state returned UAH 24.3 billion in VAT to businesses, which is the highest monthly figure for the entire previous year, when the average refund level was about UAH 15 billion.
In total, VAT payments in January amounted to UAH 58.9 billion, making this tax the main source of budget revenue at the start of the year.
Structure of tax revenues
In addition to VAT, the budget received:
- personal income tax — UAH 29.2 billion;
- corporate income tax — UAH 3.3 billion;
- excise tax on manufactured and imported goods — UAH 7.3 billion;
- rent payments — UAH 4.1 billion;
- other revenues — UAH 0.9 billion.
The State Tax Service notes that the negative impact of the war is already being felt in a number of key sectors of the economy, which directly affects the tax base.
The State Tax Service has announced a reduction in the number of audits in 2026
According to the head of the tax service, the state’s task is to “provide maximum assistance to everyone who works for the country’s economy and fills the budget.” At the same time, the State Tax Service has already announced a reduction in the number of audits in 2026: 4,558 audits are planned, which is 5% less than last year.
Against this backdrop, the agency notes that in 2025, the volume of official settlements increased by almost a third, and the total number of checks issued reached 10.4 trillion, indicating further de-shadowing of the economy.
