As of May 2025, 1.29 million entrepreneurs owed the state more than UAH 13 billion in taxes. This is according to data from the State Tax Service obtained by OpenDataBot. Since the start of the full-scale war, the number of debtors has increased.
The number of sole proprietors with tax debts in Ukraine has almost doubled in the last three years, from 670,000 in February 2022 to 1.29 million as of early May 2025. A third of this increase (namely, 213,000 entrepreneurs) occurred in March 2022.
The largest number of new debtors appeared in the first year of the full-scale war. At that time, the number of entrepreneurs who owed taxes increased by 1.6 times. The surge occurred in March: +31% per month.
The following year, entrepreneurs adapted to the new realities and the growth slowed to 4% per year. However, in 2024, the situation worsened again, and the number of new debtors increased by 16% over the year.
At the beginning of this year, another 42,282 entrepreneurs were burdened with tax debts, an increase of 3.3%. However, over the following months, sole proprietors paid off their debts, so by the beginning of May, the increase was already 2%, or 24,275 entrepreneurs.
The total tax debt of sole proprietors has increased by almost UAH 6 billion since the start of the full-scale war — almost twice as much.
UAH 30 million of these debts are owed by sole proprietors who are single tax payers in groups 1 and 2 and who have been mobilized. As of April this year, a total of 3,145 entrepreneurs in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have tax debts from the payment of single tax and military tax. It should be noted that the actual number of mobilized entrepreneurs with tax debts is currently impossible to calculate.
Since the start of the full-scale war, it has been impossible to check the tax debt of sole proprietors, as the Tax Service has closed this data, considering it critical. However, OpenDataBot now allows you to check information about debts that have already been transferred to the enforcement service for compulsory collection.
Simply enter the individual taxpayer identification number (RNOIKPP) to obtain data on the individual entrepreneur and find out if they have any debts.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/fop-debts-2025
More than half of the respondents plan to close because of old-new taxes
Opendatabot has conducted the largest study of the status and plans of individual entrepreneurs in Ukraine. Almost 32 thousand entrepreneurs took part in the survey. 27% of respondents plan to close in the near future. More than half of these businesses stop working due to a sharp increase in the tax burden. In December, 2 entrepreneurs closed for every 1 open business. For comparison, a year ago the situation was completely opposite: 4 new entrepreneurs accounted for 1 closure.
Opendatabot conducted a large-scale survey of Ukrainian entrepreneurs to find out what small and medium-sized businesses plan to do in the near future. The survey involved 31,694 respondents who said they were working as sole proprietors.
27% or 8621 surveyed entrepreneurs plan to close their business in the near future. 2297 or 7% planned to close this year. Another 20%, or 6324 participants, said they planned to stop their business next year.
More than half of those who plan to close – namely 62% – decided to close because of tax increases. Another 19% of entrepreneurs are shutting down due to business problems. It is worth noting that currently, due to a large-scale attack by pro-Russian hackers on state registries, closing a business is either very difficult or impossible.
The majority of the surveyed entrepreneurs work in retail (24.6%), and another 21% work in IT.
Since the law on the introduction of the military tax for small and medium-sized businesses was signed, 2 new businesses have closed for every 1 new one. Thus, 24,497 entrepreneurs ceased operations between the time the President signed the law and December 17. During the same period, 2.2 times fewer new businesses were opened: 10 947. For comparison, in the same period last year, 4 new fops accounted for only 1 closing.
Opendatabot asked the Chairman of the Committee on Finance, Taxation and Customs Policy Danylo Hetmantsev for a comment. However, at the time of publication, we did not receive a response.
https://opendatabot.ua/analytics/fops-pool-result
closure of individual entrepreneurs, Individual entrepreneurs
