The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine plans to conduct the “deep” tax reform in spring, which will take effect in 2021, Ukrainian Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk has said. “Our tax system is designed so that a good-faith taxpayer loses. If you honestly pay taxes, you are simply forced to optimize on several markets. This is very wrong. We are planning a deep reform of the tax system in the spring, because you cannot change the tax system in the second half of the year,” he told reporters in Kyiv on Friday.
Tax reform should come into force on January 1, 2021, Honcharuk said.
“And this autumn, our main task is to clean up the administration of taxes. We have Mr. Verlanov for this. He is a very decent person. I really count on him,” the prime minister said.
Asked about potential changes in taxation for individual entrepreneurs, he said: “I believe that the system needs to be fixed, but to start doing this should not be from the ‘small taxpayers’ for sure.”
According to Honcharuk, the main problem of the simplified taxation system is that it is used for “smuggled money laundering.”
“Now it is difficult for me to say how the model that we propose will look like. But we will proceed from the fact that the whole country should use the simplified taxation system. That is, taxation should be so simple that it is not difficult for anyone,” the prime minister said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit Kyiv on August 18-20 to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, The Times of Israel said. According to the publication, Netanyahu is set to fly to Ukraine for a two-day visit less than a month before the elections to the 22nd Knesset. In Kyiv, Netanyahu will meet with Zelensky and visit the Babi Yar (Babyn Yar) Holocaust Memorial Center.
As reported, Netanyahu in April congratulated Zelensky over the phone on his victory in the presidential elections in Ukraine.
On January 21, Ukraine and Israel signed an agreement on a free trade area (FTA), according to which Israel abolishes about 80% of import duties for Ukrainian industrial goods and more than 9% for agricultural goods. At the same time, Ukraine abolishes about 70% of import duties for Israeli industrial products and more than 6% for agricultural goods.
At that time, Netanyahu welcomed the “strong” Israeli-Ukrainian relations. “These ties have deep historical and cultural roots,” he said.
On July 11, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine ratified an international free trade agreement between Ukraine and Israel.
On August 7, Zelensky signed bill No. 0223 on ratification of the FTA agreement into law.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that he is holding consultations with people who he potentially sees at the post of the Ukrainian prime minister. He said that these are people who do not have a political past and who are professional economists.
“The Prime Minister … must be an absolutely professional economist who must have no political [past]. I would very much like this to be an absolutely independent person who has never been a prime minister, a speaker or a leader any [parliamentary] faction. I see this kind of person. Honestly, I will tell you. I am already holding consultations, talking … with some people,” Zelensky told reporters at a polling station on Sunday.
The head of state said that he has an unchanged position as for the issue of voiced requirements for the prime minister, but admitted that “some people who go to parliament now may not like it because they see themselves in this post.”
Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has initiated the creation of the Fund of the Future, a fund that will become the basis for financing social programs, while the source of these funds will be privatization, the deshadowing, demonopolization, and deoligarchization of the economy. “I want to create the State Fund of the Future, to which we will send funds from mines, privatization, and deshadowing. Funds from monopolies, oligarchs should be attracted there,” the head of government said on the air of ICTV Channel on Sunday evening.
Groysman noted that the money will be used to educate children, solve other problems. “Such funds were created in developed countries. And I would like such a fund to be established in Ukraine,” the premier added.
Ukraine’s Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman will participate in a business forum in Germany that starts on November 29. “I will be happy to visit Germany in late November to participate in the third business forum,” Groysman said during his meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Kyiv on November 1. Also, he recalled that a Ukrainian-German chamber of commerce started to work recently. It was created on Merkel’s initiative with Ukraine’s support.
“I think that we are now in a very good dimension of our relations. And your visit is the latest evidence that theses relations will have a very good perspective in the future,” Groysman said.
Ukraine will participate in the Third Ukrainian-German Investments Business Forum on November 29.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman has submitted the income tax declaration for electronic filing for 2017, which in total came to over UAH 17.1 million. The department of the information and public relations of the Secretariat of the Cabinet of Ministers, total income of Groysman for 2017 was UAH 17.102 million (UAH 15.802 million in 2016).
The following income was declared: salary on the post of the prime minister – over UAH 435,647, income from leasing property (bought before 2006) – UAH 5.15 million, income from selling immovable property (a land parcel) – UAH 8.798 million and income from placing funds on bank accounts – UAH 2.719 million.
