Exemption of bioenergy projects on solid fuels from the payment of tax on carbon dioxide emissions will increase the interest of investors in these projects and the volume of investments in them, the deputy chairman of the State Agency on Energy Efficiency and Energy Saving of Ukraine, Yuriy Shafarenko, has said.
“This will open up new opportunities for investment. Solar and wind plants are, of course, good, but Ukraine is an agricultural country, and bioenergy projects are very important. Development of bioenergy should be perceived as one of the most promising areas of renewable energy,” he said in an interview with the online portal Energy Reform.
He clarified that the relevant bill has already been agreed with the ministries of energy, digitalization, economy, as well as with the Ministry of Finance.
“The most important thing was to agree on the bill with the Ministry of Finance, because this Ministry is the least interested in it. But realizing the importance and correctness of this document, the Ministry of Finance agreed on it,” Shafarenko said, adding that exemption of bioenergy from the carbon tax is an international practice.
The agency plans to send the bill to the Ministry of Justice in the near future and after the conclusion is made by the agency – for consideration by the Cabinet of Ministers, the expert said.
At the same time, Shafarenko highly appreciates the chances of this bill being approved by the Verkhovna Rada.
“I think the prospect of its adoption is very high. It does not have such opponents to be very against it,” he predicts.
At the same time, according to him, the exemption of bioenergy from paying the CO2 tax is extremely important, given the prospects for its significant increase.
“When this tax was 41 kopecks per tonne of CO2, it was an insignificant burden. Then the tax was raised to UAH 10 – already more, but it was still possible to put up, and this did not really restrain investors in the industry. But they want to increase it to UAH 30-60, and this will have a tangible effect on the development of bioenergy,” Shafarenko said.
Metinvest Group, taking into account associated companies and joint ventures, is expected to increase the payment of income tax by more than seven times in January-June 2021, year-over-year, to UAH 10.2 billion, a source in the tax authorities told Interfax-Ukraine.
In turn, Metinvest confirmed to the agency information about a significant increase in income tax payments in the first half of 2021.
“Enterprises of the Metinvest group will pay income tax in the first half of 2021, replenishing the national budget by UAH 10.2 billion (compared to the first half of 2020, the income tax paid was about UAH 1.4 billion). Thus, according to the results of the first half of the year, income tax payments increased by 7.4 times. This unprecedented increase in tax payments during coronavirus pandemic will help support the cities where Metinvest enterprises operate, pay salaries in full and on time communal and medical workers,” the company told the agency.
At the same time, the group said that Metinvest is one of the largest taxpayers in Ukraine. Thus, in 2020, the company increased its tax payments by 5%, to UAH 22.1 billion year-over-year. Earlier, the group said that over 15 years of its work, it transferred UAH 165 billion to the budgets of all levels.
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Tedis Ukraine company increased tax payments to the budgets of all levels by 5% in 2020, year-over-year, to UAH 1.4 billion.
The company’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine on Tuesday, UAH 612 million of deductions went to the central budget, while UAH 809 million to local budgets.
“During its ten-year history, our company has consistently been one of the largest taxpayers in Ukraine, and since its inception, Tedis Ukraine has transferred over UAH 10 billion to the country’s budget,” Director General of the company Taras Korniyachenko said.
According to Tedis Ukraine, in 2020, the company paid UAH 705 million of retail excise tax on the sale of tobacco products to local budgets, which allowed it to become the largest taxpayer in Ukraine.
As reported, Tedis Ukraine in February was the first to achieve in the Supreme Court the satisfaction of the cassation appeal against the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine (AMCU) and the invalidation of a fine of UAH 3.4 billion. The Supreme Court said it sustained the cassation due to the impossibility of bringing any person to justice on the basis of decisions of the AMCU in other cases (having no prejudicial significance), without obligatory proof of guilt in each individual case and taking into account the erroneous legal qualification of actions of Tedis Ukraine LLC.
Tedis Ukraine is one of the largest Ukrainian distribution companies. The company employs about 2,300 employees. The regional network consists of 32 structural divisions throughout the country. The company covers a retail network of about 45,000 retail points throughout Ukraine.
A group of MPs has registered bill No. 4245 with amendments to the Budget Code on the electronic residency mechanism, which implies a preferential income tax rate of 5%, in the Verkhovna Rada.
According to the information on the parliamentary website, the bill was registered on October 21 by MPs from the Holos faction Yaroslav Zhelezniak, Volodymyr Tsabal, Kira Rudik and Halyna Vasylchenko, as well as MP from the Servant of the People Danylo Hetmantsev.
“The idea is simple. If you are an IT specialist from India, China, Pakistan, Germany, or even Belarus, then, being in your country, you can become an electronic resident, that is, an electronic taxpayer. And for this you will pay only one simple tax – 5%, which our sole proprietors pay from turnover,” Zhelezniak said.
According to him, this mechanism may be of interest, in particular, to citizens of Asian countries. On the other hand, this will allow attracting additional funds to the national budget, he said.
“This proposal may not be so interesting to the United States or the EU, but it will definitely be interesting to other countries, especially Asia, the East, which have not a better reputation and more complex tax legislation compared to the Ukrainian one,” Zhelezniak said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky calls for maintaining the tax rate for IT employees at 5%, the President’s Office website reports.
“This industry in the country is developing not due to the state support, but due to the intelligence of Ukrainians. One of the steps that the state can take is not to increase the tax burden on this industry,” the president said at a meeting with representatives of IT business in Lviv within a working trip to the region.
Zelensky noted that at present it is one of the few professions that can not only ensure a decent standard of living, but also reform the state and help combat corruption.
“It is with digital that we can implement any important reforms. And what everyone is saying: we need honest customs, honest law enforcement agencies, we need to overcome corruption – we all understand that the human factor is very difficult to fix. But digital and IT industry can do it,” the president said.
The President of the IT Ukraine association, Taras Kytsmey, added that the Ukrainian IT industry has prospects for development and maintaining such a tax rate will facilitate the influx of personnel from abroad and ensure the retention of talented professionals in Ukraine.
