A survey of 101 tax experts from the companies that are members of the European Business Association (EBA) in the framework of the Tax Index Survey 2021 showed a slight improvement in the assessment of the situation with taxation – 3.01 points with a maximum of 5 compared to 2.9 points in the previous wave of the survey, which covers the second and third quarters of 2020.
“For the first time in the decade-long Index history, its integrated value has reached the neutral plane with 3.01 points out of 5 possible. In the previous period, the tax index amounted to 2.90 points,” the report says.
“The increased integrated value is largely due to a significant improvement in the fiscal pressure evaluation as one of the index components. Survey participants rated the situation regarding fiscal pressure at 3.63 points out of 5 possible. Thus, the number of respondents who did not notice any displays of pressure on their company has doubled compared to last year and amounted to 36% in 2021. Another 14% reported that fiscal pressure was almost absent,” it reads.
“The number of respondents who reported significant displays of pressure also decreased slightly to 19% (32% in the previous period). In this regard, businesses experienced most often the unreasoned interpretation of tax legislation by regulatory bodies and baseless information requests,” according to the document.
“On the other hand, the quality of tax legislation received the lowest score among the index components with a slight decrease compared to last year – 2.71 points out of 5 possible. The tax administration and tax reporting were also given moderate evaluations. Only 12% of respondents consider this procedure easy. Another 28% believe that it is complex, although the majority of respondents, namely 64%, rate it satisfactorily,” it says.
“The main negative factor to the easiness of tax administration and reporting is the rapid implementation of new rules and lack of time for adaptation as reported by the business. Although previously the factors of the amount of time spent on taxes and the number of payments prevailed,” the release says.
“I would like to note that the survey was conducted on the eve of the mass blockade of VAT invoices in December, so the Tax Index does not reflect the full picture for 2021. In particular, companies have begun to actively seek help and support in unblocking VAT invoices, and also, we have all witnessed several high-profile tax decisions based on the results of inspections. So, we would like to point out that despite the general improvement in the situation with fiscal pressure, business is still facing blatant abuses from the tax service at the end of the year,” Svitlana Mykhailovska, the EBA Deputy Director for Advocacy, said.
“The number of respondents who believe that the current tax regime has contributed to the development of their business remains dramatically low. These are only 6% (7% last year). As for the tax areas that need improvement, the experts put personal income tax as the first priority, then corporate income tax, and finally the value-added tax,” the report says.
On Tuesday, September 21, at 11.00, the press center of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency will host a roundtable talk entitled “Implementation of customs procedures in accordance with EU practice: what changes may Ukrainian business expect? Practical aspects.” Participants include President of the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry Hennadiy Chyzhykov; President of the Ukrainian Exporters Club Yevhenia Lytvynova; international expert of the EU Public Finance Management Support Programe for Ukraine (EU4PFM) on customs issues, former Deputy Chairman of the Customs of the Republic of Lithuania Vytenis Alisauskas; Director of the Department of Customs Policy of the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine Oleksandr Moskalenko; Director of the Department of Implementation of the International Transit System of State Customs Service of Ukraine Serhiy Demchenko; Director of the Department of Customs Audit and Person Registration of the State Customs Service of Ukraine Svitlana Anishchenko; Head of the Directorate for Support of Authorized Economic Operators of the Department for Organization of Customs Control and Customs Clearance of the State Customs Service of Ukraine Andriy Teply; representatives of business associations, media, experts of the Reform Support Team of the Ministry of Finance and State Customs Service. Moderator of the event is its organizer Maksim Urakin. Working languages of the roundtable talk: Ukrainian, Russian, English (8/5a Reitarska Street). The broadcast will be available on the YouTube channel of Interfax-Ukraine. Due to quarantine restrictions, the number of seats in the press center is limited. Admission of journalists requires registration on the spot. Details by phone: (068) 099 1709.
The Parkovyi data center (Ante Mediam LLC, Kyiv) notes the growing demand for server equipment placement in data processing centers (data centers).
As member of the supervisory board of the Parkovyi data center Tetiana Honcharova has told Interfax-Ukraine, the lockdown and its consequences have caused great demand in the digitalization of business.
“We are seeing an increase in the demand for server equipment placement. The reason for the demand in this segment is the unprofitability for the business to maintain and provide its own server rooms with the required level of security,” she said.
According to Honcharova, the trends of 2020 were a noticeable increase in interest in cloud services from the public sector, as well as an increased attention to cloud data backup from large businesses.
She also noted that, despite the pandemic, 2020 turned out to be quite productive for the cloud services market.
“As for the Parkovyi, we see a 20% growth over 2020. On average in the market, according to our analysts, over the next five years, there will be a 15% growth annually. Considering that our team started work in the middle of the year, the growth of Parkovyi in 2020 exceeded the market average,” Honcharova said.
The Parkovyi data center, located in the territory of the Parkovy congress and exhibition center in Kyiv, was put into operation in May 2013. It is certified according to the TIER III security level, owns an international certificate in the field of information security ISO/IEC 27001:2013 and a certificate of conformity for technical information protection systems issued by the State Service of Special Communication and Information Protection of Ukraine.
The total area of the data center is 2,730 square meters, the number of racks is 400 units. The data center is connected to two independent energy sources with a capacity of 4 MW.
