Businesses are signaling problems with the timely budget reimbursement of value added tax (VAT), Andy Hunder, the President of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmChem), has stated.
“We began to receive signals from the companies about delays in VAT refunds,” Hunder said, addressing Prime Minister Oleksiy Honcharuk.
He also emphasized the importance of transparent VAT refunds, as well as protecting the rights of investors in Ukraine.
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada committee for energy and utilities Andriy Herus has initiated the abolishment of the provision to exempt taxpayers from paying value added tax (VAT) on imported equipment for solar power plants and wind farms.
“This is an absolutely unacceptable situation when importers receive preferential VAT, do not pay it to the national budget, and Ukrainian producers are forced to pay VAT under the worst conditions… From Monday [September 30] I will register the corresponding bill in order to cancel this equipment import privilege as quickly as possible,” he said during a meeting on legislative regulation of state support for the development of renewable energy projects in Kyiv on Friday.
As reported, at the end of 2018, the Verkhovna Rada introduced amendments to the Tax Code, which exempted taxpayers from paying VAT on imported equipment for solar power plants and wind farms.
EQUIPMENT SOLAR POWER PLANTS, IMPORT, PARLIAMENT, VAT, WIND FARMS
The Ukrsadprom has addressed the Ukrainian president, prime minister and leaders of the political parties asking to introduce some measures for the development of gardening, in particular, to introduce the fixed land tax per ha depending on the type of economic activities.
According to the press service of the association, Ukrsadprom also asked to return preferential VAT for farmers, to provide state support for the export of horticultural products, and also to modernize the industry’s subsidy program with a focus on processing.
As reported, the Ukrsadvynprom association asked the Agricultural Policy and Food Ministry to adapt the program of state support for gardening to berry enterprises, as well as to expand the list of wine-making areas.
The State Fiscal Service of Ukraine plans to propose amendments to the Tax Code of Ukraine regarding the annulment of VAT on supplies of grain crops and oilseeds to the domestic and foreign markets. The authority said in a statement to the Ukroliyaprom association, a copy of which has been forwarded to Interfax-Ukraine, the fiscal service proposed abolishing taxation of transactions related to supplies of wheat, barley, soybeans, rapeseeds, sunflower seeds, soy, sunflower, rape and mustard oils on the customs area of the country and for exports.
The fiscal service said that during 2017 and the first half of 2018, companies exported these goods totaling more than UAH 500 billion.
“For 2017 and the first half of 2018, the amount of budget reimbursement of VAT only to the largest exporters of grain and oilseeds (1.4% of their total) was UAH 32.2 billion, or more than 2.2 times higher than the total VAT receipts from almost all economic entities, in the registration files of which one of the activities indicated the production of these products, as well as its sale,” the authority said.
The fiscal service assesses the negative effect of this at UAH 50 billion and indicates a high shadowing of the market in these segments. At the same time, the fiscal service recognizes that the tax administration of VAT in this area and the corresponding supervision and law enforcement measures are ineffective.
In turn, the agrarian associations expressed concern about this initiative, emphasizing that the abolition of VAT refunds could affect not only export, but also operations in the country itself.
“When selling products with VAT, a farmer sends the received funds from paying the tax to compensate to himself the VAT that he paid in the price to his counterparties for various materials: seeds, crop protection agents, fuel, electricity and fertilizers. The remainder is sent to the state. After the implementation of these initiatives, farmers will have to compensate for the VAT paid to their counterparties by increasing the cost of goods,” Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Agrarian Council Mykhailo Sokolov told Interfax-Ukraine.
“If these changes are made to the Tax Code of Ukraine, it will actually mean that UAH 50 billion of export VAT, which, after a long struggle, finally began to be returned in a timely and transparent manner and without corruption schemes, will be taken away from agricultural producers,” the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club’s press service reported, citing Director General of the association Taras Vysotsky.
