Business news from Ukraine

RETAIL GOODS TURNOVER IN UKRAINE IN MARCH SLOWES TO 6.1% YEAR-OVER-YEAR IN COMPARABLE PRICES

Retail goods turnover in Ukraine in March 2020 slowed to 6.1% year-over-year in comparable prices, the State Statistics Service has reported.
In January-March 2020 compared with January-March 2019, retail trade turnover decreased 10.6%, while in March 2020 compared to February 2020 it increased by 4.4%.
The largest increase in the retail turnover of enterprises (legal entities and private entrepreneurs) in March 2020 compared with March 2019 was recorded in Kyiv (by 15.3%), Dnipropetrovsk (by 15%), Kharkiv (by 14.9%), Zaporizhia (by 14.8%), Kirovohrad (by 13.9%), Poltava (by 12.8%), Volyn (by 12.6%) and Odesa (by 12.4%) regions.

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UKRAINIAN AUTHORITIES PROPOSE SINGLE TAX FOR IT COMPANIES AT 4-7 LEVEL % OF TURNOVER

The Ministry of Digital Transformation of Ukraine together with the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada are working on the preparation of a tax reform for the IT industry, which provides for the establishment of a single tax at the level of 4-7% of the companies’ turnover. Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation Oleksandr Bornyakov gave this information on his Facebook page.
“We propose discussing a single tax for legal entities without a turnover limit and setting it at 4-7%… According to this regime, a legal entity-exporter of services will pay a single tax and will be a tax agent for an employee, paying two single social security contributions and a military tax,” Bornyakov said.
He also said that the following requirements for those who join this taxation regime are being discussed: staff of more than 10 employees; the share of exports in profit and the share of the salary fund in the cost of production being more than 75%; and the average salary being at least five minimum wages.
According to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, this will create legal working environment for the industry, make it more attractive for investment, creating a transparent and understandable corporate structure. In addition, this will create equal competitive working conditions in the industry, as well as conditions for the export of other services.
“At the same time, the model preserves the mechanism for ensuring social guarantees for employees and does not increase the tax burden and administration. After all, on the one hand, tax and reporting are introduced for IT companies, and on the other, we cancel a number of taxes for employees,” the deputy minister said.
He also cited statistics according to which in the first half of 2019, according to the Ministry of Digital Transformation, 158,000 IT private entrepreneurs with income of UAH 52.3 billion worked in Ukraine. At the same time, in Ukraine, there are only about 60,000 officially employed employees of IT companies, whose payroll amounted to about UAH 6.5 billion in the first half of last year.
“And no, we are not sure that this is the only right decision. But, after spending hours of analysis, we consider it to be the best idea that will literally create an industry where not 200,000 legally unrelated private entrepreneurs will work, but fully-featured transparent companies,” Bornyakov said.
He also recalled that the previously formulated idea to create a fifth group of private entrepreneurs for IT specialists was criticized because it violated the principles of equality of taxpayers and did not eliminate any risks in the system.
As reported, previously a group of 20 deputies of the Servant of the People parliamentary faction proposed to the parliament to exempt startups from taxes for a period of nine months from the moment of their registration, making appropriate changes to the Tax Code of Ukraine.
For this purpose, it was planned to introduce an additional fifth single tax group, which will include startups using exclusively cash registers and/or cash settlement software and which income during the first nine months of activity does not exceed UAH 300,000.

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LARGEST GROWTH IN RETAIL TURNOVER IN JAN-SEPT IS RECORDED IN VINNYTSIA, TERNOPIL, KYIV

Retail trade turnover in Ukraine (legal entities and individual entrepreneurs) in January-September 2019 in comparable prices increased by 9.8% compared with January-September 2018, the State Statistics Service has said.
According to the report, in September 2019 compared with the previous month, retail trade turnover decreased by 3.3%, in annual terms grew by 8.6% (September 2019 from September 2018).
The largest growth in retail turnover in January-September 2019 compared to the same period in 2018 was recorded in Vinnytsia (by 17.6%), Ternopil (by 16.9%), Kyiv (by 15.7%) regions and Kyiv (by 14.7%).

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PRESIDENT’S BILL ABOUT FARMLAND TURNOVER IN UKRAINE ALLOWS LEGAL ENTITIES TO PARTICIPATE IN MARKET

The president’s bill about farmland turnover in Ukraine, which should be published within two weeks, allows legal entities to participate in the land market, acting Minister of Agricultural Policy and Food of Ukraine Olha Trofimtseva has said. “The president’s position regarding legal entities is quite liberal and this is one of the disagreements that exist between us. I believe that certain restrictions, safeguards should be established at the first transitional stage, I advocate a phased opening of the market and, accordingly, its phased liberalization,” she said at a press conference.
According to Trofimtseva, the presidential bill is based on the government’s bill.
“The changes that will be made in it concern legal entities, I think we will see it soon, it will be introduced in the Verkhovna Rada as the president’s bill, but this will be the subject of discussion after the first working day of the Verkhovna Rada, after the formation of the new Cabinet [of Ministers]. This is a question of a week or two,” the acting minister said.
In addition, Trofimtseva said that as part of the land reform, at least six or seven bills will be presented that will be aimed at the normal functioning of the land market.

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RETAIL TRADE TURNOVER IN UKRAINE IN JAN-APR INCREASES BY 7.9%

Retail trade turnover in Ukraine in comparable prices in January-April 2019 increased by 7.9% compared to January-April 2018, the State Statistics Service has reported.
According to its data, in April 2019 retail trade turnover compared with March 2019 decreased by 2.2%, and compared with April 2018 it grew by 9.1%.
The largest increase in the retail trade turnover of enterprises (legal entities and individual entrepreneurs) in January-April 2019 compared with January-April 2018 was recorded in Vinnysia (by 13.5% compared to the same period in 2018), Kyiv (10.9%), Donetsk (10%), Dnipropetrovsk (9.9%), Lviv (9.9%) and Ternopil (9.9%) regions.
The leaders in absolute terms of the volume of retail turnover in the first four months were: Kyiv city (UAH 61.378 billion), Dnipropetrovsk (UAH 30.284 billion), Kharkiv (UAH 25.501 billion), Kyiv (UAH 23.033 billion), Odesa (UAH 22.854 billion), and Lviv (UAH 19.878 billion) regions.
According to statistics, in Donetsk region, retail trade turnover in January-April increased 10% (to UAH 10.236 billion), Luhansk – by 6.4% (to UAH 2.999 billion).
The State Statistics Service said that the turnover of retail enterprises (legal entities) in April 2019 compared with April 2018 increased by 9.8%, and compared to March 2019 it fell by 2.2%, to UAH 60.902 billion. In January-April 2019, the turnover of retail enterprises rose by 8.6%, to UAH 231.597 billion.
The wholesale turnover of enterprises in January-April 2019 compared with January-April 2018 decreased by 5.3% and amounted to UAH 680.945 billion.
As reported, the retail trade turnover of Ukraine in 2018 increased by 6.1%.

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