The Parliamentary Committee on Finance, Taxation, and Customs Policy will focus on implementing legislative acts necessary for Eurointegration and further reforming Ukrainian legislation by 2025, according to the committee's chairman, Daniil Getmantsev.
"With the support and assistance of partners amounting to $38.3 billion, we are fully prepared to proceed in 2025 and do not currently see any risks… We cannot completely rule out (the need for tax increases – IF-U), but we believe that 90% of it should go smoothly next year," he stated in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
The chairman explained that in the context of the ongoing war, it is impossible to completely eliminate the need for new laws aimed at increasing revenues.
Further commenting on the plans for adopting bills in 2025, Getmantsev emphasized the necessity of implementing the DAC-7 directive (Directive on Administrative Cooperation) – a matter concerning the automatic exchange of information on income obtained through digital platforms for tax purposes.
"Secondly, it involves the implementation of directives in the area of combating tax evasion: ATAD I (Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive) and ATAD II. This entails the introduction of new tools that exist at the level of the European Union for profit taxation and the establishment of European GAAR rules," he added.
The committee chairman also highlighted the importance of refining and making decisions regarding electronic audits. "We have two pre-war draft laws, but they are not suitable; we will not adopt them in their current form as submitted to the Verkhovna Rada. As of today, the tax authorities are finalizing the development of software for presenting the so-called standard audit file (SAF-T). Testing will take place in March," he described the current state of this issue.
According to Getmantsev, based on the results of the testing, bills regarding the SAF-T file will be submitted to the Rada for adoption, which should completely change the relationship format between the tax authorities and taxpayers, disclose taxpayers, and eliminate fiscal bias in these relationships, implementing the standard set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in this area.
"At the final stage, together with OECD experts, we are developing a draft law to improve transfer pricing rules. We are continuously enhancing these rules, but currently, our norms in Article 39 fully align with the OECD guidelines from 2010, while there are already new provisions from 2022 that we need to implement in our legislation," the committee chairman also reported.
He added that in the first quarter of the next year, the adoption of a bill legalizing crypto assets and their taxation is expected, at least in the first reading, and possibly in full.
"And one more thing – establishing clear KPIs for the Tax and Customs Services. We submitted these bills to the Verkhovna Rada this week," Getmantsev noted.
Speaking about customs affairs, he mentioned that the Ministry of Finance is preparing a significant bill for the further implementation of the EU Customs Code into Ukrainian legislation.
"Regarding the financial services market, we need to adopt a law on the National Development Institution. It is already ready for the second reading. We must adopt a law on financial inclusion – providing opportunities to deliver last-mile banking services. A law on factoring also needs to be adopted to launch the factoring market. This is my draft law, which was registered in the Verkhovna Rada just last week," the committee chairman pointed out.