On 14 April 2020, the Ukrainian parliament reapproved a draft law that had been vetoed by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in October 2019 that modifies the Tax Code of Ukraine and other laws in order to introduce an unified bank account mechanism for the remittance of taxes.
The new law was passed after the President’s original veto objections were incorporated into the legislation. President Zelenskiy, who originally vetoed the law due to the last-minute addition of a de facto price control mechanism for the tobacco industry, signed the reapproved modified draft into law on 16 April 2020. This law, originally passed by the Ukrainian parliament as part of a two-bill package on 4 October 2019, greenlights the full implementation of this unified bank account mechanism.
How the mechanism will work?
The new rules allow Ukrainian taxpayers to pay the aggregated amount of their taxes (except for VAT and excise tax) and unified social contribution to a designated single bank account maintained by the tax office instead of paying each tax amount separately to various bank accounts. The tax office will then be responsible for the proper allocation of the received aggregated tax amount against the respective taxpayer’s own tax liabilities.
Every day and for each taxpayer, the tax office will prepare the register of tax liabilities and tax debt (indicating the allocation priority). The respective data will be made available to each of the taxpayers through its electronic cabinet with the tax office. It is also expected that the taxpayer will have an opportunity to control the use of the overpaid amounts through its electronic cabinet in a simplified way.
The unified bank account mechanism will be available starting 1 January 2021. Using the unified bank account will be voluntary for taxpayers who – if willing to use the mechanism – can submit their respective notification through their electronic tax cabinets. Taxpayers can begin using the unified bank account the day following their submissions of the notification.
Conclusion
Introduction of the unified bank account mechanism has been a long-awaited measure for taxpayers. Its implementation is expected to simplify tax payment procedures, minimise the time accountants must spend on the administration of payments and decrease the instances of misplacement of payments due to changes in the tax office’s bank details. The main effect of these amendments, however, will be the possibility to offset tax obligations related to different taxes (e.g. overpayment of land tax against obligations of corporate income tax) in a simple and concise way.
Nevertheless, the practical challenge for the tax office will be to ensure the smooth and proper allocation of the received amounts and to eliminate the possibility that taxpayers will be liable for technical mistakes in this allocation. For more information on this new tax payment system, contact your usual CMS advisor or our local expert Olexander Martinenko.
Authors:
Olexander Martinenko, Senior Partner, olexander.martinenko@cms-cmno.com
Viktoriia Stavchuk, Associate, viktoriia.stavchuk@cms-cmno.com
Anna Pogrebna, Partner, anna.pogrebna@cms-rrh.com
Oleksandr Protsiuk, Counsel, oleksandr.protsiuk@cms-rrh.com
Sergiy Datsiv, Associate, sergiy.datsiv@cms-rrh.com
