Team of the State Tax Service held the first official meeting with Business Ombudsman Anka Feldhusen after her appointment. However, the parties have already interacted on professional platforms on several occasions, discussing key challenges for business.

As acting Head of the State Tax Service Lesya Karnaukh noted that a number of important aspects were discussed during the meeting.

One of them is tax mediation. 

Lesya Karnaukh emphasized that this is extremely important area of ​​work for the State Tax Service. It saves time and resources for both taxpayers and the Tax Service. According to her, many disputes can be resolved without going to the court. 

State Tax Service is already actively cooperating in this direction with the Business Ombudsman Council and Ukrainian Academy of Mediation. Thanks to joint cooperation, there are already several successful cases of resolving disputes without going to the court. Several more are in the work.

“At the same time, we have our own vision regarding changes to legislation and are already working on our suggestions. We will present them in the near future” – Lesya Karnaukh emphasized.

Another important aspect is tax audits.

Since the moratorium was introduced, the State Tax Service has already reduced number of actual audits by almost a third. Currently, the State Tax Service conducts audits exclusively using risk-based approach. At the same time, reduction in the number of audits has not reduced budget revenues.

Representatives of the Business Ombudsman Council have drawn attention to the number of business appeals for repeated audits. Therefore, the State Tax Service is currently preparing analytics and will work on each case separately.

The focus of conversation is also on business fragmentation, in particular in sales of appliances and electronics, restaurant and jewelry business.

Our constant meetings with business are all having a positive result – number of entities are already abandoning fragmentation and switching to the general taxation system.

"Whether the business will operate honestly and transparently depends primarily on itself. This is achieved not only by fiscal methods, but by the desire of business to operate openly and understand that tax evasion is underfunding of defense, salaries and social benefits. Task of the State Tax Service is to ensure that those, who work are within compliance and fairly pay taxes to the state. By joint efforts, we can demonstrate that the entrepreneurship level in Ukraine will grow when entrepreneurship does not shift responsibility for its financial results to the state” – added acting Head of the State Tax Service.

Separately, registration of tax invoices and enforcement of the court decisions were discussed.

“It is important for us, together with the Business Ombudsman Council, to build sustainable mechanisms for interaction with the business. This is a partnership that must work every day” – Lesya Karnaukh stated.  

She also emphasized that the State Tax Service always has close and effective cooperation with the Business Ombudsman Council. She thanked the entire team of the Business Ombudsman Council and its former Head Roman Vashchuk for their work.