Sehii Verlanov: cooperation with the Business Ombudsman Council in the STS will continue actively
The State Tax Service of Ukraine and the Business Ombudsman Council will cooperate in a new format that will continue the positive cooperation between the representatives of the Council and tax specialists. This was stated by the STS Chairman Serhii Verlanov with the Business Ombudsman team led by Alhirdas Shemeta and Marchin Sventsytskyi who will act as Business Ombudsman starting from the 12th of October, 2019.
“Activity of the Business Ombudsman Council is another opportunity for the Service, as a public authority, to understand the correctness of our actions and the expediency of transformations at the stage of its formation. Developing communications in our organizations is a positive example that we will follow and develop” – emphasized the STS Chairman Serhii Verlanov.
According to him, understanding of systemic problems regarding implementation of the tax policy and defining agreed ways of their solution is formed in the tax service on the basis of understanding the point problems of companies that approach the Council. Both the tax service and the Council work in one sphere - compliance with the taxpayers’ rights and therefore the professional advice and conclusions of the Council’s experts who have practical experience are important for the taxpayers in order to make decisions.
“As of today, we are going through the construction of the Service as a dynamic body, the development of which is correct from the beginning. We see different situations, systemic problems and we will change them. This process has already begun. I wish that the tax will be able to win court’s cases in 70% of cases but with reduction of number of the tax audits. That is, administrative appealing procedures should be conducted at a high level and to go to the court exclusively with the full evidence base” – underlined Serhii Verlanov.
Chairman of the tax service also noted that the Service is currently reviewing the concepts of operating processes and experience of the newly appointed business ombudsman Marchin Sventsytskyi will catalyze these processes. The tax service is already demilitarized and the taxpayers can focus directly on completing their core tasks - developing electronic services, improving tax administration that will allow taxpayers to work remotely, without visiting the tax service. However, there should be no taxpayers who will get more tax benefits which are deprived of other taxpayers. That is, the tax service will respect the rights and competitiveness of all market players.
In turn, the business ombudsman Alhirdas Shemeta suggested that the tax service specialists will listen to their recommendations considering the taxpayer’s complaints in order to resolve disputes. The business ombudsman also suggested to conduct training in the jurisprudence for the tax professionals who are dealing with legal and appellate matters. The opinion was also supported by the STS Chairman noting that the STS would pay a great attention to the professional development of service specialists, in particular, specialists of the legal unit.
Serhii Verlanov also expressed hopes that the cooperation with the new business ombudsman Marchin Sventsytskyi will be as effective as it was with the previous head of the Business Ombudsman Council, Alhirdas Shemeta.
In particular, 12 working meetings were held within the framework of the Memorandum of partnership and cooperation between the Business Ombudsman Council and the Fiscal Service during 2017 - 2018. 7 meetings with 28 working expert groups were held in 2019. Problematic issues of 150 business entities were considered during the work of expert groups. Ways to resolve such issues that are promptly referred to the Office of the Business Ombudsman Council are worked out as a result of such meetings.
Serhii Verlanov and representatives of the Council discussed the prospects of signing a new Memorandum of partnership between the STS and the Business Ombudsman Council that will identify the main aspects and principles of such cooperation. Currently, the tax specialists will work within the framework of the current Memorandum, thereby ensuring that the taxpayers have the right for compliance with their interests through the Business Ombudsman Institute.
