Oleksiy Lyubchenko: Efficiency of tax system is directly related to the voluntary payment of taxes

How the tax system should be in Ukraine and how to encourage business to pay taxes voluntarily – such issues were discussed by participants of the event “Reforming the State Tax Service through the prism of integrity of tax specialists and taxpayers”. Event was organized at the initiative of the All-Ukrainian Network of Integrity and Compliance (UNIC).

Chairman of the STS Oleksiy Lyubchenko, his Deputies Yevhen Oleinikov and Natalia Kalenichenko, representatives of the IMF, OECD, METS and others participated in the event.

“Today we are building a new Tax service in Ukraine, with different priorities, constructive approaches and readiness for change in accordance with the taxpayers’ needs. Reform is, first of all, a change of ideology. We have moved away from the position that the Tax service allegedly provides revenues to the budget. Its mission is to define transparency, modernity and manufacturability” – emphasized Oleksiy Lyubchenko.

According to Chairman of the STS, in order to improve the taxpayers’ tax discipline, as well as to minimize losses to the state budget, the State Tax Service is currently introducing the tax compliance system. It will provide opportunity to reduce the taxpayers’ risks of non-compliance with requirements of tax legislation, also it will help the taxpayers to avoid the most common mistakes in future.

“We are convinced that the vast majority of taxpayers work honestly and transparently. And only a small part pursues aggressive tax policy towards the state” – stated Oleksiy Lyubchenko.

He specified that stimulating voluntary payment of taxes is impossible without a convenient process of reporting and paying taxes, quality services and effective administration.

He also stated that the STS pays a great attention to analytical work, apply a risk-oriented approach in working with the taxpayers. This allows focusing on risky taxpayers and, using tax control methods, to ensure a proper process of responding to tax violations.

In today’s conditions, electronic services come to the fore. Maximum ability to quickly obtain tax information, complete reports and minimize the taxpayers’ risks of non-compliance with tax legislation – all this contributes to improving the tax culture and, consequently, voluntary payment of taxes.

Chairman of the STS also noted that ongoing reform of the State Tax Service receives strong support from leading international experts. They actively help the State Tax Service to develop risk-based approaches and analytical capacity, strengthen preventive activities to prevent violations of integrity, as well as the change management system in the Service.

Participants of the discussion discussed the basics of tax compliance precondition, incentives to increase the tax culture and importance of reforms in the tax sphere.

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