Taxpayers, attention!

Information regarding licensing from January 1, 2025 of activities regulated by the Law of Ukraine № 3817-IX as of 18.06.2024 "On state regulation of production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcohol distillates, bioethanol, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, tobacco raw materials, liquids used in electronic cigarettes and fuel" (hereinafter – Law 3817)

From January 1, 2025, Section VII of the Law № 3817 on licensing will enter into full force, which provides particularly for:

- list of licensing authorities and types of licenses, where a separate license is granted for each type of economic activity:

- right to produce ethyl alcohol, alcohol distillates, bioethanol, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, liquids used in electronic cigarettes, fuel;

- right to wholesale of ethyl alcohol, alcohol distillates, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, liquids used in electronic cigarettes, fuel;

- right to retail sale of alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, liquids used in electronic cigarettes;

- right to retail fuel sale and for the fuel storage, for the fuel storage exclusively for needs of own consumption and/or industrial processing.

At the same time, we draw your attention to the fact that for the first time, licensing is also being introduced for activities related to tobacco growing and fermentation of tobacco raw materials.;

making decisions on granting license and/or decisions on refusing to grant license for conduction of relevant type of economic activity;

grounds for the licensing authority to make decision to terminate license for conduction of relevant type of economic activity have been established and their list has been significantly expanded compared to the list of grounds for license cancellation that was in effect until January 1, 2025;

licenses issued from January 1, 2025 are valid indefinitely;

cost of licenses is set taking into account the minimum wage established by the law as of January 1 of the reporting (tax) year.

At the same time, licenses for conduction of relevant type of economic activity, which were issued according to with the Law of Ukraine "On state regulation of production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcohol distillates, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, liquids used in electronic cigarettes, and fuel" before January 1, 2025, are considered valid and confirm right to conduct relevant type(s) of economic activity until the end of term for which they were issued (for licenses issued for a specified period), or until the date of their termination according to procedure specified by this Law (Paragraph 3 Section XIII of the Law № 3817).

It should be noted that from January 1, 2025, license for conduction of relevant type of economic activity is granted subject to passing online electronic identification in the Electronic cabinet in compliance with requirements of the Law of Ukraine "On electronic identification and electronic trust services" and correspondence with the controlling authority through the Electronic cabinet according to application accepted by the controlling authority for a wish to receive documents through the Electronic cabinet (Article 42 of the Law № 3817).

To obtain license, business entity submits to the licensing authority application for license for conduction of relevant type of economic activity in a paper or electronic form according to procedure specified in Article 42 of the Tax Code of Ukraine.

Part 3 Article 43 Section VII of the Law № 3817 defines exclusive list of information to be provided in application for license to conduct relevant type of economic activity, and documents to be submitted with such application in cases specified by this Law.

According to Part 7 of Article 34 and Part 7 of Article 35 of the Law № 3817, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine approves: 

application forms for obtaining license for conduction of relevant type of economic activity, for making changes to information contained in the Unified register of licensees for the production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcohol distillates, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, tobacco raw materials and liquids used in electronic cigarettes, for terminating license for conduction of relevant type of economic activity and procedure for filling them out;

application form for obtaining license for conduction of relevant type of economic activity, for making changes to information contained in the Unified register of licensees and places of fuel circulation, for terminating license for conduction of relevant type of economic activity and procedure for filling them out.

At the same time, according to Paragraph 3 Section XIII of the Law № 3817, prior to approval of the application forms specified by the Law № 3817, such applications are submitted in an arbitrary form indicating all information provided for by this Law.

In this regard, until the entry into force of Resolution of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine “Some matters of maintaining Unified registers of licensees for the production and circulation of ethyl alcohol, alcohol distillates, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, tobacco raw materials and liquids used in electronic cigarettes, licensees and places of fuel circulation” and taking into account provisions of Paragraph 3 Section XIII of the Law № 3817, until the approval of application form specified by this Law, in particular, regarding:

obtaining license;

making changes to information contained in the Unified register of licensees;

making the next payment for obtained license;

terminating license;

obtaining extract from the Unified register of licensees,

Such applications are submitted in any form, indicating all the information required by this Law.

For convenience of business entities, recommended forms of relevant applications are posted on the State Tax Service’s web portal for their possible use (attached).

At the same time, from January 1, 2025, it is established that the applicant acquires right to conduct type of economic activity from the date of entry by the licensing authority of information about granted license for conduction of relevant type of economic activity into relevant Unified register of licensees (or from the day following the date of unconditional obligation of the licensing authority to enter information about granted license for conduction of relevant type of economic activity into the specified registers), about which the licensing authority sends a corresponding extract from relevant register.

(Updated 08.01.2025)