Andrii Trotsko: Revenues to general fund of the state budget more than doubled indicators of the pre-war year

Un-shadowing of the economy and creation of civilized rules for doing business were the discussion topics during the round table “Control without pressure: how to build trust between business and state during the wartime.” Event, organized by the Bureau of Economic Security together with the State Tax University, was attended by Deputy Head of the State Tax Service Andrii Trotsko.   

As Andrii Trotsko noted, Ukrainian economy is currently operating in difficult conditions of unprecedented security challenges. This has caused a fundamental change not only in the system of inter-sectoral relations, but also in the economy structure as a whole and could not but affect the budget.

“At the same time, in 5 months of 2025, revenues to general fund of the state budget from payments administered by the State Tax Service more than doubled indicators for the same period in 2021 (pre-war year) and also almost 50% more than on average for the 5 months of 2022 – 2024” – noted Andrii Trotsko.

 Herewith, results of the control and verification work indicate frequent usage cases of various schemes and tools for concealing income and tax evasion. Mechanisms using virtual assets, unfortunately, are widely used to conceal real volumes of transactions and property value, evade taxes and conceal assets owned both in Ukraine and abroad.

It has also been established that the retail chains use mechanisms of so-called "business fragmentation" by involving individuals-entrepreneurs.  

Specifically, 7 well-known retail chains have been identified over the past 7 months, of which 6 sell household appliances and electronics, and 1 sells women’s clothing and footwear.

In total, 491 individuals-entrepreneurs with the total revenue of 4 billion UAH were identified.

This scheme of the retail chains operation through "business fragmentation" led to the VAT evasion for the total amount of 668.5 million UAH.

Materials regarding the revealed facts were transferred to the Bureau of Economic Security of Ukraine.

Also, according to Andrii Trotsko, typical tax evasion schemes are:

- fictitious financial and economic transactions (underpayment of the value added tax);

- production of counterfeit alcohol and tobacco;

- illegal trade without stamps or with fake excise stamps;

- conversion centers (transfer of non-cash funds into cash);

- smuggling and customs fraud;

- shadow market for land and real estate leases, underpayment of rent;

- “offshorization” – income received through foreign companies and redirecting profits without taxation in Ukraine, withdrawing capital to the offshore zones;

- salary “in the envelopes”.

"Based on the results of 23.1 thousand audits of business entities, more than 22.5 billion UAH have been additionally accrued since the beginning of year, amount of agreed monetary obligations amounted to more than 11 billion UAH. More than 2 billion UAH have already been received by the budget" – emphasized Andrii Trotsko.