Lesya Karnaukh: We are working on improving analytical tools

Tax burden, moratorium on audits and services were discussed during the meeting between acting Head of the State Tax Service Lesya Karnaukh and more than 200 representatives of Kyiv business. Event was also attended by Head of the Kyiv City Military Administration Tymur Tkachenko.

Tax burden (payment level) is one of the TOP questions that business raises during the meetings. This indicator is used by the State Tax Service in combination with others as analytical tool to identify atypical changes in the taxpayer’s behavior compared to similar ones in the relevant industry. For example, agriculture, light industry, wholesale, etc.

"This is a fair benchmark for how others in the same sphere pay and which takes into account business realities. State Tax Service is currently working on improving analytical tools to focus on payers with significant risks" – stated acting Head of the State Tax Service.

Regarding the moratorium on audits, as Lesya Karnaukh emphasized, attention of the State Tax Service will be focused on those cases where there are significant risks. There will be no unexpected visits or appeals. Anyone who works conscientiously will not feel pressured.

Among the other questions:

Improvement of the the service level

As one of the large taxpayers said during the meeting, he has recently been receiving a lot of requests from the State Tax Service regarding activities of his company. To respond promptly to all of them, you will have to spend a lot of time, which in fact paralyzes normal work at some points. And this is not an isolated case.

According to Lesya Karnaukh, business is increasingly emphasizing improved service and high-quality digital tools. There is a demand for transparency, automation and simplification of processes to minimize human factor and reduce paperwork.

"We are already actively testing E-Audit. 45 taxpayers have already joined this process, who have formed and submitted 450 SAF-T files. Currently, these are the large taxpayers. We are collecting all suggestions and comments so that this is the most effective tool that will simplify life of the business. We plan to fully launch it by the end of this year" – emphasized Head of the State Tax Service.

Block of tax invoices and de-risking

Since the beginning of year, both of these indicators have been halved and the State Tax Service is working on their further reduction. Number of blocked tax invoices has decreased from 0.76% to 0.36-0.4% across Ukraine, number of entities at the risk has decreased from 27 to 13.3 thousand.

This is result of both a change in approach and the work of consulting centers on the functioning of the automated monitoring compliance system of tax invoices / adjustment calculations with the risk assessment criteria. Because every payer must understand a clear algorithm of actions in case of such problems.

"We are working on a real partnership and trust between the state and business" – said Lesya Karnaukh.