New laws on the application of the RCO: penalties of 250% will not be applied!
Press service of the State Tax Service of Ukraine , published 30 September 2019 at 17:56 Chapter: News
Recently, media spread information that the provisions of the Bill of law №. 1053-1 and №. 1073 that prescribe change of rules for the use and application of registrars of calculated operations will “kill tens of thousands of entrepreneurs”. Untrue information both in terms of functioning of the current system of accounting data of registrars of calculated operations (RCO) and about some aspects of the expected changes was provided.
So let’s set the accents.
Firstly, the allegation that the tax service will determine the “correct” or “incorrect check” by its opinion within the cashback mechanism (that is, not available check in the public STS database) is false.
According to the provisions of the Bill of law №. 1073, the buyer is entitled to receive a part of the penalties that were paid by the seller solely as a result of the verification of the complaint “about the taxpayer’s violation of the established procedure for calculated operations with the use of the registrar of calculated operations and / or program registrars of calculated operations”. Selling a product the seller must give a check to the buyer. This rule does not change! And this check must be fiscal (created by the fiscal RCO mode or registered on the fiscal server of the STS - after the introduction of software for the RCO).
As of today (before the introduction of the software RCO programs) conducting an operation through a cash register, the check provided to the buyer is recorded in the fiscal memory of the RCO and then forwarded to the Accounting System of the RCO (AS RCO) through the acquirer and the processing center of the NBU. It has been designed, created and operated as a fully automated fiscal reporting system for the RCO. The possibility of human intervention in the functioning of this system is practically excluded. Technically the STS cannot forbid “receiving” or delete the checks of an individual entity. Assuming that the check issued to the buyer is missing in the AS RCO, this could theoretically be possible due to two reasons: the check was not fiscalized or sent to the AS RCO properly or it was “lost” or was delayed for technical reasons on the way between the RCO and the STS server (the probability of the second scenario is extremely insignificant).
Secondly, the allegation of the lack of responsibility for incorrect information about the violation during the calculated operation for the buyer according to the complaint that was filed by this buyer - is false. Any claimant reporting about such violations must identify himself or herself through his or her own E-cabinet of the taxpayer. That is, such buyer actually agrees that the tax service will check not only the lawfulness of the seller’s actions against him, but, first of all, to evaluate the authenticity of the documents attached to the complaint. This minimizes the risk of possible manipulation with fake or deliberate distortion. Any compensation is possible only after the review and collection of sanctions. By the way, the buyer still has the right to complain about the non-fiscal check and as of today, it can be done in the usual way - by letter. At times, it is much more difficult to identify such complainant and evaluate the merits of his/her complaint to the supervisory authorities.
Third, none of the laws adopted by Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine prescribes a fine in the amount of 250% of the value of goods sold with violation.
Issuing a non-fiscal check for goods sold to the buyer, as the case can be considered as a failure to perform the calculated operation through the RCO with a fiscal mode of operation, or to carry them out for a partial amount of the value of such sold goods. According to the current rules and before the validity of provisions of the Bill of law №.1053-1 (after six months from the date of publication of the relevant law) the fine for such violation committed for the first time is 1 UAH. For each subsequent violation by the same seller - this fine will already be 100% of the value of goods sold with violation.
According to the new rules (that is, from the date of validity of the specified law) and until the 1st of October, 2020, the fine for such violation committed for the first time will be 10% of the value of goods sold with violations; for each subsequent - 50%.
Starting from the 1st of October, 2020, (concurrent with the introduction of the cashback mechanism) fines will be 100% of the value of goods sold with violation committed for the first time and 150% for each subsequent violation made by the same seller.
In the context of the above mentioned, the STS asks to wait for the publication of texts of laws approved by Verkhovna Rada and not to make hasty conclusions on the basis of assumptions. The idea of suggested changes is to protect legitimate businesses from unfair competition and to strengthen customer rights. In turn, the STS guarantees assistance in learning the new rules.