STS and Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Poland expand cooperation in the VAT administrationChapter: News

Administration of the value added tax and counteraction against the tax evasion schemes became the main discussion topics during the meeting of the STS’s leadership with representatives of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Poland.

Deputy Chairman Yevhen Oleinikov and Nataliia Kalenichenko, Undersecretary of State of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Poland Jan Sarnowski, Director of the Goods and Services Tax Department of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Poland Paweł Selera and representatives of the Polish Tax Administration discussed possibilities of expanding the bilateral cooperation in the VAT administration, as well as shared experience of their departments in this area.

During the meeting Ukrainian side presented the work of electronic VAT administration system which actually destroyed a number of tax evasion schemes and allowed increasing VAT revenues to the budget.

Representatives of the Tax Service noted that at present there is planned further improvement of system’s functionality, introduction of new tax invoice monitoring technologies, fiscalization, tracking of goods, etc. Ukrainian tax specialists are interested in gaining experience of Polish colleagues in this sphere.

In turn, Polish side praised the VAT e-administration system used in Ukraine and wished to study its functionality in more details in order to learn from best practices. In addition, Polish colleagues presented the latest technologies and automated systems that have increased efficiency of the VAT administration and reduced the VAT tax gap in Poland. According to the participants of the meeting, such exchange of experience will be beneficial for both parties and strengthening cooperation between the two countries will contribute to a more effective counteraction against the VAT tax violations.

Specifically, STS is interested in the mechanism of joint tax audits. This form of international administrative assistance in tax matters is an effective tool for effectively counteracting the cross-border fraud. Specified interaction is provided by the Convention on Mutual Administrative Assistance in Tax Matters, which is in force in the relations between Ukraine and Poland.