The Long Road to Business Simplification: Why Acts of Completed Works Should Be Abolished
A column by Myroslav Laba, Associate Expert at CASE Ukraine and specialist in tax and regulatory policy at the Economic Expert Platform, published in Delo.ua. The piece argues that deregulation and reducing the ongoing costs of mandatory accounting and reporting procedures are among the most meaningful ways the state can support business.
Key Points:
1. The Goal of Public Finance Reform The strategy for harmonizing tax legislation with the EU sets a target to reduce the time businesses spend on reporting and tax payments — from 328 hours/year (2021) to 250 hours/year (2025). One way to cut red tape is to abolish acts of completed works (services) and transition to electronic invoices.
2. International Experience The EU standardized electronic invoicing through Directive 2014/55/EU, allowing member states to reduce administrative costs and save up to €40 billion annually. Acts of completed works have survived only in post-Soviet countries (Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan). They are not used in the US, EU, or the UK.
3. The Problem with Acts in Ukraine According to CASE Ukraine data:
- Preparing acts takes up 13% of an accountant’s working time and 5% of a manager’s time
- Preparing a single act costs 200–300 UAH, or up to 4,000 UAH per month
- In large companies, up to 15 people work on this task
Even the electronic format does not help — tax inspectors still demand paper signatures and stamps. 74% of entrepreneurs support abolishing the acts entirely.
4. Expected Outcomes Abolishing acts would: reduce business costs; align document flow with international standards; remove barriers to cooperation with foreign partners.
5. Legislative Initiatives Government draft law №14023-1 (September 9, 2025) simplifies requirements for primary documents, eliminates the need for acts, and removes the requirement to indicate the positions, names, and signatures of clients. The expected savings are at least UAH 20 billion per year.
The alternative parliamentary draft law №14023 pursues the same goals but with limitations: it does not apply to works/services funded from the state budget and requires prior agreement between parties to waive acts.
CASE Ukraine and business associations consider the government version more liberal and effective. The Parliamentary Committee recommended taking the parliamentary draft as a basis, but agreed to expand its scope before the second reading.
6. Background The idea of abolishing acts has been debated for over three years. Dozens of agencies, experts, and business groups worked to agree on 38 words of the draft law. The breakthrough was made possible through the joint efforts of the Ministry of Economy, the Entrepreneurship Council, CASE Ukraine, BRDO, and business associations.
7. Outlook The decision to abolish acts is already overdue — now the key is for the Verkhovna Rada to pass it faster than it took the government to agree on it.
Read the full article
P.S. It is worth noting that the advocacy campaign to abolish the mandatory use of acts was launched with the support of “Ostanniy Kapitalist” (“The Last Capitalist”), with the Lviv Regulatory Hub joining the effort later.