The petition was registered on the government’s website by representatives of the CASE Ukraine think tank (the Price of the State project) and the Last Capitalist educational initiative.
The National Revenue Strategy for 2024-2030, prepared by the Ministry of Finance of Ukraine, has caused considerable concern among entrepreneurs and the public.
The document was developed without public consultations and one-sidedly covered several critical issues for taxpayers.
At the same time, the IMF, the World Bank, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, and the European Commission have consistently emphasized that fiscal policy should be developed in consultation with the public.
Among the initiatives envisaged by the National Strategy are the vesting of fiscal authorities with the powers of the judicial and law enforcement system, the narrowing of the use of the simplified taxation system, and the proposal to cement the practice of presumption of guilt in tax and customs administration.
At the same time, the National Strategy pays insufficient attention to the fact that the main tax evasion occurs precisely because of the institutional failure of fiscal authorities (tax and customs).
Among the most striking novelties of the National Strategy is the proposal to give tax authorities access to bank secrecy without a court decision and to empower them to collect debts at their discretion without a court decision. It is also proposed to grant customs officers law enforcement powers, namely the right to conduct operational and investigative activities.
In its current form, the National Revenue Strategy cements the principle of presumption of guilt of the taxpayer about tax and customs authorities. However, it should have proposed a new social contract between business and government based on mutual trust.
Therefore, the key issue is to modernize the Ministry of Finance’s revenue strategy based on the rule of law and to change the approach to relations with business by the developers of the strategy itself.
The decision to grant new powers to the tax authorities without a fundamental change of approaches to their work with entrepreneurs cannot be made without public consultation.
The petition was supported by the Ukrainian Business Council, the National Business Coalition, the Union of Ukrainian Entrepreneurs, the All-Ukrainian Agrarian Council, the Ukrainian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the Council of Cities Protect FOP, the National Retail Organization, the Association of Private Employers, the All-Ukrainian Professional Association of Entrepreneurs, the U-Food Association, CLUB100, the Association of Software PTR Providers, the Ukrainian Bar Association, 4Business, the National Platform for Small and Medium Business, and others.
The Cabinet of Ministers must respond to the petition within 30 days. We count on the government’s readiness to revise the content of the National Revenue Strategy with the involvement of businesses, the public, and experts.